Organizing My Little Pantry

Before we left Germany I was gung ho about organizing our little tiny pantry.  I saved up some money [because I find that organizing "things" cost money] and did it.  Then we moved and I dreamed we were going to end up in a house with a big kitchen [I was wrong] so back to little pantry we are.  

This one is bigger than the last but still little and after some money and work looks pretty decent.  I wouldn't say I'm done because you can never be too organized.  One day I'm going to upgrade those plastics bins to these beauties... one day. 

Let's just start from the top and work down.  Can you tell we love chips?  Got the very handy under shelf basket for free [thanks airman's attic] and it holds lunch chips perfectly.  The lovely clear tupperware from Ikea. It's cheap [$2.99] but I love the sleek design.  One day I went out and no kidding spend $45 on all these tupperware.  I looked like a mad woman but totally worth it.  I will never go back to boxes again.  Life is so much easier when you can see everything and it's all the same size.  And as you can see behind the front row there is a back. 

I also bought the big tall tupperware [$3.99] for our cereals and one for spaghetti noodles.  Just like chips we are a family who loves cereals.  Can you tell which one is mine?  Wish the opening on top was bigger but we live with it. 

I don't like things just floating around the shelf unless it's big so I went with baskets.  I don't love the yellow ones but they were a dollar and get the job don.  Above is my "dry goods" basket.  It's nice because you can slide it out a bit to get what you need or pull out the entire thing.  It's always changing but having the basket just makes it easier to find something.  There's only one place to look.  Below is the bread, bagel, tortilla basket.  Last but not least my favorite the snack basket.

Now this basket is always changing but I keep the old granola boxes in to keep little things organized.  Just cut the tops off place little snacks in there; raisins, fruit snacks, granola bars etc.  

The last shelf has all the can goods and instant rice packs.  I used a helper shelf to give me an extra place for cans.  No more digging around to see what we have, you can see it all at once. 

Another thing that helps keep a small pantry from getting cluttered is storing things on the counters.  I got these pretty Martha tin's for the bulky sugar, flour, and I put Bisquick in the one labeled cookies.  I also have candy jars and not just for candy but also for our trail mix. 

If you ever wanted to buckle down and organize your pantry I hope this inspires you.  It doesn't take much just some thought, pennies and a little work.  Of course your pantry won't look like ours since we eat different things but this may give you some organizing ideas.  

Happy Friday,