I love to cook. I love being in the kitchen. It is my sanctuary. When we were looking for houses, the most important aspect I looked at was whether I liked the kitchen or not. While this certainly isn’t my dream kitchen, it did help sell the house to us. Not only does it have a gas stove, but it also has the perfect kitchen triangle (the stove, refrigerator, and sink are in a perfect triangle, making access to all of them quick and effortless while cooking).
I love to shop at Costco and I always need to have excess supplies on hand in case I get the desire to bake a cake or cookies at 10pm. But, I have the SMALLEST pantry ever. It is my least favorite part of our kitchen. It has been a struggle to not only fit all my dry goods in my small pantry closet, but to also make it organized and practical for everyday use.
I spent a lot of time staring at my pantry. And trying to organize. And then making it a mess again. And starting over. In the end, I think I came up with a great system that works for my small space.
And after all that, here are my tips on organizing your pantry and optimizing a small space:
1. Pull everything out of your pantry and deep clean the space. This would also be a good time to wallpaper the back wall of your pantry, for an extra pop of color (I did not do this, but I think I am putting it on my “to-do” list).
2. Check expiration dates and throw out anything that is expired. Donate items that you don’t think you will use.
3. Pick a theme. I chose to do clear Pop containers and hyacinth baskets.
4. Consolidate. Any items that can be taken out of boxes can really help to optimize a small space
5. Organize first, label second. Obviously it is easy to organize dry goods into different containers, but when separating the rest of your pantry items sometimes it is hard to group them together, especially when you have a small space. I bought this label set that actually helped streamline the process for me when deciding what items would group well together. I also used these clip labels for the hyacinth baskets, since you can’t see through the baskets to tell what they contain.
6. Don’t over label. Too many labels on too many containers can make the space look more cluttered
7. Keep up with your organization. It is much easier to maintain a clean and organized space than it is to start from the beginning again. Take the extra effort each time you use your pantry or go grocery shopping to make sure you are maintaining the organization.
Here is my finished pantry space:
baskets // OXO containers // cereal containers // vegetable basket // clip labels // pantry labels
Here a few other kitchen areas that I have organized:
Clear refrigerator organizers // fruit and vegetable container
// Spice jars //
Creatively Catie 