My Hidden Treasures in Illinois

I have been promising you  that I would show you where I am storing all my dishes in my new  Illinois house.
Well, today is your lucky day!
If you have been following me for awhile, you  know what a huge walk in closet I had in Texas for my dishes. I had two walk in closets plus the kitchen, living room, china closet and a buffet to store everything. Texas had lots of hiding places!

Here is a picture of one of my walk in's.

When I moved in to our new house in Illinois I wondered what would I do with my 17 dish packs! Yes, I did  say 17!
Not counting my everyday dishes.
I wish I had taken more before pictures.....but here it is.......BEFORE!
  I did add a bookcase to the right. It does have to be painted but at this point I just needed it in place. It is difficult to unpack and not have a place to put stuff. I had stuff all over on every inch of my counters for at least a month! lol

After a long wait......I am finally finished! Ya right! It looks good and is useful at this point in time............I know I will tweak it!

My husband added more wire shelving......
It took us so long because tools had to be unpacked to do the job. Plus we have so many things going on at the same time.

This is the orginal picture with food, the same one as above. The bookcase holds my black iron pans, crock pot, punch bowl and cake plates. I used a shoe rack to the left and put all my cupcake papers, sprinkles, cookie cutters, party toothpicks etc.

These are the two shelves we added on all the way around the whole top of the pantry!

They are my life savers! I have brought the big pans in the basement because I only use them for parties or when my family visits. It gave me more dish space.

I put the pans, dishes, platters and anything I use less often on the top. Eventually,  I would like to label all my dishes. I did put them by color or season. Christmas, Fall, Fourth of July and New Years on the very top shelf.

I put extra shelving on the wall to hold the smaller boxes next to the door.This is from my husband when he was in the hotel for three months! lol  We rarely eat too many things that come out of a box!  All my sugar, flour, Bisquick and Oatmeal are in large containers. I am a container freak...everything is in containers if it comes in a box. Once cookies are opened they go  in a container too!

My cherished possession in my pantry is my step stool by rubbermaid  I bought it at Lowe's. The best thing I ever bought!!!

Well that is my organized pantry!

I hope I inspired you to redo your pantry or just fix it a little.....

I will be joining:

Ceilo from House in Roses, Show for Off Your Cottage Monday

http://www.houseinroses.blogspot.com/2012/04/show-off-your-cottage-monday_15.html

                            BeColorful for Motivated Monday
          http://becolorful.typepad.com/becolorful/motivated-monday/


I hope you have a beautiful week! Please leave me a comment. I love hearing from you!

I will be very busy in the next month working on a big project. I hope you will bear with me. I am very excited to share my news with you!

Blessings My Friends,