It is halfway through March and I realized I did not write a post rounding up all the items I found to get rid of in the pantry!
Just to recap, I created this 2019 Simplify Challenge to make little steps of progress. Sometimes decluttering and purging can feel like an enormous task to handle, something that would take all day and there is no time to squeeze it in.
Remember, we looking for just 5 things. Each month of this new year, we’re going into a different space in our homes and taking out 5 things. These can be 5 things to donate, 5 things to throw away, 5 things to give to a family member, 5 things to sell, 5 things to finally make decisions on.
FEBRUARY DECLUTTER WAS THE PANTRY!
1| UNICORN CEREAL
The big brands are oh so good at marketing, are they not? SO much better than me being able to say no to my girls, especially when they see a unicorn!
Picture us strolling through Costco when all of a sudden the girls both started screaming because they see this box of cereal! “Please can we have it? PLEASE!” they pleaded with us.
Justin and I looked at each other and thought why not, it can’t be that bad. Plus it was on sale for around $4 at the time. “We can try it”, we said.
BIG MISTAKE!
They both did not like the cereal. I didn’t want to eat it. And Justin didn’t want to eat it. So there it sat so lonely at the back of the pantry.
Lessons learned from this purchase:
1. Just because it’s on sale, doesn’t mean you need to buy it
2. Don’t “try” things with a bulk purchase
3. Don’t let kids put things in the cart
4. Don’t by things on impulse
I emptied out both bags and threw the cereal into the compost bin and tore down the box to be recycled.
2| MORE CEREAL
What’s with us and cereal, right?
Well the backstory of this one is so much simpler. Three different types of cereals were bundled in one box. The girls only liked one flavor.
On the one hand, it sucks to waste this much cereal.
But on the other hand, it was cheaper to buy the bundle (for the same size bag) than it was to buy the one individually.
So these guys also made it out to the compost bin.
3| BABY FOOD MAT
This mat is Emmy’s baby food mat. They didn’t have anything like this when Jadyn was a toddler!
Let me tell you, it was hard to say goodbye. We no longer need it. We haven’t used it in forever. ⠀
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But it’s like saying goodbye to that time in our lives and accepting the fact that she’s no longer a baby. She’s growing up, both girls are.⠀
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That’s the part that hurts my heart the most. But keeping the mat won’t bring back that time. It’s just preventing me from moving forward and finding the joy in this present time.⠀
The only thing constant about life, is change right?
4| BABY FOOD – PRUNES
Throughout the baby and toddler stages I liked to have prunes on hand. You never knew when you would need them.
When kids try all these different foods for the first time, they are likely to get constipated. I know you moms out there know what I’m talking about.
After a couple times of frantically trying to find something to ease the girls’ bellies, I decided to always stock prunes, JUST IN CASE.
Now that the girls are older, and I highly doubt they would eat prunes from the baby food jar, I decided that we no longer need them.
5| ALL THE DECLUTTERED FOOD TO TOSS AND GARBAGE
After sifting through all the food in the pantry, I ended up with way more than 5 items. In this session, they were mostly all food products (since that’s mainly what we store in there).
I filled one large kitchen garbage bag full of dare I say it old food, food we were never going to eat, and some garbage that was in the pantry.
The feelings I had to deal with were two fold:
- I felt so relieved to get it out of the pantry. I thought that I kept up with all the items in there pretty regularly. But there were a few items that were hiding and had expired last year!
- I felt so much guilt. There was so much food that was wasted. With all of the starving people in the world, seeing all this go in the compost or garbage just made me take a step back and vow to stop buying so much in excess, that I know we wouldn’t be able to eat.
- Annoyed was in there too. Because some of the systems that I thought I loved in the pantry just aren’t working out as well as I would like. So I have to re-evaluate how everything is organized and go back to the drawing board.
- Watch: PANTRY ORGANIZATION + TOUR
DECLUTTERING THE CARDBOARD BOXES TOO!
It always feels good to get rid of the excess. But why is it so hard to get to that point?
Is it time we think it takes to declutter?
Maybe the amount of energy we think it takes to declutter?
Or it could be the mental stamina and patience to go through everything and come out on the other side?
Let me get real with you for a moment. This project, when I just stood there and went through it all, took less than 30 minutes. With no distractions, no music, no social media, no television, no multitasking of any sort, I was able to start and finish a project that to me, seemed like it could and would take forever.
You know what? YOU CAN DO IT TOO.
I would love to hear how your decluttering journey is going. Let me know in the comments below and we can chat about it!
