The house I grew up in was small. 1100 square feet. It had a galley kitchen, no formal dining room and no pantry. It was my parent’s first home and we lived there my entire life until I left and went out in to the big world on my own.
I have a lot of nostalgia about that house. It was small and cozy and it was a great place to grow up. But when I look back I have no idea how we survived without a pantry! Thank goodness there was a basement. My mom stored a lot of things on the shelves my dad built down there.
Today, I am blessed to live in a home with a generous pantry. But, here is what I have discovered when you have a lot of storage — you find ways to fill it up. And, when it’s full, it gets disorganized and messy in a hurry.
I have organized and re-organized this space many times and in the end, I have come up with some tips that have become my mantra.
Whether your storage space is big or small, my seven mantras can help you when organizing your pantry.
MANTRA #1: Organize everything in to categories
This is true for just about everything that I organize but it’s especially helpful in the pantry and the kitchen as a whole.
I keep all coffee, tea, hot cocoa and flavored water packets together in one place, for example. I keep all of my bulk items that are “in stock” together and my canned goods are organized in to categories as well…veggies, soups, beans, etc.
My newest addition to my pantry was this shelf riser for canned goods. In all honesty my canned goods take up more space than they used to with this expandable shelf, but it is so much easier to see what I have. I definitely recommend getting one if you have the space.
MANTRA #2: Use bins, baskets and organizers.
After you’ve sorted everything in to your categories, find a good bin or other type of organizer to help you keep it all in order. Keep in mind that you don’t have to spend a lot of money or any money at all to house all of your items. I personally love using yogurt and margarine cups for corralling small objects. Of course you could pretty it up by painting it, but I keep it simple and just label it by hand. The point is organization, not perfection.
Another one of my favorite pantry organizers for our deep corners is the lazy Susan.
It keeps things easy to reach and see. Which leads me to my next mantra:
MANTRA #3: Keep everything as visible as possible
We are bulk shoppers at our house so this is especially important but it’s a good mantra whether you stock up or not. When you can’t see what you have you forget you have it. Which leads to way too much stuff, disarray and the increased chance that you’ll have to throw out unused food past the expiration date.
Before I added these big bins for storing our “in stock” bulk items we had them stashed away wherever they would fit. As a result, we forgot what we had and found ourselves buying things like ketchup when we already had some on hand.
Now, when I need a bottle of ketchup I know exactly where to look before I go to the store.
Another way I keep things visible is by taking things out of their boxes — like cereal bars or granola bars, for example.
They’re easy to see and grab when you’re looking for them. You can also see at a glance when you’re almost out so you can write it down on your grocery list. The other bonus? My kids don’t leave an empty box sitting in the pantry when they take the last one.
MANTRA #4: Use labels whenever possible.
I am a huge fan of the label maker. Unfortunately, mine died recently and I haven’t replaced it and, truth be told, I miss it like crazy!
Labels not only help me remember what’s in a particular container (especially if it’s opaque), but they also help my children know where something is and — more importantly — where to put it back!
MANTRA#5: Don’t buy it if you don’t have the space for it
My husband loves Costco. When he gets their sales flyer he is ready to head over there to get the best price on our usual staples. The trouble is, we don’t always have the space to store 32 cans of diced tomatoes, 2 industrial sized bottles of grape juice and 36 rolls of toilet paper.
I’ve had to learn to say no.
Last year, I did a major re-org of our laundry room to help us handle all of our bulk buying. It taught me the valuable lesson of creating only so much space for those usual big bulk buys. If the space if full and the sales flyer comes, we don’t buy it.
I’m doing the same thing in the pantry with my regular grocery store purchases. If the pantry is full, I don’t stock back up until we use what we have.
Which leads me to my next point…
MANTRA #6: Go through the pantry regularly to keep it from getting out of control.
Staying organized requires some maintenance but if you have a good system the maintenance will be minimal.
Each week when I go to the grocery store I take care to put things away in their appropriate homes. I tidy up and consolidate things if necessary.
Then, about once every 3 months or so I do a more thorough tidying up. Life gets hectic around here and the pantry can get disheveled from time to time, but with the basic system in place my effort only takes me about 30 minutes give or take.
And, remember…
MANTRA #7: Organization is not about perfection, it’s about making your life easier.
Don’t get caught up in having the perfect bins and having everything look Pinterest-worthy. This is about making things easier, not stressing yourself out.
Once you have your pantry in good working order you will feel better and less stressed. Not to mention the fact that you will smile every time you open the door!
Today I’m joining a few of my blogging friends for a special organizing tour:
Click on the links below to get more great organizing tips and tricks!
To see some of my past organizing posts, you can go here, here and here.
Thanks so much for reading!
I often share at: Metamorphosis Monday, Your Designs This Time, The Scoop, Wow Us Wednesdays, Inspire Me Tuesday, Furniture Feature Friday, Not Just a Housewife
I know that your pantry must always be very organized as you are such a great organizer and you make any storage area with both beauty and function! My hubby installed sliding baskets in my pantry and I love them…He is my organizing guru … Have a great day Julie!
Ooh…sliding baskets! That sounds wonderful! I think your hubby and I would get along famously, Shirley! lol
Thank you for always encouraging me with your kind words!
Have a wonderful day, my friend!
Julie
Thanks for the idea of the bends for the floor and keeping like things together. Also only having food related things in there.
My pantry has become a catch all.
Such great tips! My pantry is far from pretty but I do go through it every week or two to make sure it’s cleaned up and purged. I have yet to take the steps that you’ve taken to make it actually look nice! Thanks for a great article. Shared on G+ and tweeted!
These are some great tips, Julie! Why is it such a struggle to keep the pantry neat?? I am good about putting things back where they belong, but my boys could care less! I think the only thing that will save mine is putting a padlock on it ha ha! Pinning
These are all good pantry tips. I especially have to live by, “If you don’t have space for it, don’t buy it!” As tempting as the bulk buys are, if there’s no where to store them, it just stresses me out! Thanks for linking up to the “Something to Talk About” link party Hope to see you next week! Bwg ~~~
These are all such great tips. I know this was a lot of work but it sounds like you have a system in place that makes it easy to maintain. Thanks so much for sharing this at our Something to Talk About Link Party. Reading posts like these always gives me tons of inspiration.
i’ve been thinking about giving my pantry a reorg & this was the perfect thing to read. i have to invest in some good bins. thanks for sharing! best- mj
These are so true Julie! #5 and #7 are my favorites though. I do tend to overbuy sometimes (and not just my pantry- my linen closet has way too many half-used old bottles of body wash, body sprays, lotion, etc. that I need to get rid of). Thank you for sharing your advice!
Great tips! Thanks for sharing as I love anything pantry related!! I found you via The Scoop!
Your tips are spot on for keeping a pantry organized! Great point on the size too, when I had a lot more space it was easier to fill up and clutter! We even had 5 junk drawers in my last “big” house. Thanks for sharing:)
This post couldn’t be more timely for us…we are each getting ready to organize our pantries and aren’t really sure where or how to start! Thank you so much for sharing your fabulous tips at Something To Talk About Link Party! Feeling inspired to get busy
Great tips! I need to get a few turn tables to use in my pantry corners like you have done. That tends to end up as wasted space for me.
So many great tips. We have a large pantry but everything gets out of hand so easily. You just made my night, I thought we were the only family that has empty boxes left in the pantry. Thanks for sharing so many ideas.
Tami
These are all super ideas, and cleaning & re-organizing my pantry is on my list to start today! Wish me luck, I’m going in!
Thanks so much Carol! I hope your pantry organizing went well!
Julie,
omg I love all your Pantry Organizing Tips and what I love is your quote about it not having to be perfect or Pinterest Worthy. It can be overwhelming for some of us and you have some wonderful easy to do tips. Thank you for taking time to come over and link up to the Something to Talk About Link Party. xo Lisa
Thanks, Lisa! I still have to remind myself about not being perfect all the time — especially as a blogger. Happy to have linked-up with you!
Great post as always…I have a smaller pantry now than I did in TX and still haven’t quite worked out a good system yet. One tip I do use, in place of the label maker, is dry erase markers on the plastic containers. That way if I change up the cereal or chips I just wipe off and write on the current product!
Thanks, Allyson! It would be hard to downsize the pantry — especially since we’re such big Costco shoppers. I’m sure you’ve had to adjust from the “everything’s bigger in Texas” thing! lol Love your tip about the dry erase marker. Miss seeing you! So glad there is Facebook and blogs!
What great tips! I love how you broke it all down and make organizing so simple. You can use these tips for organizing any space!
Your pantry looks amazing! I’m going to use some of these tips on our tiny pantry. Thanks for sharing! ~ Angie
Your pantry looks great and I love the tips you shared. Awesome
Such great tips my pantry could use a little work you’ve given me some ideas! My pantry is so small compared to my last one!
Not only is your pantry so well organized, but pretty to look at! Thanks for the inspiration!
I need to go and reorganize my pantry now. I have unfortunately slipped into the just shove it in there somewhere state and it’s turning into a monster. I’m going to use some of your tips this weekend when I clean it out.