Pantry plans...

One of the areas that I would like to be more intentional in my purchases in our new place will be the pantry.  This house has a "super pantry" and is capable of holding quite a bit of stuff.  The only problem with that is that I tend to buy things, shove them toward the back (with every intention of using them) and then forget they are there.

Hello four year old bottle of pickled jalapenos!

But this next house is going to be different.  For one thing I already know the kitchen will be smaller and storage will be at a premium.  Also, I am trying to steer our eating to more "clean eating" or "slow food" methods of cooking.  That means lots of fresh ingredients- as in daily visits to the market.

Have I mentioned that the grocery store sends me into panic attacks?  I'm not even kidding- no windows or clocks, endless aisles and crowds?  They don't make enough Xanax to get me through that experience.

So I send my husband instead.  Which, if we are going to need to visit the market daily, or every other day is not going to be practical.  (or fair, the man works 12 hour shifts!)  I am going to have to suck it up like a buttercup and go to the market myself.

Gulp.

This is the lower half of our pantry.  It has slide out drawers which I divided up with chips/snacks on the top shelf, cereal and breakfast items on the second shelf, rice and pasta on the third shelf, and storage bags and paper products on the lower fourth shelf...

The upper half holds all of our canned goods and my baking items.  It's a huge pantry and I can get a lot into it, but I want to keep it more intentional and only have what we need on hand in the next pantry.  More streamlined...

via Remodelaholic- Faith, Trust, & Pixie Dust

I will keep the stock items on hand:  Olive oil, chicken stock, diced tomatoes, garlic and pastas.  I can make a lot out of those key ingredients.  I am also going to be better about freezing less.  I tend to put things in the freezer and forget about them.   Then months later I am trying to identify frost bitten items CSI style...

That's the fun in moving without another house on the horizon.  I have lots of time to plan and rethink how I am doing things now and how I would like to do them differently.

Simplify.  That is my mantra.