Pantry Makeover

I thought I should try and get one more New Year's resolution goal accomplished before returning to work so I spent my last days of  my vacation cleaning out our pantry and reorganizing it. 

Here is what I use to see when I opened my pantry door:

As you can see I had quite a big task ahead of me.  

The first thing I did was empty the entire pantry. I put the items in three different groups; items to return to the pantry, items to find a new place for and items to get rid of.

As you can see there was a lot of stuff in our pantry to go through and sort. I tried to group items together into different categories. I also checked expiration dates and am embarrassed to say that I had to throw a bunch of stuff out.

It took forever but I finally had an empty pantry!

It needed a good scrubbing and some paint, which I did next.

  Then it was off to Target to get some items to help organize the things going back in.

I found containers made by Snapware to put dry goods in.  They range in price from $6 - $10 depending on the size.  They are airtight and stackable. 

I also bought some baskets which were only $3 for the large size and $2 for the small.  They are stackable as well.

I used the plastic three-tier can shelves I already had to organize the canned goods.  I haven't seen these around since I bought them a couple of years ago but I did find you can buy metal ones similar to mine at Target  for around $8.  I used sticky notes to help figure out what should go where.

I also bought two turntables for bottled items for about $5 each.

The last thing I had that helped organize my pantry was a spice rack that hangs on the door.

It took parting with some things, finding new places for some others, and a lot of time organizing and reorganizing but here is what I see now when I open our pantry door:

All I have left to do is label the shelves, baskets and containers so everyone knows where everything goes.

I will also be taking a trip to the grocery store soon to restock the shelves since they're a little bare now.

Next on my list to organize are my kitchen cabinets...wish me luck!