Pantry Organization 2013

When we moved into this house, the number one selling point for me was the kitchen. It's large, has a big island and most importantly (for me!) a HUGE walk in pantry. Since our house was a foreclosure, the wire shelving that had been installed was taken down and removed by the previous owners.

This wasn't a problem though since we had plenty of moveable shelving to move in, so I chose to use that rather than buying more wire shelving. But after living here for over a year, our pantry started to get, well...more lived in. I tried my best to keep it organized, but only I knew what certain things were, and I was the only person who put things back in the places I'd assigned for them. So after scouring Pinterest, I found some amazing pantries that became my inspiration, and decided to work on creating a more organized and effective space.

First, I feel it's only fair to show you the state of our pantry before the clean/purge and organization:

As you open the door...I'd made an attempt with some glass containers I'd picked up from Target and Ikea in the past, but things quickly got out of control...

 This is as you look to the left...it basically had become a dumping ground for extra bags, cat food bags, and just anything else that could be there.

Another look at the shelving area and hodge podge of food, containers, extra paper plates and napkins and utensils from past birthday parties, wine, protein powder and more!

I knew that I needed some more containers to manage all of the food in the specific areas I wanted. I also wanted to label the containers I had and the new containers to hopefully help keep things in check. So I made a trip to Target, where I picked up containers and labels. Since I knew I had a lot of things that would still be in boxes (i.e. mixes, etc. that I couldn't take out of boxes), I wanted something to corral all of these, so I chose smaller boxes that had lids (although I wasn't going to use the lids) since it was cheaper to buy these as opposed to the same size boxes specifically for pantries.

I also picked up some cute labels that I could run through the printer while I was there. Once I had made the labels, I managed to clean out the pantry by shelf, so as not to overwhelm myself. Plus, I had my two little ones running around while I was doing this, so I didn't want to create too large of a mess while they were out.

I also took some of the boxes I had (salt, baking soda, etc.) and put them into glass jars I had and labeled them:

The whole pantry organization took me about an hour. It was basically just grouping like items and placing them in bins and labeling the bins. Santi sat and watched Little Einsteins while Gaby crawled around me. Once it was done, I love the look. It's organized, I know where things are, but it's not going to be hard to maintain. We're also low on food (grocery shopping is on Friday), so this was a perfect time to do this project since it meant less to pull out, and there's still plenty of space for the new food when I get it.

So here's the finished product:

These shelves hold a lot of the kids snacks, and they're at their height so they can go in and grab something that they'd like (and they often do!)

Extra utensils, paper plates and napkins from our past birthday parties finally have a home!

Thanks for stopping by! Hopefully this has inspired you to do some organizing in your home. And if I can do it with two toddlers running around under foot, then you can do it!