I did it! Over the past 2 days I have painted the inside of the pantry Gaucho green & reorganized all the shelves! I have to admit that taking everything out was much worse than painting or loading the stuff back in! And the winner for the "Most Expired Product" goes to a jar of Cider Spicer from August 2002-Congratulations! 1st runner up goes to a package of Enchilada Sauce Mix from April 2007. Boy, I was a lot younger then!! I forgot to take before picts, but here are some "in process" picts of the total disaster I made!

I did manage to make a pot of homemade chicken noodle soup & a dessert for our small group in the middle of this mess, so I thought I did ok! I took all of the shelves out & gave the pantry 2 coats of paint. Today after church I rushed home to complete the pantry transformation. My question is, "Why does a family need 6 cans of cream of chicken soup & 4 cans of cream of mushroom?" Guess we'll be having casseroles sometime soon! Here's a picture of the empty pantry-the paint looks gray here, but it is actually a really nice shade of green, the same color as the accent wall in the kitchen & family room. The white shelves look so fresh & clean! I really didn't want to put the food back in because it would block the beautiful paint!

I bought 3 white baskets at Lowe's yesterday to contain some of the small, loose things like tea bags, Propel, & Crystal Light packets. After loading the food in, the thing that surprised me is how the labels & boxes were so much easier to read. When the walls were white everything just blended in to them. Check out this picture & see if you can see what I mean.

You can't see the lower/floor level of the pantry, but I found a large, white, jute basket & used it to contain all the chips, pretzels, etc. I think now we will really be able to know/see exactly what we have. I sent the boys a picture of my masterpiece because I know they get a kick out of how excited I get about things like this & #1 sent me this reply, "It won't look that way once I get home." You can insert an evil laugh at the end of that!

I absolutely love doing projects like this. I think that's because I don't get a lot of closure in my life; my job as a speech pathologist never really has an "end." I am always thinking about what I need to work on next with my kiddos & since they are all preschoolers, typically I'm not working with them when they get to "graduate" from speech. A project like the pantry gives me a sense of completion & satisfaction. I can do a happy dance & say to Mr. Man, "See what I did!" If I am being completely honest I have to confess that I didn't want to close the pantry door. I just kept walking by & smiling!