Organize Your Pantry in 5 Steps

I recently helped a friend organize her family's pantry.
We did it in 2 hours and spent less than $25!  Her husband was amazed!  Want to see how we did it?

The problem:  The family has a tight pantry space with adequate shelving, but no order.  The foods are somewhat organized by cans and boxes, but the system is not working. No one in the family can find what they're looking for. Often duplicates are purchased, because they don't know what they have.

BEFORE: (This was actually a pretty clean 'before' to start with.)



STEP 1:  Take everything out of the pantry and place items on the kitchen counters or table.
(This is a great time to give all the shelves a wipe down.)

STEP 2:  Organize the food into categories.
Each family has different categories depending on their favorite meals, how they cook and what they eat most often. Here's some of the categories we made:  baking products, pastas, rice, beans, sauces, soups, jams, pancake fixings, snacks, etc.



This family loves mandarin salad so we made a bin with products to make the salad: mandarin oranges, top ramen, slivered almonds, dressing, etc.
This family has a beautiful outdoor fire pit, so s'mores fixings are a necessity.  We made a bin for all their s'mores items.
They also enjoy Saturday pancake making, so their multiple pancakes mixes and syrups were organized into a bin as well.
*Make bins that make sense to you and your family's eating habits.
(This is a good time to check expiration dates and donate products that you won't use.)





3. PLACE SORTED FOODS IN CLEAR BINS
Clear bins are super nice for everyone in the family to see what's inside.  We used plastic bins from the Dollar Store, but they are a little flimsy. For a stronger option use these Sterilite 6-Quart Storage Boxes.

For foods that are a bit bulky or bigger in size (chips, crackers, etc.), use a larger bin.  We opted for another Dollar Store bin, this time adding a blue color.  For a sturdier option use these Sterilite Large Ultra Baskets.  




4.  LABEL BINS
This does not need to be complicated or crafty, but it does need to be done. Don't skip this step!
 A simple sticky label is all that is needed.  This could be printed out on the computer, but we chose to hand-write the categories using a Sharpie instead.  Quick and easy.

We used Avery Address Ink Jet Labels. 
(These are the exact labels I use to address my Christmas cards every year. They work perfectly on plastic bins. They peel off without leaving a mess.)




5.ORGANIZE BINS IN PANTRY.
Now the fun part, putting everything back.
Put those bins that are used most often in easy reach.
If small kids access the pantry, be sure to consider what they can and can't reach.  Do you want the kids to access their own snacks? Then make sure those bins are placed lower.  If not, put those bins higher.

This family doesn't buy much in bulk, so we didn't deal with bulk storage or many big product containers.  We did leave room at the top of the pantry for bulk item storage if and when needed.

 

Now here's the best part.  I went back over to my friend's house a week later and peeked in their pantry.  It looked fabulous!  The family loved having a designated 'home' for every food product and they all were keeping the space organized on their own.

*Once the system is planned out and labeled, everyone knows where things go...this means an organized pantry that doesn't get out of control.  It really works!
Want to see how I organized my pantry with chalkboard labels?  Click here.










 *This post contains affiliate links through Amazon. All opinions are mine.

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Most Photographed Item in My House- Drinking Glass Storage

Last year we moved to a beautiful new home.  Many friends have visited and toured our place, but THIS is the most photographed item in my house.  No joke!


(I'm thinking I really need to spruce up my place, if THIS is what people take a picture of when they visit?)

It's so simple, yet used everyday.  It's a tray to hold our family's water glasses.  I can't stand washing multiple glasses for each family member because they forgot where they put their glass. I don't know why this bothers me so much, but it does. 

Remember this post from way back when we put them in an iron crate?  It worked OK, but our glasses were really too big to fit in the small openings, and we needed one more opening.

 (I'm actually still on a hunt for a 4 compartment vintage crate with a handle.)

I found this Pier 1, ceramic, 4 compartment tray at a thrift store years ago.  I've used it for displaying snacks, but one day I decided it was perfect for our glasses.

Using a dry erase marker, I wrote the name of each family member in the corner of each compartment. 

(You could use a Sharpie if you wanted a more permanent solution.)

After drinking out of a glass, each family member has a home for their specific glass.  The tray sits on our counter by the sink.

When someone decides their glass needs to be washed, they place it in the dishwasher.  Then, they get a clean glass to put in their compartment.  (I do live with a husband and 2 teenagers, so most of the time, I decide when their glass needs to be cleaned.)

This works so well for our family, that we've been doing this for years, now.  I love how clean it looks on our counter.

One of my friends wanted a tray with 3 compartments for her family.  I found this sauce dish at the thrift store that was perfect. I especially love the handle to transport all the glasses to the table!

Of course I fancied it up with a little ribbon, tag and tissue paper. Wouldn't this make a cute housewarming gift?




Here's some dishes I found online that are very similar to mine.  Check them out. *These are affiliate links to help you locate products.
White Melamine 4 Section Compartment Tray 
 
 Red 4 Section Compartment Tray.



Look at this fun dish I found in white or in green:  
 Joseph Joseph Triple Dish Set, Stone and White


   
Joseph Joseph Triple Dish Set, White and Green











Here's some printable housewarming gift tags for you:  Click here.




 *This post contains affiliate links to help you find the products I mentioned. All opinions are 100% mine. No product was given to me.

Linking up to:  MadebyYouMonday,

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Organizing a Pantry with Chalkboard labels

So we moved.  Click here if you missed that craziness.

The pantry in our new home was one of those 'pull your hair out' type spaces!  It was an average size, but laid out terribly!  The shelves were deep and wide, but there weren't very many!  We spent the first few weeks in this house digging through bins and shelves trying to find things, but most of the stuff just stayed on the floor.  (So glad I didn't get a picture of that!)

   
Before                                      After


To use the space more effectively, we decided to double up the shelf space.  AH (Awesome Husband) cut white laminate shelves to fit.  My DAD (Do Anything Dad) showed me how to iron on laminate edging. (That iron on edging is pretty spiffy!)  Now, I had shelves I could work with!

The first thing I did was organize my food items into categories, then, I divided my space into sections based on those categories.  I needed a fool-proof system that would work for my whole family.
(I didn't want to be the only one cooking or putting groceries away!)
Using plastic bins I already owned I loaded up my multiple food items and started arranging. (I forced myself to NOT go out and buy rustic baskets...maybe someday?)

    

I had quite a few old, white Sterlite bins lying around, so I used them all and added chalkboard tags with twine.  I found the tags at Michaels.  Small items that I had multiples of, went in the white bins. 

Things like drink mixes, jello, cocoa, spice packets, popcorn, Top Ramen and even dark chocolate!  I'm sure you have a dark chocolate bin in your home, don't you? What?  You don't?  Well, you're missing out...on a few hundred calories, that is!

My pantry is always changing.  New foods come in, old foods get eaten, products change, recipes change, new eating patterns emerge depending on the season...hopefully healthier habits as the season changes.
That's the beauty of a 'chalkboard' pantry.  All labels can be wiped clean and re-labeled when needed.  Got to love the flexibility of that!

I quickly ran out of white bins, so I used some leftover blue IKEA bins that I had.  Cookie cutters and sprinkles needed their own bin, so did some of the snacks for the kid's lunches! 

 

I also labeled the laminate shelves. 


This was easy to do using  Self-Adhesive Chalkboard Liner. 
You can cut the vinyl into any sized shape you need.  
















I used this Chalk Ink Marker to write on the tags.
  


The majority of my food items are for baking. (Apparently, I would much rather make brownies, cakes and sugar cookies, than dinner?!  All with dark chocolate of course.)

Storage of bulk items:
Because of the high ceilings, I can go as tall as I can reach on my handy step ladder. Costco size boxes of dry cereal and fondue pots are being housed here currently.
Storage of crockpots on the bottom.

Health Supplies:

One important item we keep in our pantry is throat lozenges.  I keep cough drops and Airborne drink mixes in a container labeled health.  This allows any member of the family who has a sore throat, to take a few cough drops with them throughout the day. 

Meal Planning:

On the side wall of the pantry, I hung our chalkboard frame.  It's the perfect spot to write our meals for the week.  This not only helps me with the planning, but allows the kids to know ahead of time what dinner will be. (You know, so they can decide to eat at a friend's home because we're having something repulsive? That doesn't happen at your house, does it?)

So there you have it...Our Organized Pantry. 

Now, about those rustic baskets I've been dreaming about... like these Storage Baskets and these Lined Baskets and these Locker Style Storage Baskets.  A girl can dream, right?

Linking up to: BloomLovelyLittleLinkParty, ReasonstoSkiptheHousework,

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