Today’s extra-special, post-midterm post features a behind-the-scenes peek at my kitchen. Important disclaimer: there is no recipe, but you do get the chance to enter an insanely awesome giveaway!
So, organization. While it’s true that the stress and constant studying for midterms allowed several elements around my household to slide over the past couple of weeks (ahem, laundry. Cooking. Blogging. Eating. Cleaning. Sleeping. Etc.), I also can’t lie and tell you that the state of my kitchen pantry was the result of midterms. Because it was really the result of poor organization. Here was my pantry in its original state. Cue the screech screech screech screech horror music:
Note the upside-down hummus container (filled with ground peanuts) on the left side of the photo. The yogurt container filled with granola that’s perched precariously behind my trail mix and honey. The crooked cereal box that is about to topple over and spill cereal all over with one wrong move from the box of dates lurking under a sack of cashews. The yellow lid of my nutritional yeast that is lying in a horizontal position because there was simply no room for it to stand straight up on my crowded shelf.
We’re wallowing in this for a little while so we can appreciate the beauty that follows:
OXO, you sure know how to save a girl from her kitchen. I remember one time when my parents took me shopping before I started college and I got completely transfixed in Bed, Bath & Beyond’s kitchenware area. My lovely mother agreed to buy me one (ONE) container that subsequently served as a handy transporter for a LOT of baked goods throughout college. I still have and love that Good Grips LockTop container, but I have to admit that when I busted out their 10-piece POP Container Set and matching cereal dispensers, I fell in love with my new white-lidded containers just a teensy bit more.
These POP Containers come with button-like circles on top that open the containers with a single touch (or pop)–so convenient when you’re eating a banana and you just don’t have an extra hand to pry open the bag of M&Ms that would go perfectly on top…am I right?
With my brand-new, totally stackable-friendly containers, my pantry now looks like this:
Except in my pantry, obviously. I just wanted to show you my sparkly new, clean layout in the best light possible 😉 Notice how perfectly they stack up together? Those clean, geometric lines of squares and rectangles just make my heart happy–my pantry practically re-organized itself in their presence.
The POP Containers are seriously so versatile and I love love love the way my pantry looks now because all those odds and ends of pastas and grains and legumes and nuts that I had thrown into the back of my pantry? Now they’re neatly sorted and organized into their own little see-through, non-breakable (hello mason jars) containers. I can actually find things!
If you, like me, want to organize your life (one pantry at a time), find comfort in the fact that help is just a Container Store away! You can buy POP Containers at any The Container Store location (um, hello organizational HEAVEN) or online. OR you can enter this giveaway to win your very own set of OXO Storage & Organization tools (up to $250) along with a bonus $250 elfa gift card.
This giveaway will run from Monday, October 13 – Friday, October 31. Enter here!
I’m obsessed. Do you think I could organize my study papers in OXO containers?
Follow Erika | The Pancake Princess's board OXO wish list! on Pinterest.
Sarah @ SnixyKitchen
Haha – that’s what my cabinets look like too! I have a set of these pop containers and the shelves with them are 100x more organized than the others.
laurasmess
Hahahahaaa… absolutely, I’m sure that we could sort ANYTHING in those OXO containers (hm, tax return for next year?! Receipts? Husband’s socks!!!). Great post – you’ve perfectly displayed the usefulness of these little poppable containers. I wanna enter but I’m guessing it’s US residents only… I should really take a look. Seeing as I don’t even HAVE a pantry it might make my piles of ingredients a little more presentable in the spare room (no joke, it’s a nightmare). Anyway, yaaaay for your more organised kitchen. And for study break (just read your last post). Mwah! x
Alana Kysar
I LOVE those pop top containers. I think I have two full sets and I don’t even think that’s enough. Isn’t organizing your pantry the best thing ever? And I totally think you could organize your study papers in them!
Nancy @ gottagetbaked
It’s like you took photos of MY hideous pantry and posted them in this post! Seriously, no matter how many times I try cleaning my cupboards out, they look like disaster areas. I LOVE OXO’s pop top containers. I keep all my flours/sugars in them. They totally rock. I hope your semester hasn’t been too horrible. You’re almost through!
erika
Ahaha Nancy–you’re the best. You understand me! Here’s hoping that those awesome POP containers will keep my pantry from becoming a disaster area once again. I really shouldn’t complain–I’m sure my semester has been nothing compared to your crazy law degree! But yes, it’s almost over. Thanks for the constant support and love, lady!