Kitchen Organizing: Eliminating Cereal Box Clutter

Here lately I have been on a huge get organized kick, especially in the kitchen! One of my biggest pet peeves in the kitchen is all the open cereal boxes sitting around. Usually we have about six to seven boxes open at once, between Abby’s favorites and hubby’s and the ones I use for cooking. All these cereals boxes cause so much clutter and having so many sitting open drives me crazy. Hubby is terrible about not closing up the box very well and Abby constantly tries to grabs the boxes and usually ends up making a big mess. Plus there’s ants to deal with, living out in the country I have grown use to fighting ants every once in awhile. Having a box of cereal sitting open is just a big invitation to the ants and usually means I’m tossing almost full boxes in the trash because I have no way of knowing if ants got in.

I decided it was time to do something about all those boxes plus all the random packages that usually end up with torn ends that only halfway close. Things like chocolate chips, chips, marshmallows, pretzels, stuff like that. I knew what I wanted, I wanted those big cereal tupperware contains, we use to have some when I was younger and they were so neat and organized and helped keep the cereal fresh.

My only problem… I didn’t have a single container! And on my gosh are those things expensive! We’re on a tight budget, I had to figure out how to get this done the cheap way. Bargain hunting, yard sale hunting, recycling, I was ready to tackle this mess.

Of course I called my mom and dad, mentioned what I was looking for. I asked if we had any left over from when I was little, see if maybe they had any they didn’t need. Lucky for me, they each had one or two. Plus my mom had these other neat containers that would work great. And of course, I headed out to some yard sales and flea markets and even the local goodwill 🙂 I love going in search of things.

I don’t have a before picture… sorry… you wouldn’t want to see the insane cluttered mess anyways 🙂

But here is my after photo! The cereal containers came from my parents, goodwill, yard sales and flea markets. The huge one is the perfect size to hold an entire bag of those price saver cereals! And the other one is big enough to mix the two chex cereals I use to make chex mix. Now I just measure out the amount I need and it’s already mixed! That might drive some crazy but it works for me, and means fewer boxes sitting around.

Don’t you just love these small containers?? Absolutely perfect for the chocolate chips and marshmallows! They stack neatly and now I don’t have all these bags taking up so much space… and having to search for a clip to fasten the bags. These are coffee containers my mom saved for me, so glad she did!!

I love these big coffee containers my mom saved, I haven’t quite figured out what to do with all of the ones she brought but I have used one to put all of Abby’s gummy snacks in and this one I used to put my chex mix in the other night 🙂 it was perfect since it has a lid! I haven’t quite figured out what to put in the white ones yet but I’m sure I’ll think of something!

I’m loving my organized kitchen! I’m also obsessed with my containers now! I need more 🙂 I really want a bread container. I have only just gotten started getting this kitchen organized and neat, I have so much more to get done but it feels great to be off to a good start. Also awesome to have such great parents who help with my weird ideas 🙂