There’s nothing like a third quarter deadline coming up in 12 days to inspire a person to get her act together.

Looking at my goals for months 6-9, I see an awful lot of items not checked off: Zero waste-ing my office supplies at work, cleaning out that second cupboard in the laundry room, zero waste-ing my recipe collection (although, fun fact, I was looking for that thing this past weekend and I seem to have lost it), actually make my emergency work kit (plate, bowl and mug), call another family meeting to discuss the one item they’d be willing to go zero waste in the bathroom, researching low waste options for toothpaste and floss …

… Zero waste-ing my pantry …

Actually, I have two pantries — one in my tiny kitchen and one in my tiny hallway. And when I made my list, I had every intention of tackling both at once. Um, but when I started working on this project Monday morning, it became clear that I could clean out both pantries, or I could clean out one and then take a nap.

I chose the kitchen pantry and a nap.

I took every single food item out of my cupboards (I clarify this because I have some small appliances and cutting boards that peacefully co-exist with the food) and lined that junk up on the counter. I was kind of pleased, actually, to see so little packaged trashy stuff:

Would you believe we’ve had the cocoa mix since before the project started? Bonus game: Spot the cup of coffee.

Part II. For a family who’s not crazy about tea, we sure have a lot of tea.

I mean, I’m trying, so there shouldn’t be, but … well, seeing is believing.

THEN, after wiping down the cabinets, I realized that I’d forgotten about the oils and vinegars et al that I store on a lower shelf because they’re too tall to fit in the main cupboard:

AUGH. P.S. That plastic bottle of canola oil is what inspired Eric’s new year’s resolution of being more mindful when shopping — and promise NEXT time he’ll come home with a glass bottle of non-GMO stuff. LIKE WE USUALLY BUY. Ahem, sorry, still bitter.

One thing I noticed is that I have a lot of leftover odds and ends from various DIY projects that I’m not not really sure what to do with, like green clay powder, bentonite clay and xylitol. And enough balsalmic vinegar to last us through 2018. And that somehow we’d ended up with two jars of (non-organic) apple cider vinegar?

And why do we have quinoa when we think it tastes like dirt?

Why has it taken me so long to go through the pantry again? Good grief.

Yadda yadda yadda, so I decided that I want my pantry to look like a zero waste dream even if we are not 100 percent there yet. Those packaged items that we tend to use a lot — cereal (Abby and Eric), hot chocolate mix (Johanna), and oatmeal (me) went on the very highest shelf. Next came my jars of oats, sugars, coffee beans and the like, and on the bottom shelf the smaller jars of bulk items like dried fruit, nuts and baking items. I decanted some of the packaged foodstuffs, like baking cocoa (I can’t get it in bulk here. Johanna took the plastic containers to store her polymer clay, though, so we’re delaying recycling a bit) into jars, too. Because a girl can dream.

I have a smaller cupboard where I store my bulk herbs and spices, baking powders and sodas (I’m reusing the baking powder container and filling it in the bulk aisle now — I only found out a couple of months ago that was possible), and then in the lower cupboard went the oils and vinegars. Everything else I put into the hallway pantry … to be sorted another day soon-ish.

But when I was done:

I am a big fan of how glass looks … and having space around my jars.

Ye Ole Spice Rack. Cupboard, whatever. Oh yeah, we keep prescriptions in here too. 

I spy with my little eye something black and fluffy that should not be in this cabinet.

Part II of my extravaganza was to make a list in my journal of items in the pantry that we really need to eat ASAP — that quinoa (ugh), some couscous (which we actually like, can’t figure out what the hold up is there), split peas and a tiny bit of turbinado sugar.

Next week’s menu theme is going to be Using The Crap We Already Have In The Pantry And Freezer. But that’s another post for another time. (Seriously: What do you do with quinoa?)

Anyway, this whole project only took about an hour (I have a feeling the hallway pantry might take a little longer) and it felt awesome once it was completed. Abby opened the main cabinet looking for a snack soon after, and she was all like, whoa! It’s clean in here!, which made me feel like a boss.

The end.

Next up: Some thoughts on week one menu planning and probably a couple other random updates.