Clutter Free Challenge: Days 11 & 12

We had company in town last week which was wonderful!  We love when family comes to visit!  But it meant I got a little behind on my clutter free challenges.  I’m actually only a day behind in completing them now but a couple days behind in posting.  So, here’s 11 & 12. 

Challenge 11 was kitchen cupboards & drawers.  Mine really aren’t too bad and I tend to declutter from time to time.  I do a lot of cooking and so I have a lot of things in my kitchen that only get used from time to time but that I do need to keep around for when I need them.  I think I manage to keep it fairly organized.  But the part that bothers me the most (and almost on a daily basis) is my shelf of spices.  I bought some Ikea spice racks a while back but I only got one of them up on the wall. We finally got the 2nd one put up so that I can have my most used spices close at hand without digging through the cupboard and then I organized what was left in the cupboard by size and types.  I did throw away a few bottles of things that I haven’t used in years and I found that I had duplicates of a couple of things . . . probably because I bought new, figuring I was out of something when I couldn’t find it in the mess!  I think cooking will be a lot less stressful now.

Challenge 12 was the pantry.  My pantry is sort of an all purpose space.  I have extra shelves in the basement for food that I’m not using immediately.  So, the pantry can be used for foods that have open packages, are used regularly, and things I’ll be using to make dinner in the coming week.  I also use it for cookbooks, kids art supplies, and kind of like a “command center” for me (scissors, coupons, pens, things I need to do, etc.).  I got rid of a few cookbooks (I mainly use Pinterest when looking for a new recipe, anyway) and reorganized the art supplies – that shelf tends to be a constant mess. I got rid of some old food items and emptied a couple open bags of snacks into some plastic containers that I bought for snacks.