Are There Words...

This is the BEFORE:

 

(I feel compelled to say:  You don't understand how awkward the space is! The vast majority of those shelves are 8" high and 8" deep...what can you fit?!  Yet, there is a ridiculous amount of space... because the other shelves are over 2' deep, so everything got unpacked into it when we moved (things like Christmas tins and random small appliances that should have been relegated to the basement)... and we laid it out ALL wrong, and then, well, you just aren't ever going to take the time to empty it all out and start over... especially when you and your spouse disagree about what is wrong with it.  Okay.  The need to dump stuff on the deeper shelves meant that things got lost and forgotten about, knocked over tupperware had pretty much taken over and YES we had like 4 boxes of 1/4 eaten stale Count Chocula from the last 3 years... and Halloween candy (and Easter FROM LAST YEAR) and every other random junk food treat we ever bought, and then forgot about, cluttering EVERY surface.)

This is the Middle:
So we emptied it ALL out:

YOWZA... yes, all that was in the pantry!  And there was plenty of stuff we trashed.

And Mr F painted it:

Since the shelves had to cure for about a week... and our pantry shit had to reside somewhere... our kitchen was pretty much unusable. We hadn't counted on that when we we got the courage to tackle this... it's just one of those one thing leads to another and you might as well take it all the way situation. We ate a lot of take out.

This is the mostly AFTER:

 

Those containers still need to be washed and labeled and filled with my baking things (flours, sugars, rices, etc).  I'm 100% in love with them, they are made by Sistema and come with an included measuring cup... so easy for baking staples!!  I found some at TJ Maxx & HomeGoods and got the rest on sale at Macy's (by Martha Stewart).

 And there is another lidded bin to come on that shelf next to the existing one for all our water bottles. 

My FAVORITE PART:

These awesome rolling laundry baskets under the big deep shelf 

(from the children's section at Target!):

One for lunch boxes and the other for lunch containers!

So easy to dump and grab to pack school lunches! 

My other super awesome non-food container storage find were these small stacking bins from Staples:

 I have absolutely no idea what there intended purpose really is... but... DUDE they fit granola bars and

fruit leathers PERFECTLY!!!!!  They were $1.99 each and I found them in the desk organizer section. 

The hardest part of this project was trying to figure out why the pantry wasn't working and how we could over come that.  Setting up a system that allowed non stackable things to be contained was obviously key for us.  Also I learned that we just cannot have food that is 2 rows deep (the exception is with replacement jars of the same item).  Things just got lost and knocked over in frustration.  Surprisingly almost everything is back in there.  Getting rid of stale/expired food was about 1/4-1/2 of it.  The Christmas tins are also gone and down with our Christmas stuff in the basement.  

And if you need inspiration... I highly recommend watching Alejandra's videos on YouTube.  I find her endearing (maybe you won't), and she has a lot of great ideas.  It had really never occurred to me that we needed to find a way to store non stacking items before she mentioned it.  

Rejoice Rejoice

It's not perfect, people...

BUT it is a hell of a lot better than it had been. Remember the crazy bomb shelter look? With the bed broken apart and strewn around the very small room? Yeah that was a nightmare.

So in the end I did lay down our old dining room rug (which just fit) and hung the velvet curtains (also from the dining room) over the bed. The white bedside tables I had been using in our old house looked WRONG in here so I'm using a little dark stained sewing cabinet from my grandmother (will search Target for something for the other side). I'm resisting the urge to fill this space with furniture. I've got a beautiful antique cherry secretary, that had been my great grandmothers opposite the bed, that functions as my dresser. Still to come... a new paint job (thinking a pale pewter color) and some kind of subtle window treatment for the other set of windows which over look the screened in porch.

Voila!

This is a dress my mother bought for me for my 30th birthday... a good two years ago. At the time I was newly pregnant and I have no idea why she ordered it seeing as I my boobs had ballooned to 10x their natural size and I looked a good six months pregnant by the end of my first trimester (no joke). There was no possible way I could have fit in it... the bodice has boning for crying out loud. Well it has been stuck in my closet ever since. I never could try it on and I didn't know if it would ever fit. The funny thing is she bought it a size up and got me an 8 thinking I could take it in if it was too big. Too big! This is one of those crazy dress sizes because I can just zip myself in there and I'm a pretty solid size 2. Thank God she didn't get it any smaller. So this is one of those little weight loss moments for me. I can finally fit in this...



(as usual photo credits go to Kid... excuse the mess in that last shot)