Coffee Cabinet Do-Over

I've got some before-and-after action for yooooouuuuu, my dear peeps.  (Did you know that Peeps were made near Allentown, Pennsylvania, our home for nearly 4 years?)  Now, listen, a time or two I've been accused of being a little perfectionistic and that my before photos look like a lot of people's its-just-fine photos.  The before photo below may have a semblance of organization, but it was not working for us  ::   

Here is why it doesn't work  ::

• The two white plastic coffee and tea bins were overflowing.  The contents were unknown.
• There were other plastic containers with lids whose contents were also unknown.
• There were lots of coffee pods from hotels and whatnot that were old.
• My tea-loving husband Dave kept buying more tea, not realizing we already had plenty.
• Too many travel mugs, most of which were not used because they leaked or maybe they were too hard to clean.  I have had travel-mug-avalanches more than once.  

Bottom line  ::  there was too much in there.  And, in my minimalist opinion, no one really needs more than three small shelves for coffee and tea items . Eh? Okay, if you host frequent teas, I'll allow it.

The best way to organize a pit like that is to take every single item out, wipe down the shelves and then assess the inventory.  Since there was so much tea, I decided to divide it up into three categories  ::  keep, donate, send to work with Dave.  

This was placed on top of Dave's keys and wallet that evening for him to take to work the next day  ::

Think that was clear?

The donate pile included at least one sealed box of cold brew tea, and many packages of herbal and black tea that our local food pantry will be glad to give out for us.  The keep teas and coffees now neatly fit into two plastic containers.  Here's all the tea trash.  Yep, all this was in that little cabinet  :: 

I then reloaded everything into the cabinet, as well as moved over our white coffee mugs to be easier to access when it is brew time.  There are several things that need to be just used up and probably not replaced, such as Korean teas (brought home from a business trip), a couple of half-used bags of coffee beans from Ethiopia (thanks to Dave's Ethiopian colleague and a friend of mine from high school who now brews his own coffee), and some instant tea.  I am not sure why we even own instant tea.  I suspect it was purchased by my in-laws during a visit.  I'll have to be sure to serve it to them at every meal when they come see us next week so I can use it up.  :)  Anyone else get twisted pleasure from having some weird competition with yourself to use stuff up?  I do that with vitamins and skin products.  Seriously, stuff that I have no intention of replacing because I didn't love it enough or whathaveyou, but there is enough value in them to not want to throw them out.  Sick.

Here is the now-tidy coffee and tea cabinet  ::

And, finally, my very favorite shelf  ::

 A few notes  ::

• See the little silver wire shelf above the coffee mugs? I love those things.  This one was perfect for adding a small, very visible area for filters and a few packages of Via coffee for mornings that are short on time.
• I downsized to only two travel mugs, the ones we use all the time.  They are both LL Bean insulated containers, fyi, and they are great.  
• The biggest thing here is now everything can be seen.  Which means the tea collection will be used and enjoyed, instead of getting old and stale.