Now, I wish I had taken a photo of the pantry before I cleaned it out. But honestly, I hadn't planned to share this job with you all. I was just so happy with the way it turned out that I had to at least share the "after" pictures.
I had been pinning various ideas on Pintrest for a few weeks.
Baskets, canisters, and labels, oh MY! I decided to try the Dollar Store first for some organizational materials. I found some plastic baskets, cute contact paper and labels all for under $15!
When I got home it was time to get to work. I tore everything out of the pantry. That's right. Everything. My counters were littered with baking goods, boxes of cereal, about 8 canisters of bread crumbs (why?!?!), and more spices than I can say!
The next step was to get rid of the grimy old contact paper that was on the shelves. This stuff was here when we moved in and I 'm actually embarrassed that it took me this long to get rid of it. Again, I didn't take a before picture but here is a scrap of it in one of our kitchen drawers:
Imagine this with spills of peanut butter, syrup, and cayenne pepper. Blech. Once this stuff was up I got out the cute contact paper I had found at the Dollar Store. I realized almost immediately that I liked the clean white shelves that were hiding under the old contact paper so I just added strips of the new paper the the edges of the shelf to add some pattern.
After throwing away a LOT of stuff (processed food that we are not eating anymore, things that had expired/were about to expire, etc.), it was time to start loading stuff back in! I used small baskets for all my spices and organized them according to when they are used ("baking" spices are all in one basket, the spices we use most in cooking like cumin, ginger, etc. are in one). I also added baskets for bread, snacks, tea, and all my baking gear.
To keep everything organized (ie, so my husband will put things back in the right place) I made little tags for each basket. I put a mailing label, colored black with a Sharpie, onto a cardboard shirt box and used white acrylic paint for the lettering. I then tied them onto the baskets with some sheer black ribbon I had on hand.
All in all I was really pleased with how it turned out!
Now because this was such a huge undertaking, I didn't make it to the gym yesterday. I actually sent Derek with the kids so that I could finish cleaning up the giant mess I had made cleaning things out! So yesterday was the perfect day to do my 15 minute "quick fix" workout! I recently found 2 videos on Youtube that give me a great workout in just under 15 minutes. The first one is a 10-minute circuit created by Andrea Orbeck. You can see the video here.
The second is a 4 minute interval workout which uses the Tabata interval routine (also known at HIIT or High Intensity Interval Training). This video can be viewed here.
I've never been a believer in 10 minute workouts or quick fixes. I believe in putting the time in at the gym. But when that's not possible, these two videos combined give you a great workout. And I think we can all agree that something is always better than nothing!
So the next time you're faced with a busy day (or an majorly gratifying organizational project!) try these workouts out for a quick, 15 minute fat-burning session!
What workouts do you like to do at home?
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