Pantry Organization

Welcome Back! Let's talk about ORGANIZING! We all know that amazing feeling of cleaning out a closet or pantry and how satisfying it is. My pantry had been on my "get organized" to do list since we moved into our house but you know, life happens and it just kept being pushed aside. My pantry was a “catch all” in my house because it’s a substantial size and we just threw everything in there! When it came time to finally organize it, I actually enjoyed it.

I started by measuring my shelves so I could figure out what size bins to get. I got two sizes, large and small. Clear bins and color coordinating the items in the bins is all the rage right now. I LOVE that look BUT I don't think that's the most practical for me. How long does it take for the color coordination to fall by the wayside and it look messy again? I didn't want to find out. I decided to go with dark gray and I am VERY happy with my choice. It just looks cleaner to me.

The day the bins came in, I started right away I was so excited! It was a little daunting at first because I pulled everything out and put it on my kitchen counters. Yikes! There was A LOT in there! Everyone who has ever organized anything, you know that moment of being completely overwhelmed like "What the heck did I just do?"

After the initial shock of seeing it all on my counters and spread out everywhere, I then organized everything into piles based on what would be in each bin. So I could start to piece together what would be in bins together and label the bins accordingly.

I scrubbed my shelves with soap and warm water to get everything nice and clean before adding it all back in. The pantry shelves get dirtier than you would think. I was honestly shocked and it felt really good to get them clean and pristine again.

I had a lot of stuff I just needed to throw away that I don’t really know why I was holding onto. Like manuals and stuff like that. Toss that junk because does it “spark joy”? NO ha ha.

Once I had everything into piles, It was easy to see the categories forming. I started loading things into the bins and figuring out what was going into small bins and what was going into large bins. Figuring out what I was going to label them was the hardest part. Your panty can kind of contain pieces of your whole life if you think about it and it’s challenging labeling your life into categories.

So here’s what I have them labeled as…

SCARLETT - one small and one large. These have all of her cups, plates, silverware, pacis, snack containers, teethers etc.

GIBSON- large bin- our dogs toys, collars, leashes and treats

CEREAL- large bin

BAKING- large bin

COOKING- large bin

CLEANING- large bin- trash bags, swiffers, dusters, etc

MISCELLANEOUS - large bin- this has all odds and ends stuff that doesn’t need it’s own bin

SCARLETT FOOD- large bin

SNACKS- large bin

CHIPS- large bin

PRODUCE- large bin

CANNED GOODS- large bin

BATTERIES- small bin

COFFEE- small bin

TEA-small bin

SEASONING PACKETS- small bin

SCARLETT SNACKS- small bin

SCARLETT POUCHES- small bin

SWEETS- small bin

AVOCADOS- small bin- yes it needs it's own bin. We eat A LOT of avocados in our house.

BANANAS- small bin.

CONDIMENTS- small bin

PAPER GOODS- small bin

SMELL GOODS- glade plug ins, candles, air freshener, etc

DINNER SIDES- small bin- rice, quinoa, etc

BREAKFAST- small bin- granola bars, oatmeal, etc

The before and after is pretty remarkable as you can see. I played around with the labels and switched stuff around a couple times before I got it just right. My pantry is now honestly one of my favorite rooms in our house which sounds ridiculous but it’s true! It seems like such a small thing but it honestly has been such a game changer for us! With a baby, being organized is a necessity and I feel like we function better with this set up!

The very top shelf of the pantry is just big items I don’t want stored on my kitchen counter like our coffee pot, juicer, instant pot, and some flower vases.

I hope this helps anyone who needs a little inspiration to get organized! I will link all the items I used and some similar below!

Xo- Sarah

BEFORE

Clearing the Shelves

WOAH! ALL THAT WAS IN MY PANTRY?

CLEAN SLATE...now I can breath again.

now time to fill these babies up and label them

ahh! sweet sweet organization bliss. Just need a few more bins for the bottom shelf!

AFTER...and suddenly all is right with the world.

Similar bins from Target

Similar bins from target

labels

chalk markers