Pantry Organization Part One

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Hello again Everyone! So today I am writing another post on ORGANIZING FOOD in the KITCHEN. Having a ORGANIZE PANTRY is so helpful because you can always find what you are looking for and it save you money because you will not over buy FOOD items because you will know exactly what you have on hand in your PANTRY. I title this post PANTRY ORGANIZATION Part one because I have two closet PANTRIES in my KITCHEN and today I am going to share one of them with you. The other I will share in a later post.

So in my last post title "Trash to Treasure Shelf Makeover" (click on the title and it will take you to that original post) I showed you how I took a SHELF that someone was throwing away and gave it a MAKEOVER to fix it. This SHELF is the SHELF that I used in my PANTRY to ORGANIZE my FOOD. 

This PANTRY closet only had one wire SHELF in it and it was at the top of the CLOSET. I knew I wanted to have SHELVES in it to be able to store all my FOOD. At first I wanted to buy SHELVES that you can install into the walls and create yourself a SHELVING area, but than I thought we are only staying in this house for a short time so I really didn't want to put holes or much effort into a house that is not mine. If it was my own house than I would have. So the solution for me was just to get a SHELF that could fit into that space for me to use. It so happened that I had this SHELF that someone was throwing away that I fixed up and it fit PERFECTLY in this PANTRY CLOSET.

To ORGANIZE all my FOOD I used baskets from "DOLLAR TREE". Love Dollar Tree!! I separated the FOOD by categories so they would be easy to find and put away after Grocery shopping.

Whenever I ORGANIZE I try to MAXIMIZE my space and use every nook and cranny I can to be able to get the full use of the space I have. To MAXIMIZE space in this PANTRY CLOSET I used green crates that I got from WAL-MART awhile back. They fit perfectly and helped create another shelf for that higher space in the closet. Here is where I store my SNACK items that I buy. I have them here until I open them to bag, sort, and ORGANIZE them into individual SNACK bags for my "Organized Snack Cabinet" (to see my post on my how I create and organized a Snack Cabinet click on the title). Like I said in my "ORGANIZED SNACK CABINET" post I do COUPON, so yes this may be a lot of SNACKS more than your family eats. Because I do COUPON I buy things when I see them close to or nearly FREE so yes I do STOCK up when I see a good deal so that is why there is a lot of snacks. I felt I had to say this again because when I posted my "ORGANIZED SNACK CABINET" post I got some mean and rude comments about having so many snacks. Again I do coupon and stock up when I see a good price and also if you don't want to buy that many snacks that is ok I am just trying to share some ORGANIZATION TIPS with everyone that has worked for me. Sorry had to say that real quick now back to the post. 

The top SHELF is where I have my paper plates, Ziploc bags, and food wrap papers. I made labels for the baskets with my computer in Microsoft Word and then I hole punched holes in the top of the labels to attach the labels to the baskets with ribbon.

The next SHELF is where I store my baking supplies, seasonings, and spices. I like having the baskets because you can hid all the clutter and different size items in it but it is also easy to take out and look for what you need.

The next shelf is where I keep my oils, syrups, condiments, cooking wines, and sauces.

The next shelf is were I keep our Vitamins and miscellaneous things. I feel you always need at least one miscellaneous baskets when you are ORGANIZING because you will always have those things that don't fit into a category so they can go in there.

On the bottom SHELF is where I store all my canned goods. I used different baskets for them than the other things I stored above. I used baskets with handles that you can also get from "Dollar Tree" which most all size canned good items fit perfectly. I separated the basket by categories so that it will be easier to find the kind of canned food you are looking for. The categories are Pasta, Veggies, Fruit, and Misc. I put the older cans on top so I use them first.

Like I said before when I ORGANIZE I like to use every space possible to ORGANIZE with and it really helps when you have small spaces. In this CLOSET PANTRY I even used the door to be able to ORGANIZE my food by using a "OVER THE DOOR SHOE ORGANIZER". Over the door shoe organizer can help you ORGANIZE any room or thing in the house. In fact I have them all over my house to ORGANIZE things and rooms. 

Even though the shoe organizers have clear pockets and you can see what is in it, I still like to add labels to them because for one it looks pretty (well to me at least lol) and also when your little ones or hubby is helping you put the grocery away after shopping they will know where it goes. Also some shoe organizer don't have clear pockets like this one and you will need to label them to know what is inside them. Here is a easy and quick way that I labeled my pockets and it adds color and a prettiness to the shoes organizer. I just took some decorative DUCT TAPE and put it above the pocket. Then with my label maker using white plastic label tape I created the category label and stuck it onto the middle of the DUCK TAPE. The good thing about labeling it this way is if I decide to put something else in the pocket all I have to do is change out the label part not the whole label. Because the tape has a smooth surface and the label is the plastic kind it comes off easily without ripping the tape.

At the bottom of the shoe organizer is where I keep my trash bags. Sorry that it looks weird and the labels are not aligned. The trash bags on the right are the ones we use often so we have pulled on that pocket more making it look lopsided lol.

The next two rows up is where I store my  paper cups and disposable utensils. We have get togethers and I do different projects with the kiddos so that is why I have different size cups. The utensil I also use for parties but also for packing the girls lunches for when they need a fork or spoon for their lunch meals. Having the utensils stored this way makes lunch packing easier as well.

The next two rows is where I store our Oatmeal, Vitamin C, Sazon, and Cocoa packets. Things that you have in packets store great in these shoe organizers.

On the top row is where I store soup and taco seasoning packets. Again I am sorry that organizers looks crooked. We have had this one for some time and pulled on it so it has shifted.

There you have it a look and break down of how I store some of the foods in my pantry. I hope this helps you or gives you some ideas on how to ORGANIZE your PANTRY or anywhere else in your house. Stay tuned for my next post which will be title "Pantry Organization Part two". In that post I will show you how I ORGANIZED the rest of my FOOD in my other PANTRY.

So how or what are some ways you ORGANIZE your PANTRY?