The Pantry.

{long sigh from me}
The pantry. It's horrible. Really, truly--it's horrible.
It's a GORGEOUS piece of woodworking. Gorgeous. And we've trashed it. Totally trashed it. People would give their eye teeth to have this amazing pantry in their kitchen. I've likened it to a sarcaphagous and wish to be buried in it.

But first---before anyone gets buried in anything---the darn thing needs a MAJOR cleaning.

Here goes. Prepare yourselves--this one is really Bad. With a capital "B".

(whispering) I've never cleaned it out before.

WHAT?! Yes. It's true. Look, here's the thing. I'm a decent housekeeper. My BFFs will tell you that my house "trashed" is cleaner than most homes "clean". (I vehemently disagree, but that is another story). But I'm only good at the major surface cleaning jobs. Vacuuming-love it. Mopping-love it. Toy pick up? Don't love it, but I try to keep things picked up. My laundry is done, my beds are made, the dishes are clean. I've even decrapified a few things recently.

But emptying out my pantry, scrubbing it down, going through things. Yeah. Not so much. 

I did it--removed 10 years' worth of crumbs, spilled sugar, and Lord knows what else.

Here's the gross "befores". Lest you mock, it's really gross this time. So close your pie-hole, Jackie. (you know who you are!)

When you first open the outside doors, there's shelving on each door, plus this set of swinging doors. Nice, right? It's total chaos as far as what goes where and it's dirty/sticky, too.

Then you open the interior right side door to see the back shelving. It's just sloppy, really. Stuff has no real dedicated spot. And the floor of the pantry is yucky.

And here's what you see when you swing open the left side interior door. It's mostly baking stuff. Not *too* messy, but definitely in need of a wipe down.

Here's the bottom of the pantry. That's a combo of onion skins, spices, sugar and icky stuff.

Here's the inside of one of the shelves. I only took one picture. Why? They all looked like this. Some were worse-you could see the outline of cans. Some were mega-sticky. But all were in need of cleaning. I got a little grossed out thinking about how dirty it was and that our FOOD goes in it. BLECH.

So after emptying the cabinet onto the counter and forcing the big boys to keep Bryce entertained (it's a Snow Day today!), I spent a good hour taking apart the shelves, scrubbing everything down and putting the cabinet back together. I pitched a bunch of stuff, stuff that I knew I hadn't used in a year. Stuff that was older than 6 years. Yep. 6 year old Xanthan Gum. Yum-o.

Here's the glorious "after" shots.

Why yes, I do believe I hear a choir singing! It's that clean, folks.

Look at all those spices, lined up nice & neat. (oh, and see the beanbag from "Beanbag Disaster" fame--it's red & in the background)

What's that? Empty shelving? Whoa.

This is all my baking supplies. The large space at the bottom is for the bread machine, which is currently humming away on the counter.

Oh and look. Onions & garlic in a BOWL. Sooo cute. AND---the bowl will collect the onion skins that always fall off. {That I ignore.} And leave on the bottom of the pantry.
And a "before", just to remind me what I'll NEVER let happen again:

And the clean and empty and orgainzed "after":

So nice to be organized!