While we are so, so lucky in our new house to have a beautiful, functional pantry, it’s still essentially a closet. So while it’s nothing revolutionary, I still wanted to share the progress in my new pantry organization system, since it used to be a hot mess express and now feels functional, practical, AND pretty.
First, I took out EVERYTHING. Once everything expired was gone and we had a clean slate to start again with, I started grouping things into categories to get a sense of how much of what was most popular in our pantry already.
For us, that looked a bit like: – Canned goods – Baking – Cookies – Snacks – Granola bars/grab-and-go packaged goods – Pasta – Candy – Cereal – PB/Nutella/Marshmallow fluff – Breads/other breakfast foods – Oatmeals/rolled oats
These ended up being the looser categories for how containers were grouped then, too, depending on how much we had in each. And our pantry organization system is a bit of a top-down approach, in that the lesser-used bins went up top, followed by more heavily used as you head down…with the exception being anything hidden from a toddler.
I picked up these bigger baskets from Target from the new Studio McGee line, which is GORGEOUS; they’re pricey, but well-made and worth it for the right functional storage, I think! So for us, the bottommost right basket holds unopened snacks.
For our clear plastic bins – I just added cute script labels. The script labels came in handy for these containers with baking essentials, too.
No, I have not (and will not) empty every single box or package into a clear container. For some things for me, that’s just not practical. But in grouping + organizing things in similar categories it definitely helped, and everything (more or less) has a place now.
There are a few staples that are ALWAYS in our pantry. And they are… – Blue Diamond Nut Thins – Twizzlers – Apple chips – Dot’s pretzels – Boom chicka pop – S’mores mix – Cheddar + caramel popcorn – Beef jerky – Dry pasta – Mac n’ cheese – Canned goods (with low sodium + no added sugar whenever possible)Cut green beans Chick peas – Lipton Extra Noodle soup boxes – Extra fudgy dark brownie mix
cominguprosestheblog.com