An Organized Pantry

What better way to start off the New Year than with an organized anything, right? Last year we finally tackled our pantry and it has made all the difference for us. This is how we got our simple, rustic pantry that keeps our food items organized! As you can see, I chose really simple storage solutions, and not much labeling. Let's take a look at the final result.
Cleaning and Painting
I have always liked the layout of our pantry. It has 4 deep wooden shelves going across, you can easily see what you have, has a light, and nice height. But it was dirty! The shelves were in bad shape. They looked like they had never been wiped down, nonetheless painted. When we first moved in, it was on the bottom of our list. It took two long nap times, and a few hours at night when the boys were in bed, but we got it done in one weekend.
First things first, I prepped the pantry to paint it.
Emptying all the food items, then getting to those nasty shelves. I scrubbed, then scrubbed, then scrubbed some more.
After all the gunk was removed, I used a piece of sand paper to smooth down the shelves.
I put a drop cloth down and did not bother with painter's tape because everything was getting a fresh coat of white paint!
I used this latex-water based paint. It has held up wonderfully! I chose this one because of its 100% acrylic finish. Acrylic is more durable and resistant to flaking and peeling. Ideally use 100-percent acrylic paint for your pantry, if you want to be able to use soap and water to clean up spills etc. Especially because I chose ultra white, I went with semi-gloss. You can use a wet rag and wipe away spills and smudges fairly easily.
I used the same paint for the walls and the shelves. I didn't want to spend money on two separate paints and it saved me time to simply use the same color.
Using a brush I painted three coats on the shelves, and using a roller I painted two coats on the walls. I was being extra cautious here, I have two boys!
After everything was dry, I then applied polyurethane. This takes no time, and is by far the most important step. Yes, I got high quality paint, but it is white and I knew my little ones would eventually be pulling those bins and crates from the shelves.
While I had the paint out, I gave the door and frame two fresh coats of paint. It instantly gave the entire pantry - inside and out a facelift!
It really is amazing what a fresh coat of white paint can do. The picture below is a year after the original paint job. There are a few scratches, but I think it has held up wonderfully for what we put it through on a daily basis!
Organizing the Pantry
Before I started, I found different storage containers that would allow our foods to be visible, contained, and easy to access. Most of my finds came from Homegoods, you really can not beat there prices on these kind of items. I also found a few odds and ends at thrift stores. My goal was an organized pantry on a small budget!
I found the big wire basket at Homegoods for paper towels. It is so convenient to have them off the floor and easy to access. When they were on the floor my toddler would wrap himself like a mummy every chance he could get. The shelf under the paper towels contains everything related to baking. I put the baking shelf up high because I wanted my sugars and flours in glass jars (away from toddler hands). The mouths of the jars are wide enough to fit large measuring cups, which is a huge plus. I added these chalkboard labels to the jars, so there would be no confusion between flour and powdered sugar! Mason jars store baking extras like slivered almonds and baking cups.
The plastic containers contain items we eat everyday and are constantly being refilled. Because they are in lidded containers the boys never touch them (it's amazing!). I had originally planned on labeling everything, but once I started filling the containers I knew immediately that would not work for us. We are always changing there contents and you can easily see what is in each of them. I know many people feel a labeled pantry is an organized pantry, so if that is important to you by all means! I found that cute tin container at a thrift shop, gave it a good cleaning, and put the boys go to snacks in there. It is so nice to easily see when we are running low on something.
On the lower shelves, we have things that are not a big deal if the kiddos get into them. Our canned goods are in an old basket from Target. The basket has been so great for canned items, we can easily see what we have, and this way the cans do not scratch my white paint! An old crate acts as storage for our teas, nuts, and adult snacks. In the above picture you can see I put extra things from Costco like ketchup and peaches in the back corners. The corners of the shelves used to be unusable because you could not see what was back there. Thus, we focused on placing the baskets so we could visible see our extra groceries in these spots.
This was such a simple and fairly inexpensive solution to a messy problem. Have you done any small projects that have made your life a little more organized and a whole lot better? If so, I would love to hear about them!