organization series: pantry.

Welcome to the last post in this series! And just in the nick of time as August starts tomorrow – can you believe it?! I’m still trying to rack my brain for an August series, so if any of you have ideas feel free to shoot them my way?

The ‘Before’

Let’s talk about the “BEFORE” of this pantry. I was so excited to start on this project that I completely forgot to take a photo until I was literally almost done??‍??‍ So, I apologize about that!! But just trust me that it was bad.. like.. really, really bad. There were containers with really old (we’re talking pre-move old.. I know because they still had tape on them from when I was packing them up and didn’t want them to spill?) and just mess everywhere. The bottom part of the pantry was littered with 1,000 cake mix boxes (from the cakes and breads I never made last Christmas) and on top of that were piles of stale chip, popcorn and veggie stick bags. The shelves had no system to them and hadn’t been purged in months. So, I know I forgot a photo, but hopefully that paints a slight picture for you!

The process

Alright, so the first thing I did for this project was plan what I wanted the pantry to look like in the end. I was so pleased with the way our linen closet turned out that I decided I would go for a similar look with the hyacinth baskets. This time, TJ Maxx and Home Goods didn’t have everything I was looking for, so I added Target to the mix too. I already had the clear acrylic containers and large glass jars (bottom shelf) as well as the black and white wire baskets, so baskets were really the only thing I needed to get.

When we got home from shopping, the first thing I did was take everything out.. yep EVERYTHING. I purged things we no longer needed (or that had passed its expiration date?) and sorted everything by type – breakfast items, canned goods, drinks, snacks, etc. Next, I gave the pantry a good wipe down. I took a magic eraser to the walls and shelves and vacuumed/mopped the pantry floor. Then, it was ready to fill back up.

Filling it back up is totally customizable to taste. It definitely just depends on what you keep in your pantry, what you like to keep together and what you need handy at all times (or want to hide when possible).

What I used baskets for

I used baskets for things like canned goods, vegetables and specialty products. I knew I wanted to keep the canned goods together, but didn’t necessarily want to see them. Since we rarely use them, it’s nothing but a thing to pull out that basket and see what we do/don’t have for the week’s dinners ahead. They’re being kept in the hyacinth basket on the second shelf from the top.

The top shelf basket is currently holding specialty baking products – things I figured were just easier to toss in that basket rather than take up space in an acrylic jar.

The fourth shelf (from the top) basket currently contains potatoes. I thought it would be a good place to keep vegetables that either don’t fit on my tiered tray on the counter or veggies I don’t necessarily want to display.

The big basket on the floor is being used to hold an assortment of bagged goodies – so chips, Garrett’s big bag of protein powder, pretzels, etc. These things used to just get shoved in and around the pantry wherever they’d fit and I love having a designated basket where we can go to look for them now.

The black stacking baskets on the floor are currently for more snacks and then pasta boxes. Ideally, I’d be able to fit all our pasta in a clear container, but I just stocked up on some things so, for now, boxes it is. I added these white wire baskets back in, which just attach to the existing shelf, to catch random things. One is holding G’s water bottles that he uses every morning, an extra box of Cheerios and the tortillas we’re using for dinners this week. The great thing about these is that I can easily take them out if we don’t need them for a while, yet they can add some extra space when needed.

My favorite part

Perhaps the part of this new and improved pantry of ours that excites me the most are these simple clear can holders. We had them before, but were using them to hold canned goods. That would have been fine but we don’t keep a ton of canned goods in stock at all times, plus the things we do buy are scattered – there wasn’t more than two types of canned good, so having them rolled up in those containers made it hard to see what we did and didn’t have – make sense?

So, using them to store our seltzer waters made MUCH more sense. Plus, if you’ve seen my Instagram Stories, you may have peeped the seltzer and soda boxes just laying haphazardly on the kitchen floor? I’m so glad to have those gone! Besides, having our waters in a clear bin like this makes it so much easier to know when we’re running low – rather than having to reach our hand in that box and having it be a toss up whether or not there would be enough to restock the fridge!

Clear containers

We’ve had our collection of clear acrylic containers for some time now and I love them. As with our water cans, it makes life so much easier to be able to see when you’re low on something or when you can go another week without a refill. My tip for these is use them for things you like to always have on hand. That way you’re not constantly having to wash and switch things out.

Spices and condiments

Installing this wire rack on our pantry door was by far the best space-saving things I did for our pantry. It holds mainly spices, condiments and sauces and it just makes everything so easy to find! This is the one we use. It’s really simple to put together, easily adjustable and holds so much!

Alright, friends I didn’t think I’d have so much to say about our pantry, but this post is getting pretty long so I guess I did lol! Hope you found this post useful. As always, feel free to reach out with questions or comments!

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