Pantry Reorganization: Calendar and Food Inventory

My first goal on my mission pantry organization list was to obsessively organize my life into a neat little calendar and pantry/freezer inventory checklist.  First let’s talk about the calendar.  We had been using the whiteboard calendar system which just wasn’t working for me given the fact that I make lots of plans in advance and you can’t really plan for the next month with a white board.  BUT the white board does have the versatility to erase mistakes and make changes without the ugly eraser marks or dark cross outs.  What’s the solution to this dilemma?  Why a hybrid calendar/white board.  Enter in cheap Ikea picture frames. 

They are the NYTTJA frames and at $3.99 a pop they were pretty easy on the wallet.  Now turning a picture frame into a dry erase board isn’t hard.  You take a marker, write on the glass (or in this case plastic which I found it totally wipeable after several tests) and voila it’s a marker board.  I then whipped up a November calendar (as a test run) and popped it in the frame.  I have both a printed calendar that I can put  my plans on each months calendar as the year progresses so I can make plans ahead, and a marker board to meal plan and write the daily reminders and plans.  The other frame holds our freezer and pantry inventory, but more on that later!

I bought some Velcro at Michaels for around $4.00.  I cut tiny sections of the Velcro and placed it on the back of the frame. 

I then made a handy dandy guide out of printer paper to show me where to put the strips of Velcro on the cabinet doors. 

Ta-dah! The insides of my pantry are now a scheduling/organization/inventory heaven. 

I just created the November Calendar as a trial before creating the whole year incase there was anything that needed to be changed. 

  

I found this great blue ink graphic in google images.  It’s from Janie at Dream on a Moonbeam. She is an amazing artist!

Printed on the calendar are birthdays, holidays, and our weekly cleaning tasks.  We are trying out a new system in an attempt to tame the chaos that has become our house where we do one chore each day.  Wish us luck and cross your fingers. 

I love the deep blue color and hope to incorporate it into the kitchen in other ways as our kitchen begins to evolve.

 

 On the inventory checklist we have both a freezer inventory and a pantry inventory.  There is also a spot to write in our grocery list!

The inventory lists are to help organize what is in our freezer and downstairs pantry and help use get an idea of the ingredients we have in one glance.  Each major food we use is listed along with blank spaces for food we can write in.  Dots resemble how much of each item like bags of chicken breasts or cans of tomato sauce.  For example if I had 7 pheasant carcasses in the freezer I would fill in seven dots.  Unfortunately this is a real life example.  Anyone need some pheasant?

I like to have a spot to write in groceries, cleaning supplies, and other miscellaneous things we need over the week.  This is why I was reluctant to get rid of the white boards….but they were so hideous I am glad I found another way!

So now to the good stuff…The Budget Breakdown:

Paper: free from my collection

White board marker: had from previous white boards

Frames: $7.98

Velcro: $4.00

Grand Total: $11.98 for a calendar white board and a food inventory white board/grocery list – not too bad!