pantry fetish

I will admit, I have one.

The pantry of my dreams.

Or maybe this one.

To be more specific: I have a clean-pantry fetish.

My sister-in-law will attest to my fixation, because—on one extended trip to her house in Boston—I basically took apart the contents of her entire kitchen, which involved placing 1,000-plus groceries in the living room and dining area while I analyzed the goods.

Her stockpile looked much like this.

And this.

I decided she did NOT need 7 different jars of ginger.  Even the ginger seemed happy to be freed from the back of a very high, very ignored kitchen cupboard.

The problem in SIL’s kitchen is the same problem I see in a lot of kitchens: Because people stash groceries in every available nook or cranny, they don’t know what they have and keep re-buying the same things over and over. Worse, they get a hankering for brownies and find themselves opening every cabinet in search of baking powder or cocoa.

Without wishing to sound like someone’s grandmother, I’m a believer in the old adage, “A place for everything and everything in its place.”

It is for this reason (and, perhaps, some deeply-rooted OCD issues) that I line the shelves of my pantry with an assortment of airtight food-storage canisters, baskets, and old-fashioned glass jars.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them because they close beautifully, provide an airtight seal, and I no longer have marshmallows stuck together in a plastic bag…

Nor petrified brown sugar…

Or stale cereal…

Collecting these storage goodies can add up—especially if you go to a dedicated “organization” store, where you’ll likely spend so much money on specialized containers that you’ll no longer be able to afford the groceries that go in them. (Problem solved, I guess.)

So I tend to hit up a few different stores for my favorites:

But the same 10-piece set sells for only $99 at Zappos with free shipping. I can’t explain the crazy price difference, but who’s arguing?

My husband would say that if I could put the family in a basket, I would.

And his point is?

Any other organizational fetishists our there? I’d love to hear your brilliant ideas…please share!