Declutter Your Pantry

Act 137:

“It’s never too late… To Clean Out A Cupboard

It can be a wonderful adventure. A great empowerment. A journey into the past. A chance to jettison baggage. An opportunity to make new plans. A fresh start.” – Patrick Lindsay

Quote in book: “The past is a foreign country they do things differently there.” ~L.P. Hartley

It’s time for some Spring Cleaning… or in this case Fall Cleaning. When was the last time that you cleaned out your pantry? I know a lot of us do spring cleaning and/or clean out the closets… but the pantry? We don’t do that very often. I can’t even remember a time that my mom cleaned out our pantry growing up. I haven’t cleaned out mine since I moved in here 8.5 years ago.

Right now I’m in the process of cleaning my entire house, so this Act comes at a perfect time. I was going to clean out my pantry/cupboards today and write down all the random things I found, but I got lazy and super anal. I figure… If I really am going to clean out my pantry, I wanna do it right. I didn’t want to rush it.

However, upon first glance in there… I have ritz crackers that have been there since I moved in. I have at least three different canned vegetables that are from 2008 and some bay leaves that are more beige than they are green like they are supposed to be. Moving away from the pantry, I went to the refrigerator. I have tofu in there from last year and I have a cheesecake in the freezer that has been there for 3 years and some ground meat from 2 yrs ago. So, gross. Needless to say all of these items have made a new home in my trash can. I also found some lasagna noodles that I forgot I had. Hmm, too bad the ricotta cheese I found was too old to use. I know I have old nutrisystem food that needs to be tossed and my candy/snack shelf that needs to be looked through.

See, it’s a big job and I want to do it right… It’s kinda weird when you see all this food going to waste. It makes me want to keep track of the food I buy and have an alarm pop up when it’s gonna expire then have another alarm for when it’s gone bad and it needs to be thrown out. I wonder if that already exists. Maybe I just found a new business venture!! Although I bet apple already has an iPhone app for that.

As for the rest of my place, I spent most of the day cleaning out my guest room and going through all the old mail I’ve dumped in there in the last 2 years. Now, I have soo much scanning to do. I have piles and piles of papers and stuff. One pile for scanning. One pile for keeping. One pile for shredding. One pile for recycling. One pile for trash. One pile for Good Will. One pile for eBay. It feels like it’s messier than before (which is driving me crazy), although I know it’s way more organized, even if it doesn’t look it. Such is the norm for the way cleaning usually goes. It has to get messier before it gets clean. After the guest room, its on to my closet. Good will is going to be very happy with me. Oh wait. I promised my homegirl she would get a shot at selling my stuff at her next garage sale.

I’m a pack rat. So I have a lot of crap in the house. I’m trying to finally go through all this stuff and toss… toss…. toss. I’m never in the mood, so I better take advantage. I am one of those people that gets sentimentally attached to material objects and things. I mean seriously… I have a mini bird cage that was a memento from my friends’ wedding from 5 years ago. I have all these pens and markers. I have all these collectibles. My place is a big clutter-fest. It’s not just my pantry that needs decluttering… it’s my whole place. It’s a good thing I’ve already started. This will take the next couple weeks to finish!!! But I will get it done damn it!! Wish me luck.