Pinterest Worthy Pantry Organization
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
By purchasing through our affiliate links, you are directly supporting our blog and us as creators! So thank you!
Do you have one room in your house that you’ve let get completely out of hand during quarantine? Oh, you have more than one too? GREAT! Well this is one of mine, meet our pantry. Never had one of these before but was PUMPED to see it in this house when we saw it for the first time. Before this year we weren’t big into cooking; eating out 3-5 times a week was super normal for us. Then COVID hit and I was too shit baked to order take out, que binge watching Sam The Cooking Guy and now, heeerrrrre we areeee (if you know, you know). So yeah, I cook now. Being in the kitchen almost every night has taken it’s toll on our poorly organized kitchen pantry so I decided it was time to gut our food storage room, paint it, and do a little Pinterest worthy makeover.
I will note that we decided to stick with just cosmetics on this makeover, so paint, organization, and styling. This was simply because we are planning to gut our kitchen after the holiday’s and didn’t want to do anything permanent before we settled on a style and design for the new space. This is strictly organization, anyone can do in their space wether its a small food cabinet, a closet, or a full ass pantry (ass pantry). Let’s do it.
Watch the full makeover here:
This room was starting to show it’s age, the walls were marked up from use and some of the melamine was peeling. The walls were cream and if you have been following us for long enough you know I am not a big fan. I prefer bright, blinding white walls. We tossed on a fresh coat of our fav Decorators White and that instantly brightened things up.
We kept the cabinets and countertop all the same, we plan on pulling whatever we do in the kitchen into the pantry next year so you will likely see an updated post on this space.
What we had going on wasn’t working, everything was tossed in randomly and there we’re no zones at all and no space for anything. We took everything out and thought about how we would ideally like to use the space. I tend to graze a lot, I find myself wandering in looking for something to shove down my throat hole every couple of hours. Chris is always searching for snacks. We broke up each “cubby” into zones, using the highest shelves and the deep bottom shelves for longer term storage.
Food/Storage Zones
The big wall is what you see when you walk in to the kitchen, and the other wall is hidden until you are physically inside the pantry. We decided the wall that would be seen would need to be pretty but functional. The hidden wall would hold all of the bulk stuff, baking stuff, anything that looks a little sloppy or messy.
1 & 2
Cubbies 1 and 2 are dedicated to snacks, breakfast and every day cooking. The first side features cereal, granola, oatmeal and cream of wheat with a variety of small nuts and raisins to top them with. We also have mixed nuts, jerky and dried fruit for quick snacks. Something to prevent us going for the chips immediately. Cubby 2 is filled with noodles, pasta, rice, flour and sugar. This are things that look great in jars but we also use them often and it’s nice to be able to quickly take inventory as soon as you walk in. We have some sauces and spreads on a lazy susan for quick meals, stuff that we might want to try but don’t want to forget about.
Below we made space for potatoes and onions, chips and popcorn, paper towel storage, and some larger wooden boxes (that are empty). It’s key when designing a space like this having extra space for more stuff. If you finish and your room is blocked then you have know where to put new things as you go to the store and stock up on food.
3 & 4
Zones 3 and 4 are further back into the pantry and hold things we may use often but not as often as the snacks. 3 holds cookbooks, left over pasta, our large crock pot, and some empty jars for future treats. 4 holds all of Chris lunch Tupperware with the dishes being on one shelf, and the lids being on another. His lunch box hangs out there too. Above we’re storing a smaller crock pot and on top we have some mesh baskets which hold paper plates and plastic cutlery, travel mugs and water bottles.
The Ugly Side
This is where we keep all of our backstock (the bulk and extra stuff you get during your grocery run). Each shelf serves a purpose, one for bulk goods, one for all canned goods which are placed on tierd shelving for easy access, one for ramen/soup/soup making ingredients, and then a “whatever” shelf where we have some Advil, paper bags and random mac and cheese.
The next cubby, which is closer to the door, is one of our most frequented zones which contains stuff that doesn’t look great but tastes delicious. Again, each shelf serves a purpose. The top shelf is first aid stuffs, then we have a shelf for baking, one for cooking, one for drinks and juice, then we have two important shelves. One that has two baskets, one of which contains a junk food dump, and the other is what I like to call “grab and go” which contains individually wrapped snacks like nuts, granola bars, cookies, fruit leather, stuff Chris can grab and throw in his lunch bag for work on the fly. Below we have a basket of cookies and crackers and then some breakfast dessert like pancake mix, peanut butter etc.
Each zone has been thought out to fit our life. Behind the door I picked up two magazine racks from Amazon which makes the perfect storage for all those reusable grocery bags.
Damn, it feels good to have that space taken care off. We’re looking forward to bringing it to the next level when we redo the kitchen. I can’t wait to update the lighting and maybe add some art but for now we will see how it functions over the coming months.
We hope this space gives you at least some motivation to clean up a space you’ve been neglecting, or even some inspiration to organize your own food cupboard. If you do, tweet us a pic @beckiandchris!
Becki and Chris
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beckiandchris
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/beckiandchris
Twitter: https://twitter.com/beckiandchris