Kitchen Pantry Before And After
Last Updated on December 2, 2024
It’s finally time to share the final installment of the New Year, New Room Challenge hosted by my friend Stephanie of Casa Watkins Home. Rather than a full room makeover, I took on a smaller project and decided to organize the kitchen pantry because it was a hot mess. Is it Pinterest perfect where everything is in a matching canister? Nope. This is real-life living, and it was completed on a budget. Oh, before we jump in, I want to mention the other gals who joined in this challenge. I linked them all at the bottom of this post.
Table of Contents
A Looksy At The Before
As you can see, organization is not always easy to maintain at HOH—especially when you have kids. It just takes one thing to be misplaced for it all to unravel.
I already had a few food containers on hand, but to control the chaos, I needed to order a couple of lazy susans, plastic bins, and a can organizing rack (which turned out to be the most valuable piece storage-wise). I did not want to invest a lot of money into this project, so I decided to work with what I had. I mean, everything sits behind a door, so there was no need to buy all new just to be matchy-matchy.
After Look At The Pantry
Before I get into the steps I took to reorganize the pantry, I want to give you the final reveal. No need to drag that out, am I right? Ta-da!!!!!
Sliding Wire Basket (similar)
NGL, I did struggle with all the colors and different boxes. I wanted to achieve that clean look of grains and dried pasta stacked in the beautiful glass containers that you see on Pinterest. However, I still read the instructions on a box of Mac N Cheese. I also never know how long it takes to cook pasta or rice. I needed to keep the boxes. Practicality would trump design here.
Side note: I tried the glass containers with the wooden top once for flour and sugar but ran into these issues. It’s impossible to fit your hand and a measuring cup in the top hole. The sugar turned rock hard because it was not an airtight seal. They were clumsy to pour. They’re glass containers, so you have a flour and glass mess if your kid drops the jar. Hard pass on all of the above.
Now, did this pantry project take a full month? No. But breaking up the tasks week by week made this makeover easy peasy. A few times, I felt overwhelmed, but I wasn’t working on it 24 hours straight for days at a time just to quit.
The Steps I Took To Organize The Pantry
1. Add Interior Lighting
While working on the kitchen makeover, we asked Mitch to add lighting to the pantry interior. It would have been the first step in this makeover if we had not installed this already. Once you have interior lighting, you can’t live without it.
2. Map Out An Organizational Plan
I mapped out my pantry as a guide before starting. This gave me a plan of attack and a budget.
3. Start From Scratch
Pull everything out. This was the most overwhelming task for my ADHD brain. Seeing everything on the counter, tossing expired salad dressing and canned pumpkin, and wiping everything down was a tedious job. I was over this part before it started.
4. Clean, Vacuum, and Repaint (if needed)
Before putting everything back, my original plan was to paint the interior, but that overwhelming feeling took hold, and I decided that painting was for another day. Instead, I wiped down the shelves and called it a day.
5. Organize By Catagory
I put everything back and organized it by category to access what bins I already had and what I needed to purchase.
6. Add Storage Bins, Lazy Susans, and Organizers
Once my new storage bins and lazy susans arrived, I got to work. The loaves of bread and rolls that were usually tossed on a shelf were placed in a large storage bin. Canned food was wrangled into a storage rack, and coffee received its own dedicated lazy susan, as did bottles and spices. My morning smoothie ingredients were placed in a dedicated wire basket.
7. Add Risers For Height
Risers were placed in the back for items we needed but did not use daily to double storage and make things like flour and sugar easy to find.
See More NYNR Challenge Makeovers
Be sure to hop over to see what the other final project reveals!
Casa Watkins Home // Our Fifth House // Iris Nacole // My Eclectic Nest // This is Our Bliss // House of Hipsters // Once Upon a 1912 //
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