Organizing to Save Money (Merrick)

I'm one of those crazies that loves to organize. We always get a good laugh when my husband unloads the dishwasher and he has to ask where half of the dishes go since I've rearranged everything so many times. But things stay so much cleaner and I'm much more likely to put things back where they belong when everything has a place.

Case in point -- I reorganized the bottom shelf of my pantry a few months ago:




I purchased all the containers at Walmart for $2-3, and the used a label maker to label each of the items. Now let me tell you a little bit about why I love this, why it works for me, and why it stays clean:

First, I love having everything uniform and in the correct place. It makes my heart go pitter patter every time I open the pantry and see everything so neat and organized. And because it's such a simple system, everything gets put back every time so it stays look this awesome ALWAYS.

Second, I love having them in clear containers AND labeled so I can look in and see exactly what I have and easily grab what I need.

Third, the containers are pretty good quality (rubbermaid) and have screw on tops that are airtight so my food will not go bad. Some of the other options were cuter, but were more expensive and didn't have airtight lids.

And fourth, having all the food in clear containers allows me to see when I'm running low on an item. Before I did this, that bottom shelf was stacked with bags of flour, brown sugar, coconut, etc, and many times I would re-purchase an item because it was buried underneath something and I thought I was out.

So not only does having an organized pantry look awesome, it also saves money because you can keep track of what you have.