Pantry Organization

There is nothing that excited me more than plants than organization. It comes natural to me, but Mr. JCrew views it as a super-power! I’ve come to the conclusion that my drive to organize comes from the feeling of not being able to find something. I don’t like that feeling! The pictures I have are not going to do this space justice. The next picture is my inspiration picture.

I found a lot of inspiration out there!

So, I organize things… everything! And my boys love it. I’ve trained them well. If a space is empty, they know something is missing from its home. Time to look for it! At least this is my vision. Mr. Pfitzer definitely gets it!

Now, organizing is hard if not everyone is on board. I can organize a space, but then it has to be re-organized a while later because things are not put back into place. When I am the one organizing, I know the thought process it took to make the decision on where something goes. I try to explain the thought process so that others understand and maybe will remember.

With pantry organization, it is a different type of organizing. The types of food we have always change! I recently organized the pantry, so I thought I’d share the process. I realized that the first thing I like to do with organizing is to take the item out of the box it came in and store it in something else. This helps make the pantry look unified. Instead of many different colored boxes of cereal, the containers are the same.

I also did this with oatmeal. We buy in bulk when it goes on sale and Mr. Pfitzer still eats it daily. I bought baskets to empty the instant oatmeal packets into. Looks SO MUCH BETTER than all the oatmeal boxes crammed on a shelf.

I also emptied the macaroni quick cups into a crate so I don’t have to look at the ugly box, but I can also see when I am running low.

That basket is currently at Target and is metal. I am trying to find reasons to buy more, I love them!

My first basket I did in the pantry years ago was a basket for Mr. JCrew’s popcorn. He loves popcorn, so we buy it in bulk at Costco. I didn’t like the box, but the basket makes it more presentable.

Now, the next part of organizing is grouping by category. I buy a larger basket to group items. There is a basket for nuts.

A basket for pasta/rice.

A baking basket.

An applesauce basket that Mr. Brigglesworth doesn't like to get low.

A basket for snack items that the kids are allowed to access when told they can grab a snack. Items in this basket rotate, but the kids like knowing they can pick anything in that basket after they have been told they can grab a snack. They know permission has been granted for anything in that basket.

After grouping items, I also have categories for shelves. There is a juice shelf that houses all the extra juices (for when bought in bulk). We use to buy Juicy Juicy when it went on sale and would buy 12 at a time. We needed a shelf for all of that!

There is a breakfast shelf.

The top shelves of our pantry are so high, that I have to pull out the full size ladder to access the stuff. But up on those tall shelves are items not used often. Coolers, cupcake tins, extra utensils, extra cups and extra tins. Because we buy things in bulk, I need a place to store the extra items. I keep a small quantity of disposable utensils, plates and cups on a shelf to grab in a pinch, but the bulk is stored on the top shelf.

My favorite part of the pantry is the Lazy Susan I used for the bottles. This was always my least favorite shelf in the pantry, because I could not figure out the right way to organize this. It just never looked good. I'd try to make use of the depth of the shelf, but would always have to move a container to get to the one I need. No more! This Lazy Susan was perfect (well, two Lazy Susans!).

The fridge is just as organized. I use containers in the fridge to group like items. I have a container for cheese and a container for juice boxes.

A container for bread. (We keep it in the fridge to last longer. Dave's Bread can go bad quick if it is not refrigerated!)

A container for yogurt, cottage cheese and Jell-O, and containers for carrots and grapes.

This type of organizing helps me look to see what I am low on. I either go into the pantry to the bulk storage (juice) or I put it on my grocery list. There is even a spare bin that I use as needed. It doesn’t have a defined category, but it’s there when needed. I recently used it to store the salad ingredients that came from a kit from Costco. Their salad kits usually are enough for two occasions and they supply the dressing in two packets. So, I stored the salad ingredients in the spare bin to keep them all together until the next use.

There are some things that are not on normal rotation that don't have specified storage. Pistachios were one thing we were trying and I will say, they are being added to our rotation, so I am going to get a container to store them. They will have a home here!

I will say, that I think we do a better job of eating the ingredients we have and there is less waste when the fridge and pantry are organized. People can clearly see what is available to choose from. I can say I want a piece of bread and open the bread bin to choose the type. Or I can say that I have a sweet tooth and want to bake something and go to my baking bin to choose an item. Plus, it just makes me happy knowing I can go into a room behind closed doors and not be scared of something falling on me or worse… not being able to find something!