It’s Day #5 of the 500 Things Decluttering Challenge… Hi! My name is Crystal and apparently I’m a spice hoarder!!
Today’s project for the #500Things #Decluttering Challenge was to go through your pantry and get rid of 25 items.
Our pantry didn’t need much decluttering, but 2 days ago, when I had done a quick decluttering of our kitchen cupboards, I discovered that our Spice Cupboard was kind of out of control!
I often get sent spices from companies, Jesse has bought a number of different spices this year… And, gulp, I even have some spices in there that we got as wedding presents — 13 years ago!!! Yikes!
Today: I went through all of them, checked dates, threw out all the expired items, combined the jars of non-expired duplicates, got the bags of flour and sugar dumped into the canisters they are supposed to go in, and wiped down the cupboard and reorganized it.
Today’s total: 26 things decluttered
Total for the entire challenge: 224 items so far!
I’m keeping a running total of all my items decluttered during this challenge as I thought it would be fun to not only do Daily Totals but also Overall Totals.
How many items did YOU declutter today?? Leave a comment and let us know.
P.S. You can read more about the Decluttering Course I’m going through here. If you’d like to join me in going through it in January and get the videos, information, and printables every day, you can go here to purchase and get it for just $5.99 right now!
I thought I’d come up with more in this challenge but since we’ve recently moved, I didn’t have a whole lot of things in pantry/spice cabinet. But still came up with x6 things -multiples on spices and few misc. things. Brings my total to 368!
I’m going to keep a running total too…I declutter every other week. I just dropped off a huge box and two bags filled with stuff to the thrift store..♥
In anticipation of a move within the year, I’ve been slowly divesting, aiming at 10 items a day, category by category. So far I’ve gone through: books, music CD’s, hanging clothes, shoes, art supplies, spice rack, canning equipment, fabrics, financial records, linens, jewelry box, kid’s toys (they are grown now, and the stuff was in the attic), old dishes, pots and pans, chest freezer, Christmas gift stash… These have gone to different places, the thrift store, friends, neighbors, trash. Still quite a bit to do. As we don’t know where we’ll end up we may have a bunch of gardening and canning things to pass on.
You’re well on your way! I love hearing stories of all the things people get rid of when they know a move is in their future.
Reading everyone’s successes has been an encouragement. Press on!
I have trouble throwing away food too.
Friday and Saturday were really busy days so I set aside some time today (less than an hour to clean out the spice pantry- we have 2 cupboards of them). I’ve recently reviewed what we have in the rest of the pantries so I’m satisfied with those right now.
I still found 10 things to clear out of the cupboards. We had multiple salt containers so I combined them as appropriate and threw away extras. I tossed several spices I’ve been holding for years but truthfully, we’ll never use. And I found some random caps and plastic pieces…no clue what they go to or used to go to…but they’re in the garbage now.
116 items total!
Looking forward to more decluttering with the group this week. Thank you Crystal and Kathi for hosting and supporting us.
I’m so proud of you! 116 item already is awesome!
I decluttered two dresser drawers and am donating 17 pairs of socks! (some brand new!) and 3 slips (when was the last time I wore a slip??) and soooo many pairs of knee highs. Tossed about 8 single socks — no mates have ever showed up at our house. Now I can see what’s in there — and I no longer have 6 pairs of black socks! Easy to make decisions.
You go girl!
Ok, I think you’ve finally convinced me to sign-up for the challenge. I’m jealous of all the decluttering I’m hearing about! I could probably do it on my own, but shelling out $6 for the challenge will help ensure I actually follow through.
Maryalene, I’m so glad you’e joining us in the challenge!
I realized I hoard cookie cutters, especially Christmas ones. I decluttered 23! Tomorrow I tackle the laundry room cleaning supplies. My house should sparkle with all those supplies I never use.
Cookie cutters are the worst!! So glad you were able to get rid of so many.
I’m not counting my items, but I’m reeeaalllly trying. (I’m such a saver… :-/ I really have way too much stuff!) I’ve come up with several boxes that I trashed/burned/recycled. Also found some old college textbooks and three of them are a valid trade-in on Amazon for over $56!! (And to think, I was just going to burn or recycle them. AWESOME!) Also just took FOUR boxes full of clothes to Goodwill today. So exciting!! 🙂
That’s terrific!
Great job!
I wanted to suggest what my mom taught me…when you open something like a spice, or some other ingredient that isn’t necessarily used up right away…..write the date you open it with a black sharpie on the container. so much easier to purge stuff when you see how old it is!
That’s a great idea!
I’m delayed in starting this with you, but worked from home today. Once I was done working this afternoon, I started in on my bedroom. I’m not done yet, but found 6 books to sell online for almost $50, cleared some clothes to take to churches clothes closet and so far for today, I have found over 100 items to get rid of. 🙂 Goal for tomorrow is to actually get the items OUT of the house, not just put in piles.
Keep up the good work. If you take before and after pics, please send them to my assistant, Sherri, at info @ kathilipp dot com so she can share with our FB friends.
I am almost at the 300 item mark, and haven’t even made it to my pantry yet. I so needed this!
WOOHOO!!
Thanks 🙂 My pantry will be next..its going to be a BIG job, and my pantry is just a small broom closet…long overdue 🙂
Congratulations!
FYI Spices gradually lose their potency & flavor in about 6 months. I dry the herb leaves from my garden whole & grind them within 3 months of using them. They’ve kept their flavor for up to 2-3 years, as long as I wait to grind them within the 2-3 months of using them. This has worked great for basil, parsley, & sage. The ground herbs just don’t seem to keep their flavor. My chives seem to lose their flavor when dried or frozen.
What an awesome tip!
We moved last year and the movers inadvertently broke a bottle of oil that ended up ruining everything in our pantry. I cleaned the ceiling, walls, shelves, floors for several days trying to get the oil and smell gone but i digress…
That meant that when we moved into our current house, we started from scratch. One of the perks of that was making the decision to make myself promise to have a very limited spice collection. Don’t get me wrong, I still have spices but not nearly as many and they are in a single row so I can see exactly what I have. As part of that, I also made the decision to not make recipes that require lots of specialty ingredients. We also joined Blue Apron which gives us some diversity as the ingredients include all of the specialty things in pre-measured amounts so I don’t have to buy an entire bottle. It’s worked great for us!!
I had a bottle of olive oil on the floorboard passenger side of our minivan (from Aldi which was out of town at the time). My husband accidentally broke it. Lots of newspaper and baking soda, but it never seemed to completely come out. 🙁 I feel your pain, I would hate to lose a whole pantry’s worth, and the cleaning!
It was herb infused olive oil, too. I cannot begin to describe the horrific smell. ?
That’s great that you’ve decided to stop collecting spices! The oil fiasco, not so great.
Ironically the buyers toured the house after the olive oil fiasco so I guess I did a decent job cleaning. ?
I didn’t think I’d have much, but I was able to get to 25.
Donate – 2 girls dresses and girls shirt, 13 pairs of costume jewelry earrings, 1 lonely earring (into geocaching junque bag to leave at caches we visit)
So great!
I totally just cleaned out my spice cabinet a few days ago…it was sad how many spices went into the trash can…but I can find things now! It’s insanely liberating, lol.
It’s so crazy how the spices build up. So glad you can find things now. 🙂
I wanted to get to decluttering this week, but instead I helped birth 3 baby goats! Which was super exciting…although it kind of adds to our clutter. (Just kidding…haha)
Anyway, you’re doing great to already have over 200 items gone. I’m terrible with spices. They are so expensive that it’s hard to toss them out. I bet I have some older ones lurking around, too.
Yay on the baby goats! I hope you get the chance to start on your clutter next week.
38 items today, 451 total.
Woot! Woot!
Last night I purged 57 items, bringing my total up to 80. I should make quicker progress this weekend when I have some time to really dig into things.
I have trouble cleaning out my pantry. It just seems like a shame to get rid of food that *could* be eaten. When I moved into my current home last Fall, the previous owners left me everything in their pantry rather than they having to pack it and move it out of state… most items I was thankful for and used but there was a few that I know I’ll never consume (what the heck is malt-o-meal?) so I finally got tough with myself and pitched them.
You are doing GREAT!!
Please give the malt-o-meal a try! I love to cook it for breakfast on cold winter mornings.
Soooo….. now my count is down to 79 because you’ve got me thinking I should reconsider tossing the malt-o-meal, Annie D. 🙂
😉
It’s so hard to throw out food that “could” be used but if you’re not going to use it, give yourself that permission to donate it or give it to someone who will use it or just toss that box out! Keep it up!
I’m in the process of setting up a white elephant pantry swap with friends for exactly those kinds of pantry items. It helps if you have crazy friends with a good sense of humor though. 🙂
Malt-O-Meal is yummy! It’s kind of like Cream of Wheat.
How many times have you moved 13 year old spices? 🙂
I know!! That’s what I was asking myself! Gratefully, there were only 2 that were that old. But still, quite shocking!! 🙂
Only two isn’t that bad. 🙂
I thought that today would be the day that I would not hit this goal. I thought there was no way that I could find that many items in my pantry. I ended up getting 32 items cleaned out. 15 items were from expired items, candy from Christmas that nobody in my house is going to eat, and the other items were recipes that I won’t ever make. I keep my recipes in the cabinet with our canned goods. So, I don’t know if that technically counts as the pantry or not. Total for the week so far is over 254 items. On day 1, I quit counting when I hit 100 pieces of paper. Thanks again for sharing your progress, it keeps me motivated!!! Loving this challenge!!
Yay! I’m so glad it’s motivating you! And way to go!!!
Renee, I’m so glad you’re jumping in with both feet and kicking that clutter out of your house!
I’m not joining in on the decluttering but I did want to tell you that I just finished doing your 2 hour House Cleaning Check List and now I’m enjoying a clean house! Thanks, it’s great!
Yay! That makes me SO happy!!