The chaotic mess I had been calling my pantry has been haunting me since moving into our home. Every time I opened its door I stared at an unorganized disaster making this Type A girl shudder in horror. Even with the door closed, every time I walked by I could almost hear the destruction. Yes, I know I sound crazy, but I like my world neat and ordered. Well cue the harps of the seraphim because I finally reorganized my pantry this week. I now open its doors and breathe easy 🙂
Before
After
I started by emptying everything out and throwing away what was expired (it was shocking how much food hidden in there was past the use-by date). Then I drafted out a plan according to the remaining items I had in front of me. I decided to use these Water Hyacinth bins from The Container Store to aid in my organization. I dedicated one bin for Italian staples and another for Mexican staples since we have tacos one night a week (it’s Brian’s favorite food), and our go-to quick signature dinner is spaghetti with clam sauce. Now I always know if everything we need for these dishes is in our pantry.
I also dedicated another bin to miscellaneous snacks. It’s rare that we have any snacks in our house, but I now have a place to stuff the random bag of popcorn that came home with me from the grocery store because it was supposed to taste like “jerk chicken” (true story). I also devoted a bin to just garlic and onions because they are ingredients in most of our dinner recipes, and I wanted to make sure to always keep them stocked.
Brown rice, rice noodles, corn meal, couscous and quinoa are staples we always keep in the pantry; so I organized and labeled them in these plastic canisters. I can’t tell you how many times I have wasted money buying some of these ingredients that I didn’t actually need just because they were hiding behind some other item.
Could I have any more vinegars and oils?
I also picked up these canisters for pasta storage. It was frustrating to find so many half-full boxes of pasta in the back of the closet, and I was getting sick of over-buying pasta I didn’t need. Now I can always make sure we have a full supply.
These smaller plastic canisters and large glass canisters are perfect for holding all my dry baking goods, and now it’s all so easily accessible.
It feels so good to have finally tackled this project. It makes me happy when things are neat, clean and organized. I’d love to hear if you have any other suggestions on how to beautify your pantry!
Here is a list of items I used for my pantry organization..
–Water Hyacinth Bins (size small)
–Rectangular Canisters (in various sizes)