This Is This Week

This week, we killed two birds with one stone.

Every now and then, Robyn, Joy, and I head out for a mom’s night.

We often use the time to plan group homeschool outings, swap stories and advice, and be productive.

And sometimes, we just gab and enjoy some good food.

This time around, we decided to do a mom’s night in.

We have learned from experience that we generally make food better than the restaurants we frequent.

Or at least we make food more the way that we like it. The jury is still out on the rankings.

So Robyn made ramen, Joy brought brownie mix and non-dairy ice cream, and we feasted.

We feasted so quickly, in fact, that we neglected to take any photos of our awesome ramen bowls.

But we captured the spread of ingredients and one of the bowls made from leftovers!

Anyway, we had a secondary mission too besides enjoying each other’s company and the delicious food.

Remaking Robyn’s pantry.

This space has been many things.

At one point, it was an old oddly shaped pantry – long and narrow.

Then, it became a laundry room.

Then, Robyn and her husband decided to build an addition on the second floor of their home to accommodate their growing family and opted to move the laundry closer to the bedrooms and bathrooms simultaneously.

After the flood happened and the damages were repaired, the addition was finished and the now-empty first floor laundry room was ready for another makeover.

Having a first floor laundry room had had its benefits, but Robyn definitely missed having a pantry. So, this presented the perfect opportunity to resurrect the pantry idea but make it better!

When we met for mom’s night in this week, we decided to tackle the freshly renovated pantry.

In all the chaos of moving back home after the renovations and repairs, resurrecting routines, starting school, navigating grief and kids’ emotional growth spurts, Robyn just hadn’t had the opportunity to tackle organizing and setting up the pantry.

So, given how much I personally love a good organizational project, I volunteered to help!

The whole process was so quick and the results were pretty impressive, if I do say so myself.

Thanks to some clearance storage baskets I happened upon at our local home improvement store (five baskets for just $4.17 a piece!), a wicker basket and some latching glass storage jars I picked up at a local thrift store, we were able to corral similar items and use some pre-existing containers (plus my label maker!) to bring order to the mild chaos.

Robyn’s second child, who loves organizing and sorting, helped a bit and was very enthusiastic about showing off the results to the rest of the family members the next day.

We removed all the miscellaneous tools and hardware plus a few other books and odds and ends. Those items will all be returned to their proper homes.

Aside from that, we snagged an old plastic storage bin to give Bolt his own supply basket, labeled the plastic storage baskets I had gotten on clearance, and sorted items into categories. The clear bins inside the lower cabinets were already there – they just needed labels and a bit of purging.

There is plenty of space on the countertop for small appliances and a wicker basket for produce that doesn’t mind being stored in an enclosed closet like this.

And the latching jars will be a perfect receptacle for Robyn’s delectable homemade granola!

I love that there is room for growth here.

Organization projects rarely are a “one-and-done” experience. Most spaces have to adapt to our ever-changing lives and needs.

We’ll see how this pantry evolves!