Spring Cleaning the Stockpile

I recently posted that I got some great deals from the scratch and dent store, but when I got home I had a hard time putting it away because the area under the stairs where I keep my grocery stockpile was a huge mess. As I looked at my pantry trying to decide what to do I decided that a bit of spring cleaning was in order.

My son Lee chides me that I have so much stuff in there that I don't know what is even in there, so I buy too many repeats, or I think I have something but I don't so I get stuck mid recipe (hello coconut milk). I decided to take everything out of my pantry into my kitchen and sort out everything by type and put it back in the pantry in a way that I can see what is where and find things when I need them.

It made a huge mess and is stressful and to be honest, doing so is not for the faint of heart.

But once I put everything back in my stockpile, all sorted out, in a space efficient manner, and so that like was stored with like, so things would be easy to find and I'd know when I'm running low, it was worth all the hard work. 

I just look at my stockpile now and I get such satisfaction. Not only satisfaction from a job well done, but such visual satisfaction, seeing row upon row of similar items, all ready to be used. It almost feels like I have a grocery store at home, where I can go "shopping" in my stockpile instead of at the supermarket.

I shared one of these pictures somewhere and someone asked me what I had in my stockpile, so I thought I'd share pictures and write underneath them what is in each one.

I find this picture so satisfying to look at. Row after row, bottle after bottle, of toasted sesame oil. Also mirin, sweet chili sauce, almond milk, apple cider vinegar and mayo. 

Dijon mustard, tuna, lime juice, and naturally colored and flavored sprinkles. Plus lemon juice down at the bottom. (Pic taken before it all filled up.) The rest of the bottom shelf has home canned goods and TVP.

I know the top shelf looks like it's all wine, but it isn't! It also has olive oil, sunflower oil, grape juice, and ketchup, plus soy sauce.

The shelf below is rice, pasta, salt, sugar, almond flour, and a bunch of canned stuff like tomato paste, corn, hearts of palm, lychees, etc...

The bottom shelf pictured has a container filled with snack food items like chocolates and date nut truffles, plus bread crumbs, gluten free flour mix, baking powder and seaweed.

Ok, fine, this shelf still needs to have some sorting done to make it more aesthetically pleasing. But at least its organized. Top shelf is cereal and alcohol and vinegar. Next shelf is curry paste, pudding mix, rice noodles, bean thread noodles, and rice paper wraps. And bottom shelf is taco shells and some tomato paste and a bit of home canned stuff.

It feels so good to have this stuff sorted out and know where to find what I need! I really need to do this more often than I currently do! 

Do you have a stockpile? Is it currently neat or messy? If you have a stockpile, how often do you clean it out and organize it?