Emergency Cleanup: Aisle 5

I have been putting off cleaning the "peanut butter" cupboard since summer. (do y'all call it the peanut butter cupboard? Everybody I know does...) On the top shelf is the baking stuff such as food coloring, sprinkles, birthday candles, and coconut. (okay, so I found three ancient half-bags of coconut up there--even when I clean this cupboard, sometimes it's only the first and second shelf....) On the middle shelf we find tea, dried beans, and jello and puddings. Bottom shelf: peanut butter (natch), sugar bowl, odd keys, and SPICES.

Spices crowding a two-tier twirly lazy susan thing. The ones that fall off and fall behind, keep it from twirling. Behind the peanut butter and sugar bowl, cans and jars that won't fit on the twirly thing, as well as baggies of "bulk" spices that I've accumulated.

Well, the situation had been critical since summer. Odd things would fly out at me when I opened the cupboard: I just shoved them back in and went on my merry way. Until two days ago...

...Avalanche. That's all I'm gonna tell ya'.

Here is a photo of what burped up outta there:

I stopped counting at 70 cans, jars, and baggies. SEVENTY.

Included in this array were four cans and three baggies of nutmeg. Hoarding for the next Y2K, I guess. Three cans of cream of tartar. Now, I make homemade play-doh like the rest of y'all, but Come On. But: the spices I use most, I had only the jar I knew about, half-full. Except for the cinnamon--I had to BORROW cinnamon last week from a neighbor. I did find two, Full, jars of that.

I also consolidated all the boxes of birthday candles. And, you know the "number" candles? Well, you could conceivably use two of the same number--Charming *did* turn 44 a few years ago. But I had three 5's--unless I'm planning for someone to turn 555, I can get rid of one of those, right?

So, what happened then? Well, I threw away some old stuff. Somehow, the cans that were so old that they don't have a barcode, I couldn't bear to throw away. Symbols of a kinder, gentler time, you know? (I promise, I WILL deal with those. Pretty soon.) I kept one full and one opened can of nutmeg, as well as one of the cream of tartars. I took all the extras (as well as Eleven Boxes of Jello I didn't know I had) and packaged them up for Forget-me-not and Lily.

So I put the cupboard back together, and, as you can see, it is still packed pretty full:

And, it wasn't a perfect job. I'm so jealous of Jen I could spit nails.

But at least I can begin my holiday baking 1) without the fear of flying spices hitting me in the head, and 2) knowing that I actually probably don't have to buy any spices!

Just my little contribution to a Frugal Friday!