Organized Pantry

We have very limited pantry space in our kitchen.  The way our kitchen is laid out, there just isn’t a closet for pantry.  Instead, we only have a wall of shelves on the side of the kitchen.  In the past, we didn’t use the pantry shelves efficiently, because there wasn’t enough shelves to really store what we wanted to store.  So everything was sort of haphazardly strewn, and stacked on top of each other.  We decided to finally really remedy the situation with more wire shelving, and dry goods storage. 

I forgot to take the “before” photos, so you’ll just have to imagine what it would be like without the additional white wire shelving and containers.

I saw on Clean Mama’s blog that she used mason jars with white screw-on lids to store some of her dry goods.  I thought that was a really great idea, because we had been hoarding mason jars for various purposes and have a BUNCH of them in the cupboards in the laundry room.  I took them all out and was chargrined to see how many jars we have!

For convenience’s sake, we went and purchased some regular and wide mouth white screw-on caps for the mason jars.  Then we went to work on the dry goods and used my label maker to label each jar.

These mason jars, combined with the Oxo airtight containers that we had previous purchased, have helped make our pantry a lot more organized!  We did also have the problem of things stacking haphazardly on top of one another.  So we purchased some white wire shelving (one tier, and two tier) to make everything look more neat when stacked.  It also made the small space way more efficient.

Our last pantry problem to solve was our huge deep snack cabinet that was built into our kitchen peninsula.  It was just really deep shelves in disarray.  So I purchased some clear bins that are 14.5” long so that they were almost as deep as the cabinets.  Now I can pull all my teas and Keurig k-cups out and see what I have, pick one, and put them back without a hassle.  I’m all about products and processes that make life easier or save time! 

This year we are decluttering and re-organizing our house one little project at a time, mostly on the weekends.  Some of these small changes have really made a big difference in our satisfaction with our space.  Ever have something that you use everyday that annoys you?  To me, that kind of annoyance can start to permeate your life and actually make you feel worse.  So why not think of your processes and come up with solutions to finally solve those small annoyances that can get you down?  These solutions make me happy!