ZONE CLEANING - WEEK 3/ DAY 1

 Ah, the pantry.  I've lived in houses with them and without them.  If it's organized and stocked properly, it can be considered the "powerhouse" of the kitchen.  My powerhouse has seen more organized days.   We were rummaging for products only to mess the space up.  If I can't see the food, I probably won't be cooking with it.  If my kids can't see their art supplies, they probably won't be using them.  So here's my attempt to clean and organize this space - it will be taking me two days.

Before (this is a picture of the pantry as a whole - I will be concentrating on the top two shelves today):

 My first step with the Zone Cleaning was to take a couple of minutes to assign zones to each item in the pantry.  That way I can group like items together and everything will be easier to find which in turn makes it easier to put away (hopefully).  The top shelf is where I keep taller items and items that I am storing or bought in bulk.  The shelf below that will have cereals on the left and baking items on the right.  At some point, I'd like to get a tray to put the baking items out so I can pull them all out at once, but I didn't want to spend any money to organize this space.  The third shelf down is for grains, pasta, and beans.  The lower two shelves are for kid stuff - art supplies on the left and snacks on the right.  So now that I've assigned spaces to my little pantry buddies, I'm ready to start.  Here's what I did:

Step 1: Set timer for 15 minutes

Step 2: Empty shelves.

Step 3: Quickly sort into three groups (toss, relocate, and put back on shelves) 

Step 4: Spray down shelves with Basic H2 (all-purpose formulation) and wipe clean with a rag.

Step 5: Organize the space.....

Time's Up!  Throw away toss bag and put  "relocate" items away.

After:

Looks a bit tidier, huh?  On the top shelf in the middle are pieces from our refrigerator and freezer that we've taken out because we don't use them - they bug me up there - but oh well.  Come back tomorrow for the big finish of the pantry.  The lower shelves are more for the kids - I have some fun art teacher ideas for keeping their art supplies in the kitchen and at the ready.