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Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Let's Get Organizing - The Pantry and Refrigerator

I'm on a mission.  A mission to re-organize and de-clutter my home room by room before my kids go back to school.  Yesterday I showed you how I went through my vanity table and purged all of my old cosmetics and re-organized the ones I was keeping.  You can check that out here.  Next stop on my trip around the house was the pantry and the refrigerator.
This is my before photo.  At first glance it doesn't seem so bad.  I do a basic clean up of the fridge weekly, however, it was about time to do a major clean-up and go through the fridge and empty it out,
clean all the shelves, 

and only put back food that had not expired.
Obviously, this must have been hiding somewhere in the back of the fridge...expired November 16, 2007...YIKES!!
When the inside of the fridge was scrubbed clean, it was time to put the food back neatly...
and categorized by type of food.  I know - reality check - it probably won't look like this for long.
Next it was on to the pantry.  Same system...empty it out, clean all the shelves and then put it all back neatly...less any expired products.
One of the things I learned during this clean up is...apparently I don't need to buy chick peas anytime in the near future.
Even if the pantry and refrigerator don't stay perfectly organized for long, I am happy to be rid of all the expired products.  It's a good idea from time to time to do a major clean-up.

Okay...now it's your turn.  Hope I've inspired you to go and clean out your refrigerator and pantry.  You'll be glad you did.
Hope to see you all tonight at my Sizzle into Summer party...the link opens up at 8pm EST.

-Judy

14 comments:

Kathy @ Creative Home Expressions said...

Haha! I can't tell you how many times I come across a salad dressing that's been expired for about 3 years in my refrigerator, Judy! There's always that one thing we seem to miss. I love your pantry cabinet. Even before you touched it, it looked organized and neat to me!

Ann@A Sentimental Life said...

You made me laugh with the 2007! I just spend it felt like a entire Sunday afternoon cleaning my fridge. And your right my pantry is next, it is 6x8 so you think with all that room it would be neat...ahh NO! thanks for inspiring me to move on!

Unknown said...

Judy, my friends always make fun of me because, when they open cabinets and refrigerator it's always in order... It must be an OCD thing...LOL.. looks good and clean.....

Coley said...

I LOVE cleaning out stuff, feels so good to be organized! And don't worry about the 07, I was just taking allergy meds that expired in 2007 and didn't know it!!

Kathy@ Gone North said...

Feels good, doesn't it?? I do my fridge fairly often & now the grown up boys come home & 1st thing (like always) they open the fridge...now thier new line is, "Mom, you have nothing but condiments in here".... Ofcourse....they have moved out... no need for thier kind of "good food" : )

Kelli @ The Turquoise Piano said...

Love this! We are moving so I get to go through all our stuff. I'm half way there and it's amazing what I have already put in the garage sale pile or thrown away.

Susan Anderson said...

I think I need a remedial visit from someone like you!

=)

Heather said...

Once a month, I "super clean out" my refrigerator. I always mark it on the calendar for the next time. Of course, I've already skipped this month, so thanks for motivating me to get it done.

At The Picket Fence said...

You could make a serious batch of hummus with all of those garbanzo beans!! LOL! I just cleaned out our pantry but my fridge is in serious need of some deep cleaning too. Thanks for the extra little nudge! :-)
Vanessa

Catie @ Catie's Corner said...

Hi Judy, I'm a bit of a neat freak, notice I said neat, not clean. I Love organizing, but the hardcore cleaning, not soo much. I do my fridge about once a month and my pantry never get too bad. And I'll admit, I get agitated when someone puts something back in the fridge or pantry in the wrong spot!! Yep, it bugs me that much. : ) I'll have to check out your vanity post, somehow I missed that one.

Patti @ Pandoras Box said...

wow...are you energetic!! I would lock the fridge if mine looked this neat!

Calypso In The Country said...

Doesn't it feel great to get that job done? I always feel so accomplished afterwards! My fridge is in pretty good shape because we cleaned out everything right before our vacation last week...the pantry is another story!
-Shelley

Lisa said...

Great thing to do and we should all do it more often! Our power went out in July and we lost everything in our fridge. Although it was annoying, we got to finally clean everything out and start fresh. It's so nice now!

pantry cabinet said...

I usually clean my panry every year, after this I decided to cleant it every month...

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