Exceedingly Mundane

This is the time of year that I get the most cleaning out and decluttering done. I think it’s a combination of two things: a) post holiday, wanting to get pared down and back to normal and b) the weather dictates that I stay inside and the grey days lend themselves to cleaning out and purging.

I finally started today! Not a lot, but a good start. Tim took the day off to go deer hunting, but decided at the last minute not to go. So, we got up in the attic and cleaned out a large cache of boxes and stuff. I tend to “collect” empty boxes (say, from Amazon!) all through the year, so I will have empty boxes to use for birthdays and Christmas presents. I also have the tendency (being the packrat that I am), to keep boxes for certain kitchen items and other gifts that I receive. Today, we cleaned a lot of those out, and broke them down for the recycling bin. I also took a couple of big bags of stuff to the Goodwill store.

It feels good to get some stuff cleaned out! I still have a lot left to go. Receipts and paperwork are the worst for me. I still have some closets and drawers to go through,too. But at least it’s a start! 🙂

Have you cleaned out or decluttered anything since the holidays? Leave me a comment and let me know! 😀

I often joke with Tim about the saying “hunter/gatherer”, because that really shines through with the two of us. Tim is a hunter, but only goes out to get what he needs. I’m definitely a gatherer, and some would probably say, a hoarder. I don’t like to run out of things, like toilet paper, dishwashing soap, shampoo, and mostly – food! Tim is always joking, telling me, you’d think you lived way out in the boonies, instead of a mile from a grocery store, the way you stock up on stuff!

I have a big pantry, but mostly, it is just really deep. I know I should be grateful to have a lot of storage space in my pantry, but it’s sooooo hard to find things because whatever I put in the front of the shelf, obscures whatever is stored or stacked behind it. I’ve been going back and forth for a while now, wanting to declutter it and reorganize it, and I finally got around to it.

I threw out almost half a garbage bag of food. Things I had bought for a certain recipe and never used. Hey, if I haven’t used them in the past couple of years, I’m probably not going to use them now. Half opened packages of various seasonings. Cans that were past their expiration date. Etc.

One of the main goals was to clear up room on my counter-tops. I have a pretty set of white canisters to hold my flour, sugar, etc. But, I don’t have a lot of counter space and Tim was always fussing that we need more room. So, I bought a couple of the Oxo Good Grips storage canisters, and packed up my pretty ones “for when we get a bigger house, and I get a bigger kitchen”. 😀 I made more room on my counters, and right now at least, I have more room in my pantry.

I did NOT take before pictures. I would like to say that I forgot, but it’s more like I was ashamed. I had stuff packed in and really had no idea what was buried in the back of most of the shelves. I’m not sure how long my nice, clean pantry will last, but right now, I’m really enjoying it! It makes me more motivated to keep it this way, but I know that sooner or later, my hoarder/gatherer gene is going to kick in and I’m going to make a massive buying trip to Sam’s Club, and that will be the end of my clean pantry! LOL! 🙂

Here’s a couple of after shots…

Bottom of the pantry, the bottom shelf is so deep, it has a lot of wasted space, but, oh well!

A close-up of the Oxo containers, I really really like their products, and these are no exception:

Top of the pantry… I really like having that rubbermaid small basket on the top shelf. I can’t reach that shelf without climbing in a chair or ladder, but I can pull down that basket that has some small bags of rice and pasta in it. Works really well for me 🙂