October 25, 2016

Organizing A Simple Pantry

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Sometimes the littlest changes can bring the biggest results. Switching out wire shelving with wood shelves was a game-changer for our pantry. I always look for simple systems and ease of use when planning out a new system and the pantry was no different. One of the biggest frustrations for me in our kitchen were the shelves in the pantry. The wire shelving wasn’t stable enough to hold glass storage containers and it wasn’t functioning the way I hoped. I know it’s a little detail and the shelves were fine, but by adding something like stable shelving, it completely changed how I could organizing the space. The concept is simple – add wood shelves (we hired this out), new storage solutions, more space, and an additional shelf. Want to take a peek?

Here’s the before:

Keep Food Storage Easy - Create Different Zones via Clean Mama

The during – everything was removed, holes were filled, and the space was painted.

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Once the shelves were in I used Post-It notes to plan the space:

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Then I lined the shelves with plastic shelf liner (non-stick) to protect the surface of the shelves:shelf-detail-clean-mama

Next was the fun part – filling the space. I used 4 basic organizing items in the pantry – acrylic bins, glass mason jars (this post has a couple sources and details), acrylic turntables, and acrylic tiered storage. I chose all clear storage because I like being able to see everything at a glance and I find that it’s easier for the kids to grab their own snacks and gather supplies and food for their lunches.

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Once I had the space planned out I filled jars and bins and placed everything into the pantry. Then I arranged and re-arranged and lived with it for a couple weeks, tweaking it a bit for out needs. And here’s where it’s at today – I’m sure it’ll be tweaked a bit but as of right now we’re loving it. I added labels to the picture so you can see what’s where – the shelves aren’t actually labeled 🙂

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One of the reasons I wanted to add wood shelves was so we could add turntables for baking and cooking supplies – I love this feature. Not only does it make it easy to access, it frees up so much space. I also love the tiered storage for canned goods. I could put the canned goods on the second to the top shelf and still be able to see everything. (The crock holds potatoes and/or squash and the basket holds grocery bags.)

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I separated the baking and cooking supplies on the middle shelf – this is also where I put the majority of the glass storage. I like having all the cooking and baking supplies grouped together.

Here are a couple more views:

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See that narrow shelf at the very top? I keep bags of flour and ‘overstock’ of vitamins and Halloween candy up there 🙂

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So that’s the pantry redo – 6 shelves and the whole pantry gets a new life.

I labeled the glass storage jars (and I love how this functions) – check out this post for all the details and sources.

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in the kitchen, organize