Today I’m going to share how I took my pantry from disaster zone to functional. I’m sharing all of my favourite products, what I did wrong, what I did right and the changes I plan to make in the future.
When we were looking for our house we saw a lot of beautiful homes with great kitchens without pantries. You know those beautiful walk in pantries from Pinterest? Well pretty quickly I realized we would not have one of those. So when we looked at our house and realized we would have a small closet for a pantry I was trilled! Our old pantry was a deep pot drawer, so the upgrade was exciting.
Once we started using the pantry I realized it was a bit of an organizational disaster. The closet is pretty deep and our builder only put in three wire shelves. It really wasn’t functioning and was frustrating to go into. I knew I needed to figure out a solution.
The Plan
This pantry needed to function, look clean and take minimal time and effort to complete. In a dream world I would rip out the wire shelving and build out custom shelves, but that was out of the scope. Here was the plan.
- Relocate supplements, teas, coffee and small appliances
- Decant regular pantry staple such as flours and rice into air tight containers (no BUGS!)
- Corral small items and packages into baskets
- Wire baskets for potatoes and other root vegetables
- A storage solution for plastic bags
So once I figured out what types of products I needed I got onto my computer and ordered sooo much stuff!! My biggest piece of advice is to buy way more then you think you need and then return! This will save you so much time running back and forth from the store. I ordered everything online from Amazon or Bed Bath and Beyond.
The Process
The first thing I did is pull all of the food out of the pantry. I went through everything. I categorized the items as follows.
- Toss (expired or stale food)
- Donate (items that are still good, but we won’t eat)
- Relocate (items that don’t belong in the pantry)
- Keep (all the food that’s staying in the pantry)
Once I had categorized the food I gave the pantry a quick wipe down and vacuum. This is when the fun starts! I placed the empty containers and baskets in the pantry and mentally laid out what food would got where. I decided on the following zones.
- Top Shelf: treats, snacks and back stock
- Middle Shelf: canned/jarred items, seasonings/”meal items”, grains and pastas
- Bottom Shelf: Breakfast/Baking items (nuts, dried fruit etc), flours, oats and sugar, small baking items (leavers, vanilla and cupcake liners)
- Floor: Root vegetables and bag storage
It took a few tries and moving things around before I settled on this layout. I decanted my flours and grains and put everything in baskets! I was super happy with how much more functional and cleaner looking it is.
Tips
- Keep a list of food you’re out of but normally need storage for when completing this. Then you won’t forget to Mae room or buy a container for it
- Write dates or cook time on containers with a chalk pen. This is such a lifesaver when ditching the boxes or directions for food.
- Label baskets and containers so that the rest of your family can find items and put things back in the right place. This helps tremendously to keep the pantry organized.
Results
Over all I’m very happy with how this worked out. I actually completed this project in October but wanted to wait until I lived with this system before sharing. I do have a few tips and regrets to share.
Let’s start with the good. I love these OXO Pop containers! They were not cheap, but I think they were worth it. Not only do they look great but they’re air tight and stack really nicely. This was great over the holidays when I had more food or unique items in the house because I could stack the bins to create extra space. I also love the baskets I chose. These were a good price and wipe up nicely. I also love that I have tall baskets to hide the mess or Costco sized snacks and low ones in my cooking section. The low ones are great for knowing exactly what I have when making dinner.
The one thing I did wrong with this is picking containers that were too small. The containers I bought for pasta and brown sugar were way too small. Initially I thought they would work but once I bought full boxes and bags of food to restock I realized they couldn’t fit standard sized products. So I’ll be upgrading to larger bins as needed and repurposing the small ones for dried fruit and nuts.
Also I really didn’t need to two wire baskets for potatoes and onions, one totally suffices. I plan to repurpose the second basket elsewhere in our house and get another plastic basket for heavy back stock.
As our needs change over the years I foresee some modifications to this pantry set up. At some point we are going to need to change the shelving. I’d love to upgrade to solid wood or MDF shelves and add one or two more shelves. This would allow us to store more food. I see a need for extra room for cans, baskets and bigger bins of dry food. I would also like to relocate the plastic bag storage to else where in the house so that that bin can be filled with even more food!
I hope if your pantry is giving you trouble that my experience helped you and makes this project way less daunting! I’m so happy with the results!
Danielle xo