Easy Pantry Organization

keepin' it real- there's a lot of stuff shoved into the pantry

We have a small pantry in our kitchen, and its contents have changed a bit over the last two years. These days, there's not much actual food in it since most of what we eat is fresh or frozen- not many canned or boxed items any more (other than what we've been eating the last month or so since the nausea took over).

I've been sorting and organizing all the closets and cupboards in the house, and once I finished the coat closet, the pantry was up next.

This was actually pretty quick and easy (in the timeline of my projects, anyway).

empty and ready to be taken apart and painted

I emptied all the stuff- some got thrown away, some went to the basement with the other food storage items, and some got set aside to go back in to the pantry. Then I removed the shelves and carefully pulled the 1x2's off the wall that supported the shelves.

I used some spackle to fix the spots where the 1x2's were attached, then sanded the spots when they dried. Next up was a couple coats of white paint to cover the super dingy builders beige on the walls and door and the dingy shelves.

painted and shelves back in

I installed my favorite shelf strips that I've used all over the house so the shelves would be adjustable. One thing I did that I shouldn't have was that I cut the boards down a little before I installed the shelf strips. I ended up over-estimating how much I needed to cut off and now the shelves are a teensy bit narrow- if they're bumped around too much, they'll fall off the supports. Oops. I'm contemplating spacer options to keep the shelves centered on the supports.

adjustable shelves!

Once that was all done, I was ready to get everything moved back in. I started at the floor and moved upward, so the vegetable bin was first. I added some screws to the side to hold the white plastic bin. We ditched paper towels years ago and use wash rags in the kitchen instead. I like them to be able to dry out and not stay damp, and this trash bin from IKEA works great. Under that I put an insulated tote.

Our  crockpots have migrated from cupboard to cupboard as I've tried to find a good spot, so they got the lowest shelf. The bowls were taking up a lot of space in one of the other cupboards and always had things piled on top of them, so they got the next shelf.

The next shelf ended up being full of miscellaneous items: jars for broth and their lids, LMS's piggy bank and penny jars, and some snacks for LMS. The shelf above got the attachments for the KitchenAid mixer, the popsicle molds, and the juicer. They'd all been crammed in other cupboards and weren't very accessible before. The very top shelf (that you can't see) ended up with a few other things like food containers (for foods we can't currently eat) and a cooler for Mr M's lunches.

I replaced the wire basket and hook on the door and I was done!

Sooo much better. And if we need to move things around, it'll be easy to move the shelves to accommodate the items we want to place on them.