What does your pantry look like?

[Sparkly]

Or cupboards, if you don't have a separate pantry...

We have a little closet pantry near the kitchen, and I just cleaned it out. It was amazing. Even though it's been cleaned out before, I still found expiration dates going back to 1997! We even had dog biscuits that have expired. A box of dried milk powder didn't have an expiration date, but the women pictured on the box had hairdo's I haven't seen since the 1980s.

Three huge garbage bags later, I have room for the box of Cheerios that was always hanging precariously off a shelf. I feel guilty for throwing out so much food, though. When it's in garbage bags, it seems impossible that it all fit in that little closet in the first place.

Among the unopened discoveries I kept: 19 boxes of herb teas (not to mention the dozen in the cupboard and more downstairs), six plastic bags of dried beans, three big jars of mayonnaise, three boxes of girl scout cookies (although I'm suspicious of them), and a big jug of real maple syrup. How could we forget we had a big jug of real maple syrup?!

Downstairs we have a storage shelf in the laundry room with yet more food, but I'll tackle that in a few years. :)

How about you? Do you have old stuff in your pantries, or do you go through it regularly?