Receta Pantry Organization {Kitchen Organization}
Pantries. Who doesn't love a good one? I know I certainly do! I was giddy with excitement when we first moved into this house this past June. Why? Because of the picture you see on the right. This, ladies and gentlemen is a picture of our lovely pantry.
To some, it may not look like much. I mean, we are talking about military base housing after all. However, this baby is double the size of the last two we have had over the years. You know what they say....the bigger the pantry, the bigger the storage space.
After we became settled in, my excitement dwindled and after a while, I found myself overwhelmed with how I was going to organize it.
Suffice to say, that we had everything under the sun (food wise) just scattered everywhere on the shelves. There was no rhyme or reason to that method. Once you're finished with the chips, open the pantry up, find an empty space, and place them there. That's how it was in this house for a good a few months.
For those who personally know me, you know how OCD I can get with things. I just couldn't live with the pantry chaos anymore. Action had to be taken and something had to be done. After doing some research into pantry organizing, I sat down one day while the kids were occupied and started on this project.
This picture is what you see when you open the right side. I decided to use half of our pantry as a bookshelf and place my beloved cookbooks and recipes inside.
I did this so they will be close at hand when I need them in the kitchen and also because our dining room is pretty darn small and placing a bookshelf in there would have made it look smaller.
I placed our medicines on the very top shelf in plastic bins so our kids wouldn't be able to get a hold of them.
I kept the first shelf strictly for series books (Fix It and Forget It collection, Gooseberry Patch collection, Julia Child collection, Paula Deen, Trisha Yearwood, Ree Drummond, etc..) as well as all my slow cooker books.
The second shelf is for the books that didn't have a series and for all the regional books I have collected over the years. I also placed all the military cookbooks I have collected as well.
The third shelf houses all my baking books and three binders worth of favorite family recipes.
The fourth and fifth shelves are dedicated to all the cooking/baking magazines I have and all the 'lose' recipes that are floating around.
At the very bottom on the floor, I placed my collection of cookie cutters....all 100 of them. You know, just incase we may need them later ;)
When you open the left side, this is what you will see.....
Let's break it down...shall we....
The very top is for the 'bulk' items we purchase.
The first shelf houses baskets that hold snacks and chips, as well as plastic containers that hold all our open crackers and things such as vanilla wafers. Basically, it's the 'snack' shelf.
The second shelf is our 'breakfast' shelf and holds all our cereals (hot and cold), pancake mix, and syrup.
The third shelf houses our canned goods and roman noodle packages (because my daughter LOVES her roman).
The fourth shelf is for products with glass jars, pasta, coffee creamer, and all our pre-packaged foods. Yes, even food bloggers are guilty of using box mixes and Kraft Mac and Cheese.
For the fifth shelf, I placed all our 'liquid' ingredients on a vintage baking tray that I've had for years. The basket is saved for all our drink mixes. The floor is saved for more bulk items (mostly Husband Man's k-cups) and any drink related things.
Most of the blogs and articles I read on pantry organization suggest that you purchase baskets and containers to help corral all the food items.
However, I take an opposite approach. I am a HUGE advocate for 'shopping your home' and trying to find pieces that you already have on hand to help you out. It's cheaper and saves on time. My latest shop your home find.....the baskets up above.
Believe it or not, they actually came from this fancy contraption that I purchased 11 years ago at our last base.....
.....I don't care much for the shelves now...so I took the baskets out and presto....
......I have some baskets for my food items. And it didn't cost a single dime! I saved myself at least 50 dollars by looking around my house and seeing what I was able to use inside our pantry.
So there you have it....my wonderful pantry. A project that took only two days to organize and cost zero dollars ;)
How do you organize your pantry?