It’s not the apocalypse but according to my pantry, I’m ready for it

Are you sick of me writing about the arduous task of moving yet? I hope not because there’s plenty more to come.

I’m over the speculating and ruminating about what will happen and when my life will take permanent form again. I’m over the keeping-the-house-cleaner-than-any-mortal-should-have-to mode. We’ve just about sold the house. We’ve just about bought the new house. So what’s left to write about?

First, the good stuff. The new house. I don’t want to jinx anything because a deal is not a deal until the ink is dry. I’ll just say (with fingers crossed behind my back) that the new house is a new house or, as I like to call it, a blank canvas.

Maybe I’ve never made it known but I love, love, love decorating, especially on a dime. I literally had people coming into my house recently to view it saying, “Oh, a decorator must live here.” If I had a hobby, this would be it. I’m excited about creating a new space. I just might document it too.

Now, for the tedious stuff….

the packing.

If you’ve ever moved, you know that packing is almost the worst part of the move, just shy of the actual physical moving. I’ve done three major purges this year with yard sales and donations and I still don’t want to take it all with me. I’m going through everything with a keen eye and preparing my piles for “THE FINAL MOVING SALE.” And yes, that is how I will advertise it.

But now it’s time I face a problem in our house. A serious problem that I’ve known about for quite some time. A problem that I attribute mostly to my husband but I’m sure I play a fair part in it too.

It’s our pantry.

The problem is that this house we are still currently living in has a big pantry. And my husband and I like to cook and we like to eat. So naturally, we grew into our pantry space. Wanna see?

The other problem is that I’m in a constant state of wanting to simplify our lives. This is not a simple pantry.

It may look nice and neat because I also have an addiction to Tupperware and labeling. But I assure you, this is more than any 3-person family should have in their home.

These are the spices. YES. We have two and a half shelves dedicated to spices. Incidentally, if you need whole nutmeg, garam masala, or the beans from an actual vanilla bean, we can help you out.

These are the dry goods. The things I think I need to have on hand but need to keep nestled in a container so it will stay fresh because I don’t use it often enough. Things like sugar cubes, and cake flour, and cornmeal, and mini marshmallows.

These are the staples. Thinks I use frequently, like flour, sugar, baking soda, quinoa, panko breadcrumbs. I think I’ll need to hang on to these.

These are the canned goods. It may look like we are obsessed with Hunt’s Tomato Sauce and Campbell’s soup. We’re not. I just really, really like Hunt’s Tomato Sauce and I can never be without it. Ever.

But after that incredibly full pantry, I bet my fridge is a safe place to go. Right?

There are plenty of things that will easily go, like yogurt and eggs and wine (who am I kidding, that wine will probably be gone tonight). But we are ridiculously full of condiments.

The freezer is my savior. It’s full of semi-healthy convenience foods. I don’t think I’ll have much trouble plowing through the frozen pizza, Morningstar sausages, or Trader Joe’s gyoza dumplings. But the frozen mystery meat? We have a few problems here too.

So what am I going to do about it? It is not all going with me.

I have this personal challenge I’m giving myself to consume as much of this food as possible before we move. I think this will help me reflect on how much I probably do eat out, how little I’ve been cooking and meal planning, and how much we really do have. In fact, it’s a bit embarrassing. I seriously do think of the starving children in Africa every time I waste something in my house. I think about how much we truly have and how it seems like so much. I won’t even go into the things we end up throwing away because it expires before we use it.

We’ll eat what we can. We’ll give some food away (I’m all for distributing baked goods) and we’ll donate what we can to the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina. And in a month, I’ll tell you how it all turned out. Because my new house (fingers still crossed) has a much smaller pantry. And I think that’s a good thing.