My project for the last month or so has been my pantry. So much for one project per week . . . that’s life! 
I am pleased to announce that I have finally made some progress on that pantry. Huzzah! Here is my terrible, awful, no-good before picture.
Yesterday, I pulled everything out on the food side and sorted according to zones I wished to create in my pantry (as per this Better Homes and Gardens article/slide-show). I came up with the following zones for my pantry: Baking Supplies, Dry Goods, Snacks, Breakfast Foods, Lunch Foods, Instant Meals/Sides, Condiments, Canned Vegetables, Soup, Small Canned Goods, Other Canned Goods. I then decided where to place each zone according to use and accessibility. For example, I wanted the breakfast foods and healthy snacks (cereal, oatmeal, granola bars) to be at a height and location my kids can easily reach, the baking supplies where I can quickly reach, and the junk food snacks as high as possible so my kids cannot easily get to them. I then used the Better Homes and Gardens printable labels to label shelves and containers, and placed everything back. I’m not done tweaking things. I have already found two shelf areas I need to switch because of accessibility. I also need to work on the non-food side of my pantry. If all goes well, I will accomplish that tonight. Here is the part-way-through picture.
This brings me to my thrifty tip. Whenever I begin an organizing project, I start by looking at a multitude of pictures to see what others have done, taking note of ideas I want to incorporate. I’ll be honest, I usually want to go out and buy all kinds of pretty baskets and containers to emulate those magazine-layout-perfect pictures. However, I have committed to being a good steward of our finances and to stick to our budget. Therefore, I do the next best thing (which sometimes is pretty far from the “best thing”, but worth it in the end) and shop at home. If you are like me, you have a lot that can be put to use in your own closets and pantries. For example, I had this little shelf just sitting in a closet not being used:
Now it holds small canned goods.
The basket below was used to hold waaaaaayyyyy too many coloring books. I went through the coloring books, recycled a lot, and placed the others in another basket that was holding just color crayons.
Add a label and it is the perfect home for holding my soups.
I needed a couple small containers for holding my running gels and seasoning packets.
Adding labels to a couple Ziploc containers worked perfectly.
I also re-purposed some Costco pretzel containers for some of my dry goods.
Maybe it’s not magazine perfect, but it’s on the way to being organized and it didn’t cost me a dime!
Related articles
- Save Money By Organizing Your Pantry (monicaricci.net)
- 6 Simple Ways to Eat Healthy on a Budget (mysweetgreens.com)
- Building a Smart Pantry (thesavingsmomma.com)
- An Organized Pantry (serenajenkins.wordpress.com)
- {pantry 101} Guide to Using Salt (fromscratchclub.com)
- Time to Stock Up? How to pack your pantry and fridge the smart way (deals.com)
- 10 Low-Budget Pantry Items Everyone Should Have (thekitchn.com)
