Consider the rest of this week as Organization Week here on NewlyWife. While I would say that the first days of the new year make me yearn for a clean and orderly home, it’s actually something I’ve been working on for the past couple months — as evidenced when I tackled my messy closet.
This time, I wanted to organize my pantry. It’s a great space, but I just didn’t know what to do with it when we first moved in. That indecision and need to store stuff led to chaos that ended up costing us, literally. I would end up buying doubles and not buying things we wanted because I couldn’t tell what we were needing. Not being able to see what we had meant food went bad.
Plus, the white-painted shelves were getting marked up and dirty. It was so bad that I would actually daydream about organizing them while at work. Here’s the before:
Dun dun dun!
I emptied the shelves and got to work.
Organization in progress: it must get worse before it gets better.
Removing about two shelves at a time, I separated the items by those I wanted to keep, toss and those that should move elsewhere. With the “keep” pile, I sorted like by like. Some of the organization also had to do what would fit within the space. For example, our cereal containers are so tall that they had to go up on the top with the liquor. (Yes, it seems like a lot of stuff up there… Hey, what can I say? We like a cocktail every now and again.)
Below you’ll see a very exciting picture (sarcasm, if you couldn’t tell) of me measuring and then cutting the tan shelf liner to size. It wasn’t tacky and I had bought a can of spray glue to hold it down, for some reason I didn’t use it. I used tape instead and it didn’t really work as well as the glue probably would have.
Woo hoo -- measuring!
See the full transformation after the jump!
Ta da!
Finished, organized pantry.
Best of all — no more gunk on the floor. It was a ton of scrubbing to get that clean sheen! A place for everything and everything in its place.
On top: liquor, syrup and cereal, which are the tallest items in the pantry. Below are canned/plastic tubbed goods. Yes, that is jumbo Nutella -- perfect for the hazelnut gelato I can't stop making!
It was important for me to sort the items instead of stacking and squishing. You want it to be visible so you can use what you have and restock when you’re low.
My baking stuff is all together. I put the spices and sprinkles together in a box, so I don't have to cradle the pumpkin bread ingredients in my arms and likely forget something along the way. And check out the Costco chocolate chip bag. Drool! Below are the snacks, energy drinks and to-be-refrigerated beer. You know, the essentials.
Up top you have your spices and sauces. Below are your dry goods like pasta, potato flakes (confessions of cooking shortcuts!) and pancake mix, which leads into the flour, sugar, etc.
So there you have it — my organized pantry. I love it! Have you been bitten by the New Year Organization Bug yet?
How encouraging!!!!!!
Great job, Emily! And I was just bit by the organizing bug before Christmas– organizing/getting rid of toys and clothes to make room for the new ones for the girls. 
I was thinking the “before” picture didn’t look so bad! haha. The organizing bug is trying to bite but I’m doing my best to resist. Kind of like fighting off the flu.
ahh I love organization! I’m so jealous of your pantry—we do not have much kitchen space at all and it’s a huge problem! Just yesterday while cooking dinner we were complaining about it
Oooh I want to organize now! Thanks Em!
Maybe I should share pics of our garage… but it’s more of the “middle” stage right now!
Megs, glad to help in any motivation!
Hey Natalie! Yeah, I love our pantry — when I can find stuff, that is. I’ve seen some pretty neat storage solutions around the web. Let me know if you need any help or tips!
Claire, while it doesn’t really “look” bad it was basically an “all you can stuff on one shelf” mess. Mostly I wanted to get rid of that gunk from the Costco vegetable oil container. It would drip down the side and get tacky. Yuck.
Amory — how smart to make space before Christmas! I’ll have to make that something I do each year. Maybe start in October so I won’t be overwhelmed in December.
Great job! I just recently had a chance to go through our pantry when we moved everything from the old kitchen to our new kitchen – boy was it great to get in there and throw everything that was rarely used away! I also consolidated all ‘bagged or boxed’ materials (like flour, sugar, cereals) into oxo pop containers and what a GREAT investment those were!
Happy 2011.