Does anyone else have a hard time keeping your pantry organized? It seems no matter how many times I try it gets completely messy. We are lucky because we have a large pantry but sometimes that makes it harder to keep clean and organized. The snack shelf is nearly impossible and my kids won't eat things if they think they are to old or opened for to long.
I thought about the storage bins for all snacks and cereals but that wouldn't work in my house. I looked up some ideas on Pinterest and combined a bunch I liked that would work for our family. I picked up Chalkboard Labels so we know what is in each container plus they look cute. I bought the containers from multiple places like, HomeGoods, Walmart, Target, and Michaels. We are lucky our pantry shelves are very deep and wide and there are ten of them, five on each side so there is plenty of room to fit a lot in.
I started with the flour, bisquick, sugars and oats to get them into a sealed container that would keep them safe from bugs, make less of a mess, and look organized at the same time. (I hate when the brown sugar gets hard and lumpy, and powered sugar gets everywhere along with the flour and sugar.) I am petrified of bugs so keeping them in these is better for my sanity.
Then I moved to the rice, spaghetti, and any noodles I had in boxes. That way I can see exactly what I have and how much and they stay fresher in air tight containers.
Next I had to find a way to organize the can goods. They take up alot of room and it is so hard to know what you have when they are all in disarray. I found these metal racks that expand and allow you to double your space. I found these at HomeGoods.
Next I had the snack shelf to organize so I started with the prepackaged snack that they can just grab and go. This saved a ton of room because what is in these three containers was 11 boxes of snacks!
Next was the rest of the snack shelf. Again I used the metal adjustable shelves that way everything we have is on display and they don't have to go digging for what they want.
There really wasn't a whole lot to do on the cereal shelf as the kids are funny about the cereal. I did put all of the oatmeal in one basket that made more room (4 boxes worth) and easy to grab.
Each side of the pantry has five shelves. The top ones are for storage of things so they were a little harder to organize but look better than they did.
Finally, I had a bunch of miscellaneous items like bagged muffin mixes rice pkg, jellos, raisins, puddings etc. It was also great to put storage baggies, saran wrap, foil and such. I picked up a shoe holder from Walmart and put these things in it. I hung it on the back of the pantry door. I love it because they are organized and they are easily seen so you know what you have.
So after several days and quite honestly a lot more money than I had anticipated the pantry is FINALLY orgainized! LOVE how it turned out and feel better about having some organization in there!