Practical Pantry Organization Tour

If you know me, you know that I thrive on order and organization. I like everything to be tidy, and have it's own spot, and if it doesn't then my brain gets super jumbled, and I'm kind of a mess until the issue is resolved. In as much as I would love every part of my home to be super organized, it's not. The kid's rooms continue to be my greatest downfalls, but if I can have my bedroom, living room, playroom, bathroom, and kitchen organized, I feel like I'm doing pretty well for myself. 


Our pantry in our current home is literally a small closet with shelves off of the kitchen. Everything always just got shoved in there, and it was hard to have any real organization in there. Finally this summer I decided enough was a enough and found some inexpensive and simple solutions to make this a practical space for our family, and I've never looked back. 

How to Organize on a Budget:
Lets be honest. There are a lot of pantry tours on the internet that look beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Every grain of everything has it's own fancy jar, with a beautiful label, and it looks like The Container Store and Restoration Hardware made a baby and created the most glorious pantry of all time. And there is nothing wrong with that. Those pantries are beautiful, but they're certainly not practical for every family. 


I bought these Sterilite bins on Amazon (although they sell the same size white bins at Dollar Tree for $1 each, that I've used in many other places around my home, so if you don't have an Amazon gift card like I did, check your local Dollar Tree!), and they fit perfectly side by side in the small closet space that I was working with! I think being able to group like items into bins instantly makes your pantry look, and feel so much cleaner! 


Everyone loves cereal containers in their pantry, and I'm certainly no different. The OXO brand are the most popular for this, but they're also the most expensive. I bought these ones at Target for $14 each, and they get the job done just as well as their more expensive counterpart. The OXO brand are $9 more at $23 each!

How to Organize Your Shelves:  
I personally feel like cereal is something that always belong on the top shelf, my brain just works that way, and I feel like there is something about looking up to the top shelf and seeing those cereal containers all lined up together. It just makes my heart pitter patter. 

On the next shelf, I put things that I reach for on occasion, but not all day long. On the left hand side I have things like canned corn, green beans, and peas. These are items that I look for 1-2 times a week when I need a quick side dish to go with dinner. In the bin next to them, I have cans that are used for dinners through the week, like sauces and such. I also keep things for school lunches like some canned fruit and olives. This is where the all the random cans get congregated to that we use through the week. 


On the next shelf we have the things that we use the most often. This shelf is right at arm level, so I know I can walk in, grab something super easily and quick, and get on with the rest of my cooking. In the basket on the left I keep all of our grains. Things like pasta, quinoa, and rice. These are things that I make for sides throughout the week, and so I'm constantly reaching for these come dinner time.  On the right I have my cooking spray, various oils, peanut and other nut butters, and breakfast syrup. Again, things that we're reaching for on a very regular basis. 



On the final shelf I keep things that we don't use nearly as often. In the basket on the left I keep all my workout supplements, like protein powder, energy gels for long runs and bike rides, pre-workout, and my PB2 powder. I only use these things a few times a week, and so storing them on the bottom made the most sense for me. In the other basket we keep our root vegetables. Things that don't need to be refrigerated like potatoes and onions. 


And that's it for our pantry tour! I love that all of the organizational things came in at $64, and really isn't too expensive. To be fair, I had a gift card for the white baskets, and a gift card for the cereal containers, so I actually didn't spend any money of my own on this. However, if you were doing this on your own, the cereal containers would run you $42, and the white baskets from the Dollar Tree would be $6, making all of this come in at under $50! 

Let me know in the comments below your favorite ways to organize your pantry, and what systems help you to keep things organized! 

18 comments

  1. Plastic containers for cereal has been a life saver for me! Thanks for inspiring me to take a fresh look at my pantry.

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  2. I love all your tips and tricks for a pretty and organized pantry. I’m also a huge fan of plastic containers!

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  3. Ugh. So neat and clean. Just the way I like it!!!

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  4. Thanks for the tips and I hope to make my pantry very well organized too. The sterilite bins on Amazon looks great and neat and selling at very affordable price.

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  5. You are very well organised I must say. I love your tricks. They are live saving. I must try them out.

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  6. I wish I can do that, Ikea for me is haven might find something similar to organize our pantry back home

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  7. This would be so great i look at the nice ways in all of it and i love it.

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  8. What an organized pantry. How I wish I could be as organised like this.

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  9. What wonderful ideas! I have yet to reorganize my pantry (I always do it twice a year) and now I can go to the 100 yen stores and get the bins! Thanks for the ideas!

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  10. My pantry could use a good 'ol clean out. Thanks for sharing this practical system!

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  11. Wow, I would have never thought of organizing my pantry like this but wow, you have some great ideas here. Thanks for sharing!

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  12. These are some great tips! Thank you so much for sharing!

    www.livingfromjtoz.com

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  13. These are really great tips. Plastic containers is really my life savers and I think I need to by more for my other stuffs.

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  14. I do love these great tips and I really need that pantry organized to help me to organize our kitchen.

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  15. These are great tips for a organised and practical pantry. I love the ideas you came up with they seem very effective.

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  16. Cereal containers have save not only my pantries but probably have helped me save on many clean ups. I like the idea of basket for onions and non perishable veggies.

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  17. This helps me so much because the one thing that keeps holding me back from doing this is how much I thought it would be! Thanks to your post, I now see how it is much cheaper than I estimated! I'll be starting this soon!!
    xoxo Shannon

    www.ThatsSOShannon.com

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  18. I love these ideas. Definitely implementing some into our home.

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