PANTRY ORGANIZATION
Typically I'm a pretty organized person! But this last year has been such a whirlwind and getting organized since the move has been overwhelming and honestly moving a little slower than I would like.
Recently I had Kym from Organization by Design in to help me find where to start and give me a little head start by doing a few small projects for me!
So first things first! She suggested we start with the pantry. Who doesn't like walking in and knowing what they have on hand and having everything easily accessible? If you remember I'm not buying anything house related until we move again so I asked her to work with what I already had for baskets, canisters etc. (In our old house we had a small pantry so this new one feels 3x the size!) She was still able to make it look great and gave me a few ideas for what she would add for future storage which I've made into a shopping list for the future.
Here's the before! Not terrible...but not great!!
And now for the after!
If you are trying to get organized on your own start with emptying the pantry!
1 - Get rid of expired food and condense multiple packages into 1 box or buy pretty food storage containers. I use dollar store cereal bins and my kids are way more likely to eat it when they can see it compared to multiple partially opened boxes!
2 - Use bins to group like items together. A box (or three) for snacks, pasta, rice, etc.
3 - Find a new home for anything that doesn't belong. Like that box of lightbulbs or contact solution...in my defence it was bought for making slime, LOL.
4 - Since I wasn't willing to spend money on more storage containers she covered my iced tea and lemonade packages with white paper and I thought it was so smart! So much prettier to look in and see that over the bright blue and yellow store bought cans.
5 - When putting things back put commonly used things on the easiest to reach shelves and keep the kid's cereal and snacks near the bottom. She also put the prettier things where I can see them from the door and the less pretty things on the side wall, so smart!
6 - And finally, from my years of working in a bakery don't forget FIFO when you are restocking! First in, first out!
Shopping List
- glass canisters for the flour, sugar and oats
- spice jars
- decorative canister for the tea bags, hot chocolate and drink mixes
- a few more white bins
- a decorative bottle for the olive oil.
I'm happy to say that a month has gone by and 2 large grocery hauls and the pantry is still looking as good as she left it!
If you're looking for help getting organized be sure to follow her and watch for her upcoming website.
