Project: Pantry

One of the best things this floor plan has is storage space.  I loved this floor plan from the minute I saw it.  If Mike had to have a big house...then I wanted it to be this one.  There is a separate laundry room (not a walk-thru), a coat closet downstairs, a linen closet in the upstairs bathroom, a linen closet just outside the upstairs bathroom, his and hers closets in the Master, a linen closet in the Master Bath, and the pantry is NOT a closet.  It's the underside of the stairs...so it's nice and roomy.  I've seen bigger, but mostly smaller...we are so blessed with our space.

I hosted a babyshower at my house at the beginning of August for a friend.  As I was getting everything decorated and putting the food out I realized what a disaster my pantry was.  I had definitely noticed before, but now it was staring me in the face...with company coming over. Ugh.  Everything was just tossed on a shelf.  I had organized and re-organized each shelf, but nothing was working...it always ended up a disaster with not an inch of shelf space for one  more thing.

That was my final straw.  I decided I was organizing my pantry...and my kitchen cupboards.  I have a decent amount of space...I shouldn't have to fight for everything to have a place.  And Although I am much happier and a lot more organized...there is still quite a bit of room for improvement.  It's a daily chore to keep up with everything...and some days it just doesn't get done.  Oh well...I'm doing my best.

I headed straight for Pinterest and searched "pantry organization".  About a kabillion posts came up, so I started making a board with that had bits and pieces of what I wanted to try.  In the end, I took a few ideas of my own, plus some great ideas I found on different blogs, a trip to the Container store, a trip to Bed, Bath, & Beyond, a trip to Walmart...and an organized pantry emerged!  It took me about two days from start to finish.  Mike is a good hubby and helped entertain Blip while I was lost in the mess.  After I finished, I decided I would leave it the way it was for a month or so before making any changes...that way I would have a good sense of what was working and what was not.

Here are some BEFORE photos...I don't really want to post these for the world to see, but since I actually remembered to take BEFORE photos...I have to use 'em.

 Don't judge me!

Here are the AFTER pictures.

 So far this is all working out much better than the toss-it-in-and-hope-for-the-best method we had been going with.  I love the can racks I got from Amazon.  I moved the bread from the counter to a basket in the pantry. This is a MUCH better place for it than taking up a bunch of space on the counter.  I moved Mike's coffee K-cups into a 3-drawer organizer.  I put all the drink mix thingys that Mike likes in one of the drawers.  In the third drawer I put the hot chocolate k-cups and Mike's tea k-cups.

I really struggled with how to organize OUR pantry to fit OUR lifestyle.  I really loved the idea of everything in canisters, but aside from the price, it just isn't conducive to the way we live/eat.  The black bins were the cheapest way I found to organize everything in groups that made sense to us.  

I also kept in mind that Blip will be needing access to foods he can eat on his own a lot sooner that I'd like to admit.  I made sure to keep those items low enough that he could access them without having to climb or need a step-stool.  I also labeled a few of the shelves so that the grown-ups in the house (that don't know where things are...so that would only be one of the two grown-ups in this house...) could see what is stored where without bending down to look.

For now the system is working.  I'm hoping that it will continue to work and make life easier for me...I mean all of us.

EDIT:

I forgot to add that I have also started separating out all of the snacks into individual serving size bags.  It keeps the clutter down because there aren't a 100 boxes on the shelf and it also makes Blip choosing a snack or refilling the diaper bag much easier.