Hello friends! Thank you for joining me today and to my new friends that are here for the first time..WELCOME! I am so excited that you came by. Always love spending my day with you!
This time of the year I go on a rampage cleaning and organizing and of course this year’s no different! If you are like me and do the same, maybe my post today will give you some tips and inspirations.
Today’s blog I will be sharing how I organized our pantry. Now that the holidays has past and the decorations are put away I need to focus on organizing the house. Our pantry was hit hard. It looks like the aftermath of a raid! Seriously! I hate to show you our pantry the way it is, showing you is going to feel like ripping a band-aid off of my skin, but here it is….. our pantry today!
Do I hear gasping sounds coming from you? Well….I don’t blame you. Our pantry got way out of hand over the holidays. I was so busy with decorating our home, hosting parties and shopping for Christmas gifts that I just didn’t focus much on deep cleaning. I kept putting off straightening the pantry and just shutting the doors thinking it would go away. But the day has come! Reviving my pantry!
Now let’s get started!
First thing I did was I took a look in our pantry and decide what I wanted to change up and what I could get rid of. I had my pantry organized in groups already so I was one step ahead. I think placing things in a group is easier for my husband and I to find and put things away. Example: Cooking items; oils, cooking spray etc. or breakfast items; oatmeal, breakfast bars, pancake mix etc. .
Although, the red plastic baskets from The Dollar Tree worked fine for us I spotted wire baskets while shopping in TjMaxx on clearance. I picked out the sizes I needed to replace the plastic baskets. I like the look of the wire baskets with the linen lining. I purchased all 5 wire baskets that they had on clearance. I found some other similar baskets that were reasonably priced. I spent around $60 for all the baskets that day. I know that seems a little steep when I already had the red plastic baskets. I just like the look and the sturdiness of the wire baskets.
TIP: Before shopping take a walk around your home and find things that you might have already. Tupperware containers, baskets, shoe boxes (you can decorate with twine) or anything that you think would work in your pantry. I saw this idea with a cardboard box that I thought I would share with you. This would be functional and will look stylish at the same time!
Here are my baskets that I will be using in my pantry organization along with some other things I have around our house (including some of the red baskets from The Dollar Tree).
I knew I was going to stay with the Mason jars (I use the Ball jars with the wide mouth – both; half gallon and pint size jars). I purchased the Mason jars at Wal-mart last year.
I spray painted the lids bronze to match the baskets. I didn’t want to spray paint the sealed part of the lid so I took some scrap paper and cut a circle and hot glued it on the lid.
I changed out the labels with a printed one. I purchased printable clear shipping labels at Office Depot and printed off the words from my computer. When I purchased the label sheets it stated clear but the sheets were not at all clear. Not too happy with how they look but for now they will have to do until I can find a better label.
For the baskets I took mini picture frames, if you have followed me you would know that I use these little mini frames in some of my tablescapes and food labeling. The frames I purchase at The Dollar Tree. I removed all the glass and backing out of the frame and spray painted them bronze also. I made the back part of the frame as a little clip to place on the basket edge.
Now that I got the baskets, lids painted and the labels made, I need to take EVERYTHING out of the pantry.
TIP: The best way to organize anything is to start with an empty space. Don’t try to skip this step. You will get a better result by clearing everything out and starting fresh.
While everything was out of our pantry I noticed the walls and the feather technique, the walls haven’t been touched since we built our home back in 1998. WHAT?! Since everything was out of the pantry I grabbed my paint and paint brush and gave the walls a much needed painting. Since I was painting I figured I would paint the shelves also.
Didn’t it make a huge difference? So crisp and clean!
I went through the food and tossed away the out-of-date items. I placed all the food together in sections. This helped me figure out what container to use for that grouping.
I had my husband cut a piece of board for the Mason jars so the back row will sit higher than the front row. Very easy. He just cut the piece to size.
After he cut my board I had him go buy me some white contact paper for the shelves. He came home with a tan marble color! He thought it would look good because it would match the flooring and wall paint….he made me chuckle, he thinks he is a designer. I patted him on the head and sent him into the other room to watch football.
I added contact paper to each shelf and wrapped the board to have it blend in with the shelf.
He purchased the contact paper from The Dollar Tree. It was very thin and snags easily. I think using a better quality contact paper would had been a better choice. But for $7 it works.
Here is the board my husband cut for me after I wrapped it with the same contact paper as the shelf.
I took the containers and arrange them in the pantry. I moved them around to see where I wanted them to be.
TIP: When trying to figure out how you want your baskets, move them around while the baskets are empty. They are easier to move around that way.
Once I figured where I wanted them to be placed I started loading the baskets with food.
Just picture me doing a dance while saying this…..Here is our pantry after it has been cleaned, painted and organized.
I feel so much better now. I am a much happier person when my house is back in order and organized. Still have a ways to go. I am getting there!
Let me show you how I organized each shelf.
The top shelf: I placed things that I don’t use on a daily basis.
Our extra paper towels, napkins, my beverage server, Glad containers (I keep in case I need to make a dish for a sick friend), my paper utensil holder and a 2 cup coffee maker (I don’t remember why we are hanging onto the coffee maker, but we do so I store it up on the top shelf).
Second shelf:
I store extra items in the very back in some of those red Dollar Tree baskets.
On one side are my cooking oils and vinegar. In front of that I put some package creamers in a small mason jar and tootsie roll pops in a glass lid container.
On the other side I have a sauce basket (ketchup, BBQ sauce and marinades). I took a glass flower vase I had laying around and thought that would work to hold all of my straws in. I have our sweeteners and crystal light singles in clear lid containers I purchased from the Dollar Tree. I didn’t label those since you can tell what’s inside. Behind the containers I have a wooden tray to hold all of my extra foil, storage bags and saran wrap.
On the third shelf:
This is where I placed all of the labeled Mason Jars and all of our cereals.
I found these little containers with a 1 cup scoop at TjMaxx for $3.99 each. Perfect for our cereal.
I removed the convection oven. We don’t use it now that our oven has one built in.
I love my Mason jars with the bronze lids.
The fourth shelf:
I have our can foods, peanut butter, popcorn, jell-o pudding and all of my seasoning mixes.
We love our popcorn! I take the packages out of the box and place them in the basket. To me it’s a cleaner look than the boxes tucked inside.
I do make a lot of diet friendly desserts with jello and pudding. All sugar free of course!
I placed a basket in the back corner to hold all of our seasoning packages. It looks better to me neatly in a basket instead just stacked up on the shelf or in a cabinet.
The last shelf is our favorite shelf.
I have all of our snacks on this shelf. Well…..of course it would be our favorite!
I purchased this larger basket to place all of our chips and box snacks in.
In the center I have 5 baskets.
- the very back left side basket is full of fruit chew snacks.
- the very back right side basket is full of breakfast items; syrup and instant oatmeal.
- the three front baskets has snack bars and poptarts in them.
On the other side I have a basket of cough drops, mints and a basket for crackers.
On the floor:
I placed my large cooking appliances, large storage containers and a basket to place all of the phone books and our address book in.
Having all of our directories and phone books in the basket in stead of a drawer works best for us. I also keep our address book in the basket. It keeps them neatly stored and looks a lot better than thrown on the floor like we had them before.
I removed the appliances out of their boxes. This gave me more room.
On the side I placed a hook to hold my aprons.
I placed hooks to both inside of the pantry doors. One I added our calendar.
On the other door I placed three wire racks to hold my lids. Above that I placed our grilling basket.
For giggles here is a side by side view of the BEFORE & AFTER. What do you think? I think just painting the pantry made a huge difference. I love how organized and clean it is now.
Did I inspire you on organizing your pantry or food cabinets? I hope I gave you some tips and some ideas on things you would like to do. I am on the hunt for a cute label idea. If you have a cute idea please share I would love to see what you have in mind.
This is how I organized our pantry because it works best for us. You should always organize your pantry that works best for you and your family. Sometimes things don’t work how they are… remember you can change it up until it works!
I also organized my spice cabinet while I was in the mood. I love how easy it is to grab my spices now. I had this expandable shelf organizer for years and it works perfectly!
I want to share one other thing with you before I sign off. If you have never used Tastefully Simple seasonings you are missing out. They have the best seasonings in my opinion. If you want to check out their site you can go HERE. Go check it out. The consultant is Amanda Pfieffer. You can order their product and it will be delivered right to your door step. The Ultimate Steak Seasoning.…Oh so good! I have several of their seasoning. We can tell when I use the seasoning or when I use one that I bought at a grocery store.
Below are some photos I found on Pinterest of organized food cabinets. I thought for those of you that don’t have a pantry would want to see how you can organize your cabinets.
Thank you for joining me today on my pantry organization. I hope you will come back and visit me on my next blog. I would love for you to subscribe to my blog, all you would need to do is enter your name and email and click subscribe. You will then start receiving emails letting you know that I have posted a new post! So easy! Tell a friend about my blog. I would love to have your friend as my friend too!
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Stay Strong and Stay Blessed!
Terrie
Decorating our home on a budget is my thrill. I think a home can look beautiful without breaking the bank. Your home should bring the best out of you and make you feel happy. You should smile every time you enter your home. 🙂