It's a mess that's for sure

As many of you know, I like cooking and baking. But I have to tell you, our kitchen is a straight mess. Nothing is organized and I often find myself cursing while searching for (insert almost any ingredient) when I'm cooking. It gets old fast!

Issues with the kitchen:

1. The pantry is terrible - in a house with huge closets it is the smallest
2. The spices, oils, and vinegars are out of control
3. We are not using the space in the cabinets well
4. The drawers are all pretty much disasters

As proof, please see the following photos. And don't judge me by my extra-large bottle of ranch dressing!

The pantry in all of it's glory

Spices, oils, vinegars, etc

More spices and some other random stuff

Until recently I haven't had the time to devote to tackling this mess. But thanks to some newly acquired free time, the husband and I started on the much-needed pantry overhaul. And what I thought wouldn't take too much time has become a tad ridiculous. Oh well.

You wanna see what a whole pantry of crap looks like?

Whoa that's a lot of stuff.

I do not have in progress photos but this is what we did this weekend:

• Pantry shelving demoed
• Part of pantry walls mudded and sanded - dust everywhere
• Entire kitchen cleaned - awesome
• Shelves built and stained (we hate painting)
• Shelf supports installed
• Quarter round installed
• Pantry primed (2 coats)

What we have left:

• 2-3 coats of polyurethane on the shelves
• Paint the pantry (probably 2 coats)
• Put the shelves in!
• Spice rack for the door - we need to decide on buying or building

The organization of the pantry is going to take some time. We took a trip to Ikea and got a few things but not everything. I'm keeping my eyes open for ideas on how to organize some of the items. We'll see!

Anywho, we are aiming to complete most of it by Wednesday! Wish us luck! :)