My Weekend Pantry Project

BEFORE:

AFTER:

My pantry was a bit of a psycho mess, and I have a social worker who actually has to look in my pantry every time he is here (often!).  I now live the sort of life where a steady stream of social workers, therapists, and lawyers come with little notice, and some look behind my closed doors to see what they may find.  The days of stuffing everything in a closet or in the pantry or under a bed are over (20-some years too late, huh, mom?)!

I sort of feel like I am nesting, in a rush to organize and prepare as much of my home and life as I can in order to be prepared for the day we get a call that we are matched with a possible adoptive placement.  Of course, we have no clue when that will happen.  It just feels like the time to prepare.  We have submitted our homestudy for a couple little boys who need a home, and our family worker has told us that he knows of a big sibling set (5) who will need an adoptive placement in the months ahead.  Who knows if either of these will be the kids who will become ours, but I want to be prepared.

Here's where I got the idea and some of the labels.  Brishen made all the labels that weren't included in her free downloads.  In other words, Brishen was very patient with me and the TONS of requests for weird labels that I had (rye flower, soy flower, AND semolina flour, anyone?).

I can't begin to emphasize to you how messy my kitchen was in the process, but here's a sample:

Also, the little ones always need to be in the middle of all I do, so the spices were constantly spread all over the floor, usually just the jars, but there was a very messy marjoram incident.  They also took my busy-ness as their chance to open my cupboards and pull out all the bowls and bins.  In the end, the mess was worth it, and I will feel less embarrassed the next time someone asks to see my pantry (oh, the things you only get asked while doing foster care!).

I know I will need to hold a pantry orientation class for my husband soon.  I can tell that his excitement at my accomplishment was a little guarded this morning, and I'm pretty sure that he was thinking, "where the heck's my coffee?"