Pantry & Cabinet Organization

In case you didn’t know, I am a couponer – not one of those crazy people that go dumpster diving {not anymore at least}, but because I coupon, I have a decent stockpile of pantry items. We also for some reason have a TON of kitchen gadgets. I honestly have no idea how we ended up with all of this stuff!

When we moved into our new house I was sure that we would have plenty of space for all of our kitchen stuff and more…but I was wrong. We were so blessed in our apartment to have a ginormous pantry space – it was probably the size of a bathroom…really. All of this space allowed us to keep food and small appliances out of the way, clearing up cabinet space for other necessities.

Here’s a {terrible, terrible} picture with our apartment kitchen in the background. PLEASE forgive the humongous mess – this was right after Christmas, and we were in the process of moving. As you can see the kitchen was in a ‘U’ configuration. You can see the pantry door inside the kitchen, and that wall {leading to the door on the right of the photo} is the back of the pantry. So it was a huge area. I didn’t realize at the time, though, just how much stuff we could fit in that space.

This is the best photo I could find that shows all of our current kitchen. This was, obviously, before it was finished being built, but you get the gist of it. It’s not by any means a tiny space, but I really underestimated how much the change in pantry size would effect our storage situation. I took this picture while I was standing in our family room looking into the nook & kitchen areas – just to give you a better idea of our layout.

And just to make myself feel a little better about the two not-so-beautiful spaces pictured above, here is a photo of the kitchen after we settled in a bit. {This picture is a little old…the husband surprised me a few weeks ago with a pretty, new, normal-sized fridge!}

Everything looks nice, neat, and in it’s place right? No clutter or craziness…or so you think…

These are pictures of the cabinets on either side of the microwave. They are my ‘spice’ and ‘baking’ cabinets respectively.

I couldn’t handle the clutter anymore, so I went to Target and purchased a few shoe containers for under $1 each. I was hoping they would fit in the cabinets length-wise, but they wouldn’t. It’s OK though, they still have made a huge difference in the cabinets!

Everything else that I couldn’t fit into a bin got organized into rows of similar items. I really think this is where my Target training came in handy…all items in even rows, pulled to the front, stacked neatly, with labels facing forward!

It makes me so happy to see the items that are too small to effectively organize placed into bins for consolidation. In the process of organizing, I also realized that I have a TON of duplicate spice jars. Some of them I could combine into one jar, but a lot of them weren’t even opened. Those unopened spices I moved to the top shelf of my baking cabinet {since I can’t reach up there}. This way I know that when I run out of something I need to check that shelf before buying more. I also have split the spice bins into 2 categories: regular-use, and special occasion spices. The bin on the left is the one that houses spices such as salt, pepper, garlic powder, parsley, onion flakes, etc. – it’s the stuff I use all the time. I can’t tell  you how much this new method has cut down on clutter and disorganization; it’s really nice to pull down one bin when I’m cooking and know I have everything I need.

The cabinet above the microwave originally had nothing in it because I can’t easily reach up there, and it’s not deep enough to hold any of our rarely-used small appliances. In order to clear out space in our pantry, I made this our beverage cabinet. Not only does it hold all of our booze and drink mixes, but it has everything I need for our Soda Stream soda maker. I had the husband move the shelf up a few inches so we could fit even our tallest champagne & cider bottles…this left the perfect space on top for our soda syrup bottles! Since we rarely partake in these beverage items, this is the perfect storage location.

While going through the pantry, I pulled out ALL of these plastic bags!!! Can you believe it?! I could not…this is in addition to my bag-holder bags. It’s my own fault, because I always forget to: a) bring my re-usable bags to the store & b) take my extra plastic bags back to the store for recycling. Thank goodness for my amazing husband who took these to the store on his way to work one day.

I am determined to find a way to remember our re-usable bags when I go to the store…but I have also given myself a rule that I am not allowed to put any bags away that don’t fit into my bag organizer. This ensures that I won’t forget to bring the bags back to recycle. I couldn’t believe the amount of space this freed up in the pantry!

As you can see, I used a few other shoe boxes to organize our snacks. Instead of having the boxes piling up, I bagged up individual servings of our snack foods and stacked them in the bins. This is also perfect for myself so I know I am only eating one serving when I have a snack-attack. I also wrote the calorie count on each bag.

For little man, I took a basket that was hanging out in our pantry left-over from a cookie bouquet to put his snacks in. He loves it because he can open the pantry, and his snacks are right at his height so he can grab what he wants. I made sure not to put anything in there that I didn’t want him to eat whenever he felt like it {like fruit snacks and lollipops}.

I can’t say enough god things about Plum Organics. I almost exclusively buy their stuff for little man. He is in love with their 2nd foods pouches, and will eat them any time I will allow. They have such a great variety of foods, and I appreciate that almost all of their items include vegetables, so I know he’s getting the nutrients he needs.

I wish I had a before picture of the pantry, but I was so excited to get started that I forgot. Picture this but a lot more full and messy…

See that bag between the pasta and cookbooks {below}? It held all of my unopened chocolate chip and nut bags. Since I took this picture, I have organized them into a shoe bin as well. I have also put my granola bars into a bin next to little man’s snacks.

This view seriously makes me happy…if I didn’t love my painted pantry doors so much I would take them off the hinges so I could see this beautiful pantry all the time.

As happy as I am to have this organized, there’s still a lot to do!

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