Baby Step #3: Meds and Spices

Today, I tackled three upper cabinets in the kitchen, the ones currently holding medicines, spices, and what used to be our primary food cabinet, but now most of the food is kept in the big pantry in the laundry room.

Seriously, can I ever take a "before" photo? What is wrong with me? It's not like I accidentally stumble into these projects and didn't know I was going to be decluttering and organizing until it's too late.

So, once again, you have no idea how bad these cabinets actually were when I started, but I hope you can still appreciate how great they look now.

This cabinet used to have a small lazy susan, which orginally held less frequently used spices (I guess that was my logic?). The rest of the bottom shelf was supposed to have a few medications. Yeah, well, that was ten years ago, and now we have a lot more medications, including a whole 'nother person's worth.

So, I took all the spices out, contained Shrike's meds and Peeper meds (both labeled) and miscellanous stuff (free samples, dog meds, etc), which left just enough room for the giant bottles of Ibuprofin and Acetaminophen. (I have quite a stash of meds myself, but I keep them on top of my desk, because I can't be bothered to walk into the kitchen to take them or to set up my Old Lady Pill Box once a week.)

This cabinet was full of spices and the like, to the point of having to remove several bottles to get to anything that I don't use pretty much daily, and the the garlic / sea salt grinder was falling out pretty much every time I opened the door.

Out they all came, for inspection and organization. Of course, a ton ended up in the trash. There were things with expiration dates before Peeper was born. Some things, I couldn't remember the one dish I bought them for, but I'm pretty sure it was back in early 2007 when I wasn't working, and was doing a lot of cooking. (Around the time I started this blog.)

I found a can of Tony Cachere's season, which had tape on it, which means that it was sealed up for moving, at least once. We have been in this house for over ten years. And, while it is available here, I suspect that I bought it in Texas.

So, out with all the spices, and in with the few things from the big corner cabinet that we actually need to keep in here. Some staples, like oats (actually, there's only a tiny bit left in that giant container, but it will eventually be replaced with a full one, so I kept it, to reserve the space, flour, sugar, rice and (white and brown), plus some things that Shrike uses a lot, oatmeal and peanut butter.

So, what happened to all those spices? Into the big cabinet, all on its lazy susan, which originally held canned goods. (The little lazy susan is out completely, and may be used in the big pantry at some point.) If you had a better view, you'd see that I have them sorted into savory (garlic, onion, oregano, cumin, sage),  "sweet" (cinnamon, cloves, allspice, etc.), and salt/pepper, with back-up bottles and bigger things behind. To the far left, behind the big bottle of garlic powder, you can see some ziplocks containing dried herbs that we picked at the farm this summer: basil, dill and cilantro. I've used up all the oregano, and the mint is on top of the K-cup drawers, with the tea ball that I got for Christmas, for making peppermint mocha and hot chocolate.

On the shelf above these are a few things that we use less often, like food coloring, extracts, etc and on the very top shelf, are sprinkles and cupcake liners.

Next time I will try to get a before picture.