An Organized Pantry

A couple months ago, while my husband was playing Risk with some of his buddies, I got the urge to re-organize our pantry.

My goals for this project:

• increase efficiency - most used items on most easily accessed shelves, less frequently used items on top and bottom shelves
• add labels - make organization easier to maintain, help my husband remember the new location of items :)

I began by taking everything off the three most easily accessed shelves.  I then placed ingredients for our main meals on the middle shelf-used the most.  My husbands snacks for work and cookie stash underneath, with breakfast food and drink mixes above.

Next I placed snack items and coffee on the second shelf up from the floor.  This left my baking goods and paper products.  

Baking went to the bottom...

...and paper goods to the top.

I used green baskets I had purchased at Big Lots to help keep smaller items corralled.  They also act as drawers on the lower shelves, increasing ease of access to items towards the back.

I replaced the cardboard boxes our sandwich and snack bags come in with clear, glass salsa jars I had washed and removed the labels from.  They now take up less space and are easier to access.

 Once everything was in place, I went to my computer and started working on labels.  I chose colors to coordinate with the baskets and a fun, easy-to-read font.  I printed the labels on cardstock, cut out and used tape to adhere them to my shelves.  I chose to place the labels for the top 3 shelves on the face of the shelves, while putting labels for the bottom two shelves on the top of the shelf- much easier to read them while standing if they're on the top of the shelf, rather than the face. 

My Labels

My Organized Pantry!

Quick Tips:

• Place most frequently used items in easy access spots.
• Keep like items together (baking-flour, sugar, cornmeal, shortening).
• Use baskets/bins to keep smaller items corralled.
• Maximize space by using kitchen space-savers.
• Add labels to make your hard work last longer!