Happy Friday, friends! I shared a little snippet of this pantry DIY project on Instagram stories and was so excited when a bunch of you told me that you wanted to see a full post on it! I am used to having only a few cabinets dedicated to food storage (since I've spent the past nine years living in apartments), so having a full pantry is still a novelty that I'm trying to get used to. I wanted to take advantage of the space and make it as organized and efficient as possible!
The book I'm currently reading, The Complete Book of Home Organization, has been a HUGE help in this process. The book recommends to start by categorizing your pantry and the items going into it. Chances are, you've got a lot of food taking up lot of space. Here are the basic pantry categories:
- Baking supplies
- Bulk items (rice, beans, nuts and other bulk dry goods)
- Canned food
- Pasta and pasta sauces
- Chocolate and desserts
- Prepackaged foods
- Snacks
Cardboard food boxes clutter the space, so using clear containers is an excellent way to store pasta, grains, rice, etc. (and keep it fresh!). I did some research and found that the OXO pop containers were the highest rated, so I ordered two 10-piece kits and then a few extra containers for good measure. I keep items like sugar, flour and powdered sugar in the 4 quart containers and 2.4 quart containers. The 2.1 quart container is perfect for spaghetti noodles, while these slant containers are easily-accessible and great for cookies and snacks. (Not going to lie, I've eaten almost that entire container of Oreos this week haha!)
For my little "DIY project," I ordered chalk markers and labels from the Container Store. I used these thick chalk markers for the bigger chalkboard labels and these thin chalk markers for the smaller chalkboard labels - I recommend ordering three packs of the large labels and three packs of the smaller ones to get started. I wrote everything in capital letters to keep it neat and uniform-looking, but you can really make it your own with pretty calligraphy or cursive writing. I also ordered these hanging labels for the woven baskets (since you can't apply a sticker directly to them).
Woven baskets can also be effective pantry organizers when you use them correctly - but I don't recommend them for everything. They're nice to look at, but the large sizes can become so full of food that you can't see what's at the bottom. However, they do work well to store items like bags of food, snacks, prepackaged breakfast items, large quantities of the same item, and extra canned goods. I bought these savannah utility baskets because I love the way they look and they hide my K-cups and other pre-packaged snacks. For canned goods, I ended up purchasing this can-rack for all my cans of soup, tomatoes, beans, etc.
And finally, I also purchased these stackable baskets to keep fruit and vegetables. They're nice if you like to buy huge quantities of a certain fruit or vegetable. I always like to have apples and oranges on hand!
I'm still playing around with the order of things... it will probably take me a few months to get it exactly how I like it. I'd love to hear your thoughts! Oh and if you have any pantry tips, leave them in the comments so we can all see!
I hope everyone has a great weekend!
xoxo
xoxo
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