Organize your Pantry

There are lots of great places on the internet on how to organize your pantry.  I found great ideas everywhere, including pinterest.  First of all, what is a pantry?  Wikipedia says: A pantry is a room where food, provisions, dishes, or linens are stored and served in an ancillary capacity to the kitchen.  But, I don't have a room designated for a pantry.  Do you?  You don't have to, any area that you can store away food and staple items can be considered a pantry.

For My Pantry:

I have a 6'x8'x2' closet in my kitchen that the previous owners had already prepared with shelves and sliding doors - perfect. For the first two years I simply would unload my groceries onto the shelves. After looking on pinterest, I discovered the pantry could be more useful, organized and a lot more appealing to the eyes.  So I had some work to do.  I didn't think to take a before picture, but these are the after pictures.  Trust me, much better!

Left side - Cereals, baking supplies, baskets of breads and chips.

 

 

Right Side:  Dry goods for cooking, canned items, spice packets and misc.

 

 



My first step was making a search around my house and digging through unpacked boxes in our garage.  I love to shop at yard sales and Goodwill and had stocked up on Mason, Ball and Kerr jars. For larger glass jars, Wal-mart had a great selection.  I used blue painters tape to mark off squares on the jars and painted 4 coats of chalkboard paint (I prefer to brush it on).  After 24 hours of curing time, I was able to chalk in the names of items to store:  Flour, Sugar, Stevia, Brown Sugar, Rice, Beans, Quinoa, Steel Cut Oats, etc....

Secondly, I needed to find some baskets or boxes for some of the bagged items I didn't want to store in jars, like chips, pretzels and cookies.

Now for the cans.  I organized them buy fruits, veggies, soups, etc....but I felt I could better see them if they were raised on shelves.  I found several at Wal-mart reasonably priced.

Larger items, like the dogs' food, I stored in large upright containers on the floor. My dining room tables leaves (there are eight of them) are on the floor, as well as boxed toys for when small children visit.


Now I can easily locate all of my items from oatmeal to tomato soup to dog food.
 

Steps to Make Your Own Pantry Space:

Locate your ideal space: in your kitchen, a closet, the basement, hallway, garage, anywhere you have extra room.  Build shelves if needed so you can take advantage of verticle space. 

Shop around your house first before buying items like jars, boxes and baskets.  Consider recycling food packages like creamer bottles to hold small snacks or plastic deli meat containers to hold spice packets.

Put snacks for the kids on lower shelves (if you want them to reach them on their own).  Heavy items like large canned items at arm level so you won't have to bend to reach them, or drop them from a high space.  Items you don't use often, store up high.

Please feel free to share your pictures and comments.  Good Luck!  Kerri