BEFORE
How To Create The Perfectly Organized Pantry
BEFORE
Showing you the “before” photo of our pantry allows you to see just what I mean when I say it was a disaster haha! Although there was some attempt at baskets, none matched nor were organized with intention. It was difficult to see what we had in our pantry and led to me not enjoying baking (nor cooking really) because I couldn’t find things I needed. So, I knew that everything had to be taken out first!
As you can see, I completely emptied the pantry, nothing remained. It already felt better haha! As I emptied the pantry, I created piles that were like items (and yes, I found things I didn’t know we had!). Here are some of the piles I created:
- Snacks
- Baking items
- Rice
- Pasta
- Candies
- Condiments
- Canned goods
- Powder drink mixes and water bottles
- Coolers
- Protein bars and powder
- Perishables
- Paper towels
Now that I had my sorted piles, it was time to have fun! I received so many amazing containers from “The Container Store” and I knew that they were going to bring me the look and functionality I had been hoping for! I began placing these pieces in the pantry with a purpose.
With four children, foods they enjoy need to be on the lower shelves and not breakable.
As you can see, I used these plastic , multi-purpose bins found here , these OXO Good Grips 3.4 qt. POP Cereal Dispensers found here , and this amazing OXO Good Grips 10-Piece POP Canister Set found here .
For things like bread, produce and water bottles, I loved having these open wooden handle baskets found here . On the higher shelves, I placed the glass pieces that held food my husband or I access to cook meals and bake.These glass canisters with glass lids make my heart happy; I’ve always loved things like flour, rice, grits poured into canisters where you can see these things! And although these beautiful glass canisters with oak lids are breakable, with the smaller size that they are, I felt comfortable keeping these on a middle shelf so that they too can be of help when gathering baking items and other items that we keep less of on a regular basis.
Breakfast items such as oatmeal and pancake mix found homes in the glass canisters, as well as our cereal in the OXO Good Grips 4.5 qt. POP Cereal Dispensers found here . And last but not least, you can see while we do have some canned goods, that is not something we have a lot of, so I decided to use a Lazy Susan as our canned good storage so I could easily see what we had on hand. This 2-tier bamboo one is the perfect texture to have with the large glass canisters and adjacent oak lid containers.
The “after” left our whole family smiling and saying “WOW”! In fact, instead of keeping the pantry door closed, we didn’t mind it staying open anymore. “The Container Store” pieces met our needs as a family of six: maximum functionality, organized, and an overall clean and pretty look. We added some chalkboard labels to the pieces for reminders of what food items go where when my children help unload the groceries into the pantry. It’s so nice to not have all the bulky boxes and paper bins foods come in, but rather empty them into containers that keep them fresh and giving this streamline look.
Are you inspired to create a perfectly organized pantry? With the right pieces like these from “The Container Store,” you can easily experience this kind of transformation in 1/2 days work!
Tip? Get your children involved! Mine helped me do each of these steps we completed the project in under four hours. I hope you walk away inspired to tackle this in your own home.