In light of the recent situation that is going on in the world, I seem to have a lot of time to do things at home. So, to make myself feel productive, I decided to do an overhaul of my pantry and completely reorganize it!
Here is the before picture. As you can see, I already tried to organize the right half with labels, buuuttt life happens and everything is kind of everywhere now. The left side was my roommates side and she is in the process of moving out, which means I can now use the left side!
First thing that I ALWAYS do when organizing a space is to take absolutely everything out. I like starting with a clean slate so I can see everything that I have and then I can efficiently place it. Whilst everything is out, I also like to give it a good clean with an antibacterial cleaner (all-purpose cleaner, or a vinegar-water mixture works just as well!).
When I’m taking everything out, I like to spread it across my counter so I can start to group things that make sense (for me). The groups that I came up with were:
- Soups (canned, Lipton packages, etc)
- Chips & crackers
- Breakfast (oatmeal, syrup, peanut butter, pancake mix)
- Lunches (granola bars, apple sauce, bread)
- Canned goods (tomatoes, tomato paste, etc.)
- Pasta & grains (Noodles, rice, quinoa, garlic, sauce)
- Cooking (flour, sugar, salt, etc.)
- Tea
- Other (things that I felt didn’t belong anywhere)
This will obviously change based on the things you have. For me, these are the categories that made sense. I used a label maker to distinguish them but if you don’t have one, you can write the label on a piece of paper and tape it on.
I have a cold storage room in my basement that I store canned veggies, extra pasta things, beans, and just any extra food I don’t use as often. I am lucky to have that because it allows me to keep my most used items upstairs so it doesn’t become too cluttered.
I use the top of the pantry for coffee supplies and Brady’s workout protein stuff. The doors of the pantry are for spices and extra little cooking stuff.
TADA!
Here is the finished product! I definitely think it’s much better than before I had organized it. It may still look a little messy, but everything has a place and it will be much easier to find items if I think about it based on category. My goal is to have everything in little containers (mason jars, etc.) to make it look more ~aesthetically~ pleasing. For now, this works just fine.
Within each separate space, I like to get little containers to further organize the small stuff so it isn’t shoved into the space. It really helps me to keep everything organized a little better!
If you’re staying safe at home like I am during this outbreak, it’s a great time to organize your home! I hope this can give you all a little inspiration to organize your space and feel productive.
Thanks for reading!
xox
Carli 🙂
home for joy 