Well boy howdy did this simple project snowball out of control quickly. I knew exactly which drawer I wanted to clear out and organize. It’s a kitchen drawer where I have stashed take out condiments for a decade. Yes, I did that. All those little katsups, mustards, honey, soy sauce, red pepper flakes, parmesan, etc., were safely stashed in a drawer for camp outs, picnics, and bag lunches. I haven’t gotten to that drawer yet.

Remember the Pantry Purge? I only thought I was done with that. As I removed, cleaned, pitched and put things back in an orderly fashion, I was drying to figure out how I could best organize the dry goods for baking. One of my hobbies is cake decorating. I bought some supplies and a friend gave me a ton of decorating equipment. I had so much decorating stuff by the end of a year, that it required it’s own cabinet. That cabinet had never been purged and hadn’t been organized in several years. It was a WRECK. That’s when I realized I had a second “pantry” that needed to be purged. Just when I thought I was done…

Full view of my nice neat main pantry after the purge. The reason it’s so neat is because all my baking stuff is NOT in there.

That project took 3 hours, during which, I realized I had a drawer full of decorating items, right next to the drawer with the condiments. The drawer with the condiments did not win that duel. I pitched 80% of the silly stuff I stuck in the decorating drawer that I thought might be useful in making cake decorations and hadn’t been. What was left, I sorted into tins and put with the newly purged and cleaned baking pantry.

I’m going to take a nap now thanks. This evening I will empty the condiment drawer. I will start a fresh condiment baggie next time we get pizza, burgers, chicken or chinese and keep it in the main pantry where we can easily find it now. I will have two completely empty drawers to make my kitchen utensil collection much more manageable!

Baking pantry. Yes, that’s as organized as it can be until I make a lot of rice krispy treats, a batch of marshmallow fondant and about 10 cakes. Everything is easy to find in there though so that’s what counts!

I haven’t had an empty drawer in this house in 10 years! I’ll have another one just like it this evening. Won’t last long because these two empty drawers will be the “cure” for my over crowded utensil drawer.