Practicing Gratitude in the Pantry

I am honored to have my dad as one of my clients. We decided to surprise him and work on his pantry while he was out of town this month. I get so excited when I'm starting a new project that I almost always forget to take a before photo. But imagine all of this...

....and this...

...and the stuff in the dining room that I also forgot to take a photo of all crammed into this pantry.

And yep, that's a pencil sharpener straight out of the 70's hanging there. The shelves were all sagging after years of use so we (my husband and I) added a support in the corner and sanded/repainted the entire pantry. Here's how it came out...

Huge difference, right! Makes me so happy every time I look at it - even though it's totally empty! I carefully sorted through the things that I know he still uses and donated/discarded everything else. I used these awesome plastic bins he already had in there to organize all the paper goods. There was no need to buy new bins/baskets since he's planning to downsize and sell the house soon.

And here's the after photo!

The look on his face when he opened the pantry door was priceless! And now for the gratitude part....I spent a lot of time in this pantry as a kid (as most kids do, right?) and as I spent the day painting it with my husband and listening to a 70's and 80's station I was feeling pretty nostalgic. And grateful. Grateful for him and for my family and for this house that has so many amazing memories in it. So grateful to be able to give some love back to this house. Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!