Pantry Organization

I don’t know if it’s the 30th week of pregnancy nesting or watching every single episode of The Home Edit over the last couple weeks (probably a combination of both) but no closet or space in my house is safe.  I am getting rid of so much and organizing as much as possible.  I shared my pantry organization on Instagram last week and y’all voted you wanted me to write up a blog post about it, so I’m going to be sharing more details here!

The Pantry: Before Organization

Okay, please do not judge me for that picture.  It didn’t always look like that, but wow did it really get out of hand. Yikes.  It was starting to give me *major* anxiety to go in there and try to find something.  I knew it would be a project to organize, but it simply had to be done…I could no longer live that way, lol!

First: Take it All Out

I went about organizing it by first taking everything out.  I took out every single thing on the shelves, minus the very bottom stuff on the floor. There’s just some big heavy stuff that doesn’t really have anywhere else to go at the moment, like a big case of wine and our stash of emergency waters, so that mostly stayed.  But I learned from The Home Edit that the first step is to take everything out, so that’s what I did.  The rest of my kitchen looked like quite the disaster during this process, as I’m sure you can imagine!

Second: Throw Things Away

I did this by throwing out expired items and anything else we weren’t going to ever use.  We also just had a ton of cardboard boxes that were empty that I needed to break down to recycle.  Everything (mostly) was taken out of it’s original packaging so all of that stuff was thrown out/recycled.

Third: Categorize

Next up is to attempt to categorize everything before putting it back in.  I had bought several different storage bins and other pantry organization items that I was going to use (everything linked below), so I just needed to figure out what was going where and with what.  Here’s the categories I ended up with:

• Spices – used the expandable rack so they’re all easy to see and find
• Bread – didn’t put this into a container but it has a dedicated “space”
• Pasta – put all the different boxes of pasta we have into a container
• Miscellaneous or Individual items – I ended up having a variety of things that were kind of one-offs (like individual snack packs of mixed nuts, for example) and so all of those things went into a container together
• Tea – tea got a container of it’s own
• Propel – we love the individual Propel water packets, so I took them all out of the little boxes that they come in and put them in a large Mason jar so it’s easy to grab them and see how many are left.
• Oatmeal – I eat oatmeal every morning so that went into a large clear container
• Things in Packets – I had a lot of things that came in thin packets, like Emergen-C, different seasonings, Salmon & Tuna packets, etc. So I was able to stack those all in a bin together in a way that they fit nicely and I could still see everything.
• Sweets – any thing like chocolate or other candy that we have went into a little bin together
• Baking goods – anything used for baking went into a large bin together.  I don’t bake super frequently, so I put these more off to the side and to the bottom of the pantry since it’s not really a priority item for me
• Things in Bottles – things like oils, vinegars, sauces, etc. lined up next to canned goods.
• Canned Goods – I don’t have a ton of canned goods but I did line them up individually by smaller sub-categories like:
  • Soups
  • Beans
  • Vegetables
• Snacks – split up into various smaller categories:
  • Top Shelf: mostly chips/pretzels/crackers/cookies or anything else that comes in a larger bag or box
  • Middle Shelf: Emma’s snacks – different clear containers for her different snack bars, smoothies, fruit cups
  • Bars – Craig’s CLIF bars got a storage container for themselves and then the various different bars that I eat all went into one.
• I also have a bin at the top that is empty, I can use that for something in the future or I may put coffee in it (we keep that at the coffee bar area) and I also have a bin for random smaller little things like napkins, toothpicks, birthday candles, etc.
• Peanut butter – I almost forgot!  Peanut Butter just has it’s own “place” on the shelf.
• Bottom shelf – paper towels, large water jugs

It makes such a huge difference to take most items OUT of their original packaging and put them into a clear container. It’s easier to see what you have so you don’t overbuy something when you don’t need to (I was doing this!) and it’s a lot easier to find something + it’s nicer to look at.

The Pantry: After Organization

Okay so here’s the after.  The key seems to be to put a “system” in place that you will continue to use, so when everything has a dedicated space, it’s easier to remember to put things back where they go.  I am going to eventually make labels to solidify this but I just haven’t gotten around to that yet!  You can make your own or buy really cute custom ones on Etsy.

Another thing I used that makes a huge difference is these shelf liners!  We have those annoying wire shelves, which makes it difficult to put individual items on a lot of times because they so easily fall through the cracks or don’t sit evenly.  The liners are easy to cut to size and do the trick!

It might not look like much, & may not Home Edit-worthy, but wow the difference FEELS huge. It’s no longer a stress-inducing space. And I am dedicated to keeping it that way!  I hope this helps y’all out in your own pantry organization projects.  Let me know if you have any questions!  I’ve linked the items I used below, they come in various different size options too so you can find what suits your space best.

SHOP THE PANTRY ORGANIZATION:

xo,

Bess