They say the kitchen is the heart of the home. And, I say the pantry is the heart of the kitchen.
While we would actually love to redo our entire kitchen from top to bottom and do away with this large and deep closet a.k.a. pantry. We are not in the position to do that for a variety of reasons. So, I have creatively worked and re-worked this space and tried to make it as efficiently organized as possible and a little pretty too!
Five deep shelves provide lots of storage and the floor is a great spot to tuck larger items.
The top shelf holds two large bins, one is labeled “Extra” and the other “Paper”. In addition we store extra food supplies (replenishment items) up top and the small amount of alcohol we keep on hand. In the “Extra” bin I put the refills for snack cups and cereal boxes. I posted here about snack cups…I love this system!
The “Paper” bin holds any of our paper products and extra scrub brushes. I posted here on my Friday FAB FAVES about these beautiful brushes.
Every basket is organized by like item and labeled. I also put items that the kids access lower, for example the bread basket is right next to the butter basket, where they can reach it.
My kids are making their own breakfast most mornings and I have set things up to help them with this. They have cereal at their level along with a bin labeled breakfast with hot cereal options. I posted in more detail about breakfast with the kids right over here.
One more red bin titled “Chips” holds – can you guess? Chips! And…pretzels and/or extra cereal….I found it was hard to contain large bags and this works perfectly. I found the bins years ago at Walmart of all places…
Recycling bins, one is labeled “other” and one is labeled “paper”.
The floor also provides a great spot for large bulky items like the ice bucket, handy toolbox, cat food, and hubby’s lunchbox (when he is home.)
A few more details, aprons hang inside to the left, and the orange thing to the right holds plastic shopping bags that we reuse is on the right, out of sight, but well within reach when needed.
*KISS – Set up your pantry to be efficient – place like items together, purge as you replenish, and organize as you go!
What tips have you discovered to help you maintain the order of your pantry?
