~The Pantry~

Y'all, this is my most embarrassing "before" so far. But, it is also my favorite transformation so far! Since we don't have an official pantry in our house, I use a bank of cabinets near the refrigerator. It was such a mess and hardly organized at all, that whenever I would put groceries away, I would just get frustrated. Lots of stuff would just end up staying on the countertop because I just didn't know what to do with it (or we just wouldn't put it back when we were done). Okay, I'm nervous about revealing these photos, but here goes.

Before:

Before I took everything out of the cabinets and off the counter in front, I picked through it all and removed anything that could (or should) go somewhere else, so that I could limit this cabinet to food only. This included baby bottles, breast milk bags, pitchers, a blender, etc. I put all of these things in their rightful place.

Then, I stopped to think about how I should arrange things to make it most functional. Which leads me to my tip.

Tip of the Day: Function is the most important thing to remember when organizing. If your organizational method, no matter how good it looks, is not functional to you and your lifestyle, then it is NEVER going to work. Prioritize your space. Easy-to-get-to cabinets and shelves house things that you use often. Out-of-reach places house items you only need once in awhile. Items that you don't use have no place in an organized home. Donate them or have a garage sale!

I ended up changing up almost everything about my pantry with the hopes of making it more functional.

After:

I got this idea from another blogger. Instead of taking up space with all those bulky cereal boxes, just put the bags in a cute basket. I got this at Pier 1.

Yes, this is a hospital tub. I got it when my first daughter was born. They work very well for washing bottles and pump parts. Turns out, they also work well for holding pasta! Not the prettiest, but it will do until I can afford nicer containers.

After purging my pantry of any expired food and unnecessary packaging, I had plenty of room to store most of the items that had been cluttering up the counter top. I really love these white canisters, but I've had them for years and am getting tired of seeing them all the time, you know? They are still filled with sugar and flour, just hidden away now :) You can't see it too well, but in the corner is a black tin (like one that comes filled with popcorn). I used it to house partial bags of flour, sugar, and brown sugar that are just not fun to look at.

We don't use a lot of canned goods, but now they are all within easy reach.

Containers purged from your Tupperware cabinet make great ones for organizing, as well! These hold drink mixes.

I have a confession. I buy the more expensive, single serving vegetable cups so that my daughter can have vegetables at every meal even if I don't. However, they are super hard to stack in the pantry. I got these chip bowls at Target for $1 each. One holds veggies and the other holds various other food items my daughter likes.

Taking all of the various types of crackers out of their boxes and putting them in a basket saves so much room!

I got these cute little Ball jars at a garage sale several years ago. Seriously, I got 28 of them for $2. I didn't really have much use for them at the time, but I just *knew* they would come in handy some day!

Well, I know this was a long post, but this was quite a long process for me! I hope you are as happy with your pantry revamp as I am with mine!