I have never had a pantry before this house, and let me tell you, it is LIFE-CHANGING!! When we were designing our house, I made sure we squeezed one in! As soon as we had the room, I had our closet company come and take measurements and design some shelving – they gave us a great start to having all of our pantry items displayed so we could see them. We used Alternative Closet Company if you are local, Jill + Stacy are the best (jillandstacey1@gmail.com)!
Once we had the shelves up, I dreamed of how I could organize it. I wanted it to look pretty, you know like in the magazines 🤣 I love organization but have a hard time executing it if that makes sense. I wanted all the fancy containers and that feeling that you get when you look at something so tidy, but I had no clue where to start. My friend Ana from Top Team CT came to my rescue. This is her specialty and she knocked it out of the park!
5 Steps for a Dreamy Pantry
remove everything
Your first step is to take everything out of the pantry. Get some foldable tables and put them in the kitchen. Discard everything that is expired.
start separating into categories
Start making separate piles out of categories, i.e. canned goods, baking supplies, spices, chips, snacks, etc…
measure your space
Measure the space you have in your cabinet, shelves in your walk in pantry, basically whatever space you have for storing food.
shop for containers
The method is here is everything has a home. The containers keep your categories together and visible so that you can see what you have. It keeps loose things off of the shelves, and protected from being unused. The containers reduce clutter which can be visually distracting and unpleasing. Once you have your measurements, start shopping for containers. The guide I have here should help you with that! These containers are functional, and very pretty on the eyes!
put your containers on display
You have your categories, your piles, and your containers. Now place them on your shelves or in your cabinet in a way that is right for you! Have little kids? Put the snacks down below so they can reach them. Don’t use cans much? Place those up high. Put your cereal and pasta on main levels because those containers look pretty (especially with fruit loops inside 🤣)! Have fun, play some music, have your kids help, and then look at that beautiful pantry and get HAPPY!
It may seem a little silly, but have organization like this makes me feel better. I love that everything has a home, I love being able to see what we have for ingredients for meals without digging around and getting frustrated. The process should take you all of two days, and I promise you’ll be so happy you did it!!
