Kitchen Pantry Cleanout

Anyone who watches kids or stays home with them knows that lots of times, the hours dwindle away and even a short list of to-dos often times goes uncompleted. Between hungry babies, crying babies, pooping babies, and very wiggly babies that must put every single thing they find directly in their mouthes- it can be hard to get a single task done without a good plan.

I do my planning for the week each Sunday night, after lifegroup and once Ian has gone to bed. I sit down and plan out the meals for the week, I write down a few major and minor tasks I'd like to complete, and I check our schedule for play dates, appointments, visitors, etc. Taking just an hour each Sunday evening helps me feel in control of the week, while of course I allow things to ebb and flow as needed for the sanity of everyone involved. I learned this Sunday night trick when I began managing my first retail store, years ago, and knew I needed to keep lots of people and meetings and deadlines organized and just keeping things floating around in my head wasn't cutting it. I invested in a Franklin Covey planner- still my favorite when it comes to paper planners. I took that thing with me everywhere and even designed it online so that each week had special quotes that were important to me and personal pictures too. It was a few years before I finally bought my first iPhone ( yes, I was behind the times, I know) and then began using iCal, Reminders, and Evernote to keep up with my busy schedule. 

I currently use lots of different meal planning websites and read organizational blogs to keep me fresh and motivated in my current role as a stay at home mom- maybe I will do another day's blog and get more specific sometime soon if that would benefit any of you out there.But for today- I wanted to share a little challenge I threw out to a few of my gal pals the other day.

The challenge was simple- No phone, no internet, no technology, and NO SITTING DOWN for two hours! It's amazing how many texts, calls, tweets, and interruptions can occur in such a short time window, and how we can become so easily distracted. I know for me personally, if I don't put my phone away and purposefully focus on my kid and my plans for the day- the entire day will go missing!
So from 5-7 that day, I challenged myself and a few others to see if we could complete a quick project when we really put our minds to it. One friend went outside to rake and clean up her yard, one friend focused on laundry and cleaning some common areas in her home. She even got her son involved and made it fun for him too! I focused on my kitchen and cleaning out my pantry. I can show you that this little challenge ended with much success! Here are the pics to prove it!

Here's my pantry when I began. I cleaned it out completely about 5 months ago, so nothing too scary in here. I did find some past date items and something gooey on the middle shelf.

Just an FYI- I get peanut butter for free (Smucker's jelly too) . But this may be a little too much. Anyone needing a jar?

3 bags of the same flavor of Doritos? Plus look at some of these bags towards the left- the one bag had only two pretzel rods left! Not worth the space on the shelf if you ask me. 

My helper. I just let him crawl around in all the fun. He really got a kick out of rolling all the peanut butter and jelly jars across the room. And playing with the floor mat. And just being silly:) What a cutie!

And here's the finished product! Got rid of yucky stuff, found a better way to organize things, and now I once again know every item I have ( so I know not to buy tomato paste for a few more weeks!! ha )

The weather is amazing here, so I'm off to take the dog for a walk (with a hat on and long sleeves to avoid Mr. Sun so I don't rash up!) James and Ian are out of town for the weekend and I don't even know what to do with myself! Crazy! Hope you get to enjoy your weekend too!