Every January, I get in the mood to de-clutter, re-organize, and re-configure spaces in our home that aren't quiet well functioning for us. One of the big projects I wanted to re-organize was our kitchen pantry.
Here's a bit of the before.
We have hooks hanging on the door for lunchboxes, but we aren't using lunch boxes this year, and somehow we accumulated extra bags. The floor of the pantry started to become over crowded, as did the top of the pantry.
I had things on the shelf rather than in the bins, and that was driving me insane, because it didn't feel like anything had a "home."
The baking section (on the top) was a mess after all of our Christmas baking.
So, I took everything out, except the air fryer.
Then I cleaned all of the shelves and wiped everything down so it would be fresh and clean.
I slowly started to add things back in. I started with the baking section, and refilled our flour and sugar canisters. Then I placed, cooking spray, and oil, oats, vanilla, and finally contained smaller bags of baking supplies in a clear box.
The next shelf holds dinner staples- pasta, chicken broth, mac & cheese, etc.
The box next to it holds our "mexican" pantry staples such as rotel and enchilada sauce.
Below it, we have breakfast boxes.... cereal, cereal bars, pancake mix, granola, peanut butter, syrup, etc.
Next to the breakfast, I have two bins for snacks. I keep snacks at eye level for the girls, so when they want a snack, it's really easy to reach in, and make a quick choice because they can see everything.
Now, on the floor, we only have trash bags, dog food, my oil box, and a big box of extra snacks. (I need to find a cute basket, but we have a chip box we've used for the last year or so.)
The after is so much better than what we started with and I'm less stressed when I open the pantry door!
1. Take everything out so you can see the space you're working with
2. Clean the shelves, and any bins that you use.
3. Refill canisters, throw away anything expired.
4. Use bins to store and organize. I use clear, plastic bins and have some large, and some small (think shoe box size). I store the lids under each box. I use the bins with lids, because when we go on a road trip in the car, or need to put snacks in the camper, I can quickly grab the snack bin, chips, breakfast, etc. put the lid on, and put it in the car, so we have snacks on the go. Also, because we've moved so much, it makes packing the pantry a breeze. We just put the lids on the boxes, pack, and move.
5. Categorize your boxes and areas. I have all of my baking supplies together, then a box of chips, a box of dinner basics, a box of canned soups, a box for extra baking supplies we don't use often (like sprinkles and baking cups).
6. Use wall space. I have command hooks that hold our broom, mop, aprons, and dust pan. Then we have command hooks on the door for lunchboxes.
7. Buy what you need. I don't keep a ton of excess around because we don't have the space for it. Our last pantry was larger than the one we currently have, so I just don't buy a ton of extra cans, etc.
8. Keep snacks at eye level for kids. I do have a large box on the floor of the pantry for extra snacks (because we buy in bulk at Costco) but I only put out a few snacks at a time and when they're gone, I refill the snack bins.
9. The top shelf holds things that we don't use often- decorative platters, vases, and our air fryer. Don't forget to use spaces above the fridge or microwave- you know- those smaller cabinets that are hard to reach- for storage. I ended up moving things out of the pantry and into the smaller cabinets that we weren't using so we would have extra room.
Now that our pantry is organized, it's easy to find exactly what we need and put things back exactly where they go!
How is Bailey??
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