I had just about enough of digging through the pantry to find one thing or another. We originally had stuff in the same areas, but something happened and the food groups broke the barriers and started going into each others sections! No, that doesn't sound right, how about we have two lovely children that run in from outside and yell, "can I get a snack, I'm starvin." So you can imagine the turmoil that must ensue as they open a snack and find that they got the last one out of the box. "Oh no, what to do with the empty box?" "No prob, I'll just throw it back in the cabinet for safe keeping." This works fantastic for them, but not the next kid who comes in thinking they scored big on a snack only to realize the box is empty. :(
Ok, so maybe I'm the next kid, but please tell me this type of thing goes on in your house, lol!
I decided to have a look at the problem areas of the pantry first...
Great, so it's all a problem, ok, CHECK.
I also can't stand the bar going down the middle to hold up the shelves. My husband said it is there for additional support, but my neighbor has the same exact cupboard and guess what NO support, so if her shelving hasn't collapsed in on itself, then I think I might be ok too.
So even, here, the snacks are mixed up with the breakfast stuff, my cooking oils, and baking supplies. Madness I tell you, pure madness!
I got to work and yanked everything out of the pantry and put it in sections as I pulled it out of the cupboard.
I did a baking section, a breakfast section, a health food section, a snack section, and then a sort of dinner section including all types of noodles and side dish packets.
I ran to Target and grabbed a few of these guys at I think around $6.99 or $7.99 each.
I found these in the bath section at target. I bought two of them and thought they would work well for the baking supplies and dinner items since they are very light weight.
I scrubbed all of the shelving and the floors and trim and I pulled the heavy duty support beam ;-) off of the shelving. The other things I would like to do to this closet before putting everything back in is to paint it in a gray color and do a stencil pattern in white over that. I would also like to put some wood shelving over top of the wire and hide it with trim pieces in the front, but that is not in the schedule right now, so I just went ahead with the organizing part.
And here she is all prettied up...
I like how all the cracker snacks are in one area and you can see how much you have on hand instead of hidden in a box.
I have a few silver scoops that I am going to put in them to keep the crackers clean from dirty fingers.
I have gotten into a new way of eating for the past five months due to research I came across on my thyroid disease, so I have been accumulating all sorts of flours, cooking oils, nuts, etc. and I wanted to keep them all together in one spot.
I made a few tags and attached them to the baskets.
On the bottom shelf, I used my baskets that I had planned to use in my office. I will still probably switch them out, but they'll work for now.
Chips and popcorn in basket number one.
Bagged cereal in the second basket and the rest of the breakfast food items like syrups and oatmeal in the third basket.
An easy way to see the seasoning packets I have on hand.
Our doggy runs the bottom of the pantry, so I reorganized his basket of supplies and I think I will pick up a large tub to store the bigger bagged dog food, but other than that, it is nice and organized. Let's see how long it will stay this way, fingers crossed.
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