How I Use Cabinets as our Pantry + the New Pretty Organization!

Hey friends, happy Friday! I hope you all have had a nice week. We had an absolute blast on our annual camping trip, and since I took Monday off as well, I feel like I was still in vacation mode for most of this week haha. Hopefully next week I can fall back into routine again and be a bit more productive.

I am super excited to share today’s post with you guys because it has been a long time coming! When we first moved into this house, I immediately didn’t like the fact that the pantry was located so far away from the kitchen. Here’s a picture that I snapped the day after we closed to give you an idea of what I am talking about.

I decided to rip it all out and we built a little mudroom nook there instead.

You can read all about that process in this post here. It’s a much better use of the space for our family; however, we needed to find a new solution for food storage. Since we have a lot of kitchen cabinets, we decided to utilize two of them as a pantry.

For the past 4 years I have struggled keeping it neat and tidy and no matter how many times I tried to reorganize them, they always turned in to a mess very shortly after.

Excuse the poor quality of these pictures, I only grabbed videos prior to starting so I had to grab screenshots for this post!

I have been wanting to create a nice storage system in here, but the price of pantry containers and bins always seemed so high, and I also wasn’t sure of the best way to do it.

On our last grocery shopping trip, I found this set which I thought was a really good deal, so I picked it up to organize the boys’ snacks which is what you see on the bottom shelf in the picture above.

I was going to stop there for now, but the very next day Target put most of their Bright Room line on 30% off! I took it as a sign that now was the time, and I ordered a bunch of everything. Once it arrived, I cleaned all the containers and then with the help of my littlest assistant we started filling them all up.

And finally, I present to you our new pantry cabinets!

Not only do they look a whole lot prettier, but everything also now has a designated spot.

Having this system in place has made it easier to find things, and it has also made it easier to see when we are low on something.

Okay let’s get to the details, starting with the cabinet on the left. I am including a full source list at the bottom of this post to link everything that I used.

I used a combination of large, medium and small containers to hold all of our baking goods.

This has been one of the biggest game changers for me because instead of rusting around and trying to find what I need from where they were on the top shelf, everything is accessible and easy to grab from

I also used these containers to hold pastas and rice. I was worried that the medium containers wouldn’t be big enough to hold a box of pasta, but I am happy to report that they are a perfect fit.

Of course, you guys know I love labels, so I used this template and printed them out on sticker paper to give each item a label. FYI–not all sticker paper is the same! The first order had a plain paper texture that didn’t hold up to water or grease, the one that I am linking is much better.

On the next shelf, I used large and small bins to hold packaged dinner items. I love that they nicely corral everything together and are clear so that I can easily see where everything is.

On the top shelf I used the same bins to hold packaged drink mixes and baking items.

I also found a much better way to hold our sprinkles and food coloring! Previously they were always falling on top of each other, and it took forever to find the color we were looking for. They are all now nicely organized on this clear spice rack.

Having them all in these matching spice bottles is a huge help as well. I made sure to go with plastic since I know from experience that glass falling on quartz usually doesn’t end up so well for us haha!

Okay, now let’s swing over to the other cabinet.

I wanted to find a way to have our oils and syrups neatly organized and this clear turn table was the perfect solution.

I used large oil dispensers for our vegetable oil and maple syrup and this set of bottle dispensers for our other oils that we use.

It’s actually really satisfying turning the little table around to access what you need haha!

I kept the boys’ snacks in the same bins. They have been enjoying having easy access to their snacks and it’s easy for me to see when we are running low on something.

I was able to sneak in a couple of containers for cookies and graham crackers on the bottom shelf.

On the middle shelf I used containers to hold snack grains that I use for lunches.

And finally, my favorite feature–clear turn tables for the canned food!

I have them separated by fruits, beans/soups and veggies.

It has made grabbing what I need an absolute breeze compared to the mess that they were before.

I am in love with our new system, and I can’t believe that it has taken me this long to get around to doing it.

I also organized the cabinet below to keep cereal and a few other items like the boys’ candy, potatoes, granola and popcorn.

These cereal containers are awesome at keeping the cereal fresh and are so easy to pour from. The clear drawers are perfect for keeping the boy’s candy stash and are the same ones that I used under our kitchen sink.

I should mention that we do keep overstock items on metal shelving in the basement, so if it doesn’t fit in here that’s where it goes to live for the time being and I restock from there before heading to the store.

I hope this post has helped inspire you or has given you a few ideas to incorporate in your own home! Please let me know if you have any questions on anything.

Supplies Used:(Affiliate links may be provided for convenience.  For more info, see my full disclosure here.) 

• large food container
• medium food container
• small food container
• label template
• sticker paper
• large clear bin
• small clear bin
• spice rack
• spice bottles
• clear turn tables
• large oil dispensers
• 4 set of bottle dispensers
• shelf paper
• cereal containers
• clear drawers

If you enjoy organized spaces, be sure to check out THIS POST on our kitchen sink organization!

PIN FOR LATER!

Linking up to these awesome parties!

(Affiliate links may be provided for convenience.  For more info, see my full disclosure here.)