Pantry Overhaul

In an effort to make more meals at home, and with better ingredients (more whole foods), I decided our pantry needed an overhaul. I've been trying to save up used jars for this project over the last few months...but because I'm a little impatient and little obsessive compulsive when it comes to organizing and matching, I gave up on collecting all I needed and purchased some extra canning jars (and a few jars from Specialty Bottle, a website with almost every size and shape of glass jars imaginable) so our pantry would have a more cohesive look.

So without further ado!

(Cluttered and not utilizing space effectively).

(Love the way this is moving along! Have the bottom shelf and floor space cropped out because those are still works in progress. One way I made more room in the pantry was to move the contents of the shelf with baking supplies to another cupboard...I used to have my spices in one place and my baking supplies in another and now they are all together, see below).

 (This cupboard use to house all of our Pyrex...it was really pretty [should have taken a picture] and I miss it, but there was room for that stuff elsewhere and it makes more sense to me to have a whole area devoted to baking and cooking instead of spices in one area of the kitchen and baking supplies, oils, etc. in another).

(With blue painter's tape of course! I just use a Sharpie to include the contents and either the expiration date [if I know it] or the date purchased).

Have to throw in a side-by-side shot (next time I'll try to take my photos from the same angle, durrrh):

I'm happy to report this pantry overhaul is serving us well so far. We had homemade, mostly whole food dinners Monday-Friday this week! Big success :)

So how is your pantry organized? Do you feel like having an organized kitchen makes meals at home easier or do you think I'm just making excuses for my obsessive compulsiveness ;) ?

• 10/27/11 - I'm linking this post up with "Your Green Resource" at Live Renewed, Sorta Crunchy, A Delightful Home, and the Greenbacks Gal
• 03/02/12 - I'm linking this post up with "Project Pretty" at iHeart Organizing
   

Clever Bookshelves

Have you joined Pinterest yet? Well, what are you waiting for!? Let's take a trip down memory lane. This is the picture that first sucked me in to Pinterest:

Source: Domestic Simplicity via: Pinterest

If I could find genius ideas like this by joining Pinterest, I was sold. Ikea spice racks, $4 each, just the right size for a narrow wall in Little J's room = love at first sight.

After sitting in their packages in our garage for a couple months, we FINALLY painted our Ikea spice racks with some black, environmentally-friendly Green Sure paint from Sherwin Williams, and got them up this weekend.

An inexpensive, simple solution for Little J's skinny nursery wall and growing book collection. They just make me smile every time I see them. $12 for a smile, priceless :) Little J LOVES books and I know he's going to love helping himself to them from these shelves for years to come!

Here's some more cute Ikea spice rack bookshelf ideas for your viewing pleasure:

via Pinterest (clockwise from top left): here, here, here, and here

So what's inspiring you this week? Anyone have some clever book storage ideas to share?

• 12/01/11 - I'm linking this post up with "Your Green Resource" on Live Renewed, Sorta Crunchy, A Delightful Home, and the Greenbacks Gal