I organized my pantry back in January and am happy to report that the system is still in place! I like that I can make modifications to suit our changing needs and I already have some ideas for how I can add to the functionality.

When we moved in, my mom got right to work unpacking and giving us an initial pantry system to work from. I never would have made it that far ha. We kept it up, kind of, for about a year. Then I got the itch to hire a service to come and organize… then I looked at prices and thought of all the other things I could buy with that money. DIY it was!

I started by taking everything out of the pantry and organizing by category: Pastas, baking ingredients, sauces/condiments, PB&J, etc. We had WAY too many non-perishables. Next step was to get rid of anything that was expired.

As much as I would have loved to save a bit more and try shopping elsewhere, convenience won and I headed to the Container Store. I wanted to be sure I would have enough options to choose from and that items would be in stock. I decided to go with black baskets of various sizes and bamboo turntables / risers. Realistically, I know I would never decant everything into matching containers so corralling items into baskets would be the best option. We also shop semi-impulsively sometimes and don’t always buy consistent items, so I wanted those to have a place, too.

So it begins. I started by placing product in the pantry to think through a layout. The toaster oven is probably my favorite part of the pantry because we added an outlet for it to live there and it gets so much use. Everything else was pretty much interchangeable.

Little by little, everything made its way to its designated place in the pantry. I love these glass jars with bamboo lids for quick grab items like Fey’s dog treats and my breakfast granola. I bought a pack of labels on Amazon and applied them where helpful.

In the future, I want to add snack drawers beneath the bottom shelf for kid snacks and also store pet food in larger containers. In the meantime, I am happy with the way this turned out!