Organizing the Pantry!

  Organizing my Pantry! 

I need organization in my life. When my little world isn’t in order I find myself grumpy, a little confused (more than usual!) and my creativity just stops. So organization is for me, a beautiful necessity. I thought this would work great for Melissa’s Beautiful Life blog party on her site Inspired Rooms…

Today, I’m starting with my pantry. My organization plans always include pretty…I’m not a function only girl, it has to be pretty first, functional second…it’s madness, I know…

I start by taking everything out of the pantry and purging the old or stale stuff! I clean the containers and the shelf paper and rethink my placement of everything.

My pantry is tiny, most people have a bigger one so it’s easier, but even if your’s is smaller or if you don’t have a pantry, you can still make your storage space pretty and functional with a little thought and planning.

Containers are super important. A year or so ago, I went from plastic containers to glass. I like glass much better. But whatever you choose if it’s clean and neat it’ll be great! If you decide to switch your system of storing you could do it a little at a time. Buy containers for the flour and granulated sugar one month and the next month buy for your oatmeal, brown sugar and powdered sugar. It’s so much fun to shop for containers and you can find them everywhere!

I like these for baking essentials…

I have a label maker and I’m not afraid to use it!

 

The Husband and I don’t eat dinner Mon.-Thurs. (we’re old, if we ate dinner every night we’d blow up!) In the winter, we sip on Hot Chocolate instead, so I like everything handy…

Back in the day when the kids were home I had tons of canned goods, I kept the bulk food on shelves in my washroom. These days, with just the 2 of us I don’t need to buy bulk! I keep cereal, popcorn and other “boxed” things in a spinning cabinet.

I love long bread baskets for foil, parchment, and plastic wrap! And the 2 shallow baskets on top hold small & gallon size zip-lock baggies. (I found these in the “bathroom supply” section at good old Walmart…they were super cheap!

This is my S’more center…thanks to my bud Gitz, I neeeed s’mores!

Don’t forget the pups! Treats & Cheerios! (I throw out a handfull of Cheerios as I leave the house, it keeps them busy for a minute so they don’t cry!)

The Boo has a super sensitive tummy. I keep Pedialite for when he needs it, which is at least once a month!

And 2 kinds of food for them…Ollie has kidney issues and can’t have meat…and although I make the white pups food (chicken breasts,brown rice, and green beans)my vet makes me include dry food in with the home-made so they get their vitamins! I know, my pups are super spoiled!

I do love these containers for keeping their food. Got them at Target!

Okay, here’s the tiny pantry all finished!

Do you have any organizing plans for 2009? My next project is my wash room. It’s an overflow room and gets messy really fast.