Welcome to my pantry. Scary. Isn’t it? The really scary part is. I just organized it!

Did I mention this is not a large home? The pantry, is modest and so is the kitchen cupboard space. I realize this is not an excuse for disorganization but somehow standing in this pantry, even one as cluttered as this one, gets my creative juices flowing. And yes. That IS a chocolate bunny from last Easter. (gosh I just noticed that!)

I take some measure of comfort in knowing that one of my very favourite food bloggers has shared pictures of her tiny NYC apartment and of the kitchen from which her creativity thrives. I remember fondly one of the photographs shared from Smitten Kitchen, fearless cooking from a tiny NYC kitchen, that demonstrated how she stored her bakeware in the living room. I loved it. Dare I say. I’ve followed her example.

We moved in over a year and a half ago. The one bedroom still has pictures in their original cardboard carrying cases. The walls in our new house are too few, and the ceiling too low, to accommodate such large pictures.

The second bedroom still has unopened boxes. Not many but enough that there is insufficient space to accommodate a bed for an overnight guest.

Occasionally I open one of the boxes with the intention of actually unpacking but am easily distracted. Unpacking would mean I would have to have a place to put that item. Or perhaps I would have to deal with the question if you haven’t used it in a year and a half why is it still here?

Channelling Martha

This is not the first time in my life when I have become frustrated with a lack of homebound organization.

When we lived in the “big house” and the children were toddlers, I was a stay-at-home Mom. I became mesmerized with Martha Stewart the maven of home housekeeping and organization. I was hooked on the sense of calm that washed over me, as I flipped through the pages of her magazine. I loathed watching daytime tv but lived for the half hour of Martha’s show. I still remember the first address I typed into our Compaq computer was Martha Stewart.

Getting comfortable with clutter

So back to pantry. I thought it was a really good solution to purchase these baskets. Like items in one place. It works until the baskets are not being emptied fast enough, and my curious brain finds another “vegan” ingredient that I simply must have. Then of course that would require me to remember where the heck I put the recipe, that required that ingredient.

There is a science behind the organization here. Yes, there has been some thought applied to the type and content of the containers. Notice the uniform labelling??? I get a kick out of seeing all of that mis-matching, a kick in the pants to everything being in order, a rebel in the cause of comfort in clutter!!

Please do not call Marie Kondo the Japanese Consultant she of “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” and submit my name as a future contender in one of her shows.

I’m not sure I want to be cured completely quite yet!

~Be bold, be authentically you!

~ Donna