Pantry Organization & Spring Cleaning

 It was a beautiful day out yesterday. It was one of those perfect spring days where you want to sit outside and just absorb nature. I did do that for a few hours, for sure, but I also had a few projects that I wanted to tackle.
You guys already read about my instant gravy making adventures. If you haven't, click here to view that blog post. This is the other project that I wanted to accomplish was rearranging our pantry and dish storage cabinet.

This was ridiculous. I had so many Penzey's Spices. I asked my sister if she wanted them and if it was one that I hadn't used in the past 6 months, it is going to her. As much as I make from scratch, she makes more...and she lives in a house and has more room to put things. Anyhow, this is unacceptable. Things got really shifted around when we moved up here in January. Having the fifth wheel pulled up the driveway didn't help matters any. Our driveway sucks, but we like it that way.

Bob wasn't sure if this would all go back into the cabinet. I assured him that, if it came out, it would go back in.

It does look like a holy mess, though. 

That little half of a shelf is where all that stuff on the counter came from. I needed some space to work with.

My Ninja blender, vanilla, sherry and ramekins were all shoved toward the back. Now, mind you, I cannot reach to the back of that cabinet, so I rearranged things in an order that made sense to me, not Bob. Bob is 6'1". I'm 5'4". Big difference there.

I'm pleased with how my spice area turned out. I still have a drawer full underneath. I cleaned that out, as well. This also gave me a chance to see what I needed to stock up on and what I needed to use up quickly.

The dishes came down a shelf and I can now reach everything.

The tote holds all of our packets of stuff and our extra bags of brown sugar, etc. We're working our way through the tote and will start replacing a lot of those packets of gravy, onion soup mix, etc. with homemade versions that I store in canning jars.

Everything in here is now a lot more accessible to me, as well. The boxes are things that are very near or just after the expiration date and they need to be used up. I also have a can of pineapple that's about 8 months past that I will use to make a marinade. I'm thinking tacos al pastor sound good.

I did not stop with just organizing the pantry. I have a working RV kitchen. By that, I mean, I use the stove and I cook in there on a daily basis. Do I tear the stove apart and clean it every single time? No. I don't. I do, however, clean it on a weekly basis. I'm not going to lie, however. I have let it go for about 3 weeks. It was getting gross and it needed to be cleaned. This is real life and stuff happens. Anyhow, I don't use any fancy cleaners for my stove. I've discovered that I can get it super clean with just plain ol' baking soda. It removes the grease, it scours it and it's something that most everyone has on hand. Here is the before photo.

Here is the after photo. Yes, I have some permanent staining on there. Like I said, this is a working kitchen and stuff happens...but my stove is clean.

It was nice to have the door open with Mickey-Shark and Ravioli safely enclosed in their cat pen.
Today, I'm dehydrating apples. Tomorrow, I'm taking Bob to the hospital so that he can have his procedure. After that, I'm going to dehydrate potatoes. After that, it will probably be time plant out some more stuff. This is a homestead/farm in baby form and every single day, if we accomplish a few goals, they eventually add up to a nice place to live.
So, my parting words of wisdom to RVers is to not be afraid to use your propane stove. I think I'd have a hard time going back to electricity after getting used to this.