Before you see the before pic, here is some organizational eye candy to get you in the mood:
That last one gets me every time. It must be instant happiness every time they reach for a new roll of paper towels. I need some yellow in my life!!
Ok, back to my pantry.
When we moved in we put this IKEA shelf in to convert our coat closet to a pantry. It worked...kind of. It was really just a mess. Not organized. Everything crammed together. Yikes.
The shelf was centered in the closet, so either side had space, crammed with more stuff.
When we moved in we put this IKEA shelf in to convert our coat closet to a pantry. It worked...kind of. It was really just a mess. Not organized. Everything crammed together. Yikes.
The shelf was centered in the closet, so either side had space, crammed with more stuff.
Oh. And it housed our vacuum. And that bin on the ground? That is our spice bin. Trying to find any spice was a joke- it meant taking nearly all of the jars out as you looked at them until you found the right one.
I had had enough of this disorganized pantry. If there is one thing I have learned about living in small spaces, organization is key in feeling like the space is functional. I wanted containers for all our baking goods, but containers be pricey, yo. Once again we turned to our beloved IKEA where we found these highly functional containers:
They came in a two pack- one small, one large, with lids- for $5.99. Yes please! You can find them here- and it looks like they are cheaper now. $3.99! I don't know how we lived without them. Oh wait, we could never tell what we had and what we were almost out of- as evidenced by the fact that I found THREE bags of wheat flour and only a remnant of white flour when I cleaned out our pantry.
Five of those packs, labels, plus a little shift of the shelf and a set of plastic drawers (free from a friend who found them on the side of the road-booyah!) and we have this:
Ahhh, much better. Shifting the shelf allowed us to add the other plastic drawers and made better use of the shelf space, since before if you bumped something it could fall off of either side, and now there is a wall on the right side to help keep things put. It also helped that we got rid of stuff that was expired, or that we'd had for wayyyy too long and never used. Hooray for simplifying! Just as I was basking in pantry glory, I spied a little something near the dumpster (I know, I have a problem) that I knew would be perfect for this space...
Goodbye Magnificent Specimens calendar (we love you!), hello wire door rack! I don't know why I didn't think of buying something like this, but it has seriously changed our pantry. The spice bin is no more- instead each jar has a home on one of the top four shelves and is easy to identify. This also made room for things like peanut butter and olive oil, and all those other jar-like containers that are hard to organize on a deep shelf.
My inner organizer rejoices every time I open our pantry, which makes cooking much more delightful. Bonus- Matt actually knows where things go now!
Total cost of pantry makeover: $36.00- spent on containers for flour, sugar, oats, etc.
Not bad, eh? Just thinking about it makes me want to organize more!
