If you are like me, you love the look of a fully organized fridge, cabinets, or even a pantry.
I mean honestly, I binge watched ALL of the Home Edit series on Netflix in two days during maternity leave. If you haven’t watched it, I am NOT liable for the amount of cleaning, organizing, and purging that will ensue. You can apologize to your significant other for me right now…
So after watching this and completely tearing apart and organizing my kitchen cabinets and my pantry, I decided that I really just hated my pantry set up. I have disliked it since we moved in. So, I took to my handy-dandy Pinterest and began dreaming up ways to redo the pantry that met our needs for storage and was more functional.
Searching for inspiration wasn’t all that easy because sooo many of the “Pinterest perfect pantries” are HUGE. Like, walk in, multiple wall shelves and mine is definitely not that size. So I began to look for qualities that I liked, and the first thing that jumped out at me was APPLIANCE GARAGE.
To make my appliance garage:
- First, I made a list of all the appliances that I wanted to go into my garage
- Then, I measure out the dimensions of said appliances
- Once they were all measured, I organized them functionally factoring in the weight of the appliance and how often I truly use it to stack the order.
As you can see, my bread maker is at the top because it doesn’t get used nearly as much as my mixer or my crockpot.
Once my appliance garage was set I studied the heights of my storage containers, and mapped out the shelf heights that we wanted based on weight of items and again, functionality. If it was an item that I was CONSTANTLY using, I wanted it to be at eye level or just a little bit lower so it was easy to get to. Conversely, if the item is a “special occasion item” it could be stored near the back.
Creating Appliance Garage and Shelves
We ripped down 2×2 sheets to make frames, screwed the frames into the studs in the wall, and the clad the shelves with 1/4″ plywood on the tops, bottom, and side of the appliance garage for a finished look.
Using the framing allows for good support and concealed hardware.
To attached the plywood we used a variety of adhesive and small screws if needed.
Once the shelves were clad, I decided I really liked the raw shelf look and left that part natural while only painting the frame white.
One huge space saving idea is to take the cabinet divider organizers and stand up all your bakeware, which I did behind baskets and bins that pull out for easy access to the bakeware behind them.
After my shelves were fully put together, I tried to group the snacks together as well as the “protein items.” I picked up most of my organization bins from Menards, and Amazon.
Of course, my items will always be moved around so stay tuned in a few months I’m sure I will once again rearrange.
I want to leave you with 5 simple tips to get your pantry straightened up and organized.
- 1. Pull all the items out of your pantry and group together like items
- 2. Use clear containers with labels to cut down on boxes (and please recycle them!). Clip expiration, cooking instructions, or nutrition information and tape to the underside of the container
- 3. Organize based on functionality, meaning most used items should be at easy grabbing height and easily accessible
- 4. Designate an “overstock area” if you buy items in bulk so you don’t have 25 jars of tomatoes taking up space in your main area
- 5. PUT. THINGS. BACK. WHERE. YOU. GOT. THEM. Immediately. Seriously–this will save you time. As you are cooking and baking, put the items back as you finish using THAT item, it makes for less cleanup and its much easier to stay organized.
I’ve teamed up with some other bloggers to bring you more organizing tips, tricks and hacks! Be sure to head to each of their blogs to find out what kind of organizing tips they have for you!
Allison
https://lifebyallison.blog/
Laura
Http://www.noturaveragemomof5.com
Jessica
Www.mamabearwooten.com
Trista
https://findingournextadventure.blog
Leave a comment below of your LEAST organized area, and check out my Instagram video for a quick transformation.
