DIY Pantry Organization Ideas
Professional Organizers • San Diego & Los Angeles, CA
DIY Pantry Solutions
You can still have a beautifully organized, functional pantry -even if you did it yourself.
Honey, do we have any more ketchup? Yeah, look in the pantry. I don't see it. Well, if your pantry is a hot mess, it may not be a matter of him not looking for something right in front of his face but due to the total disarray of your shelves. Check out these DIY pantry organization ideas to get your pantry in tip-top shape so even your husband can find what he's looking for.
DIY Pantry Organization Ideas
Shopping can be a pain, and so can putting the groceries away. Often we enlist the help of little hands just to make the job go by faster. But being in a rush and not having a system can lead to chaos. And chaos is no friend to tidy organization. Check out these helpful DIY pantry organization ideas to get you back on track.
What's Back There
Again and again, you will see this as a theme in space-saving organization tips-utilize the space on the back of the door. You can hang spice racks here, your cleaning tools, aprons, a plastic bag organizer. You can hang all sorts of things from the back of your pantry door. If none of that sounds good, make it command central and put up a whiteboard calendar where you and your family can communicate and make grocery lists.
Unbox It
I know you've seen plenty of pictures of pantries with cute, matchy-match jars and bins instead of stacks of store-bought packaging of your typical pantry staples. Well, it isn't just to make your pantry look picture perfect. Unboxing your goods, specifically anything wheat-related, and storing them in air-tight containers keeps the bugs at bay. Nobody likes weevils. So send them packing by storing your wheat products, rice, and beans in air-tight containers. You can even make them look pretty if you want to with matching containers and labels.
Rack 'Em Up
Using can racks is another way to optimize your shelving. Often pantry shelves are tall, but not all cans are made to be stacked, leaving some in precarious positions, which can be dangerous to tiny toes. Can racks alleviate this problem by stacking your cans vertically. Just remember to rotate your cans in a FIFO (first-in, first-out) method if you don't use all your canned goods before buying more.
Mix It Up
If you usually use things together, go ahead and mix it up and store it that way. This goes from herb blends to soup fixings. Package them up into air-tight containers and keep them in a basket on the shelf for premade mixes.
Stack It Up
Don't be afraid to add adjustable shelving to your pantry shelves or stackable containers to help maximize space on the shelves. Make the most of the vertical height of the pantry shelves. They are made to accommodate things like tall cereal boxes, but many pantry items are much shorter. Don't be afraid to use containers or additional shelving to stack it up. Go high!
Lazy Days
Lazy Susan's aren't just for the table. Use them in your pantry for hard-to-reach areas like corners or the top shelves. Put condiments or baking goods on them. Small items that easily fit and won't fall off when being spun around.
I See You
When choosing your baskets and bins for your shelves, remember to select see-through containers. This allows you always to see what's inside, so you aren't forgetting and letting it spoil. There is no point in buying food just to waste it. No one likes to throw money away. Buy bins and baskets to see what they hold inside, so you don't forget to use them.
Go Down Under
Don't forget about that wonderful space below your shelving units. Don't let it go to waste. You can do so many fabulous things from adding crates or bins on wheels to store larger items in or just keeping larger appliances down there out of the way. Just don't let it go to waste.
Group It
Group like with like. Whether you are putting them in bins, jars, or can racks-always be sure to group like items with like. This way, your groceries are never getting lost and forgotten until that day, several years from now, when you get a wild hair and decide to purge your pantry and find that can of green beans that expired two years ago.
Out of Sight
Put items that you rarely use out of sight. If this is small appliances, they should either go overhead or down below. Things like spare condiments and baking goods (unless you are a baker) should go up high or down low. And kid snacks. That's a choice you have to make. Do you want them easily accessible so kids can help themselves? Or do you know your kids will eat them all in one day if you leave them within reach, and they need to be stored out of eyesight? Put the things you use daily in the most accessible places.
Roll With It
Use rolling bins under the shelves to store things like soda, bottles, larger, heavier items that you can wheel about. Ikea makes wheeled bins, or you can easily add casters to wooden crates. Just pick some up from Home Depot or Lowe's.
Wrapping It Up
So there, you have some great DIY Pantry organization ideas. But it always starts with a clean slate. So before you get started, take things off the shelf, ditch expired foods, vacuum and wipe down the shelves, and then you can work on reorganizing it in a tidy manner. Another DIY pantry organization idea is to label your items not with the name of the items, although you can do that too, but with the expiration date. Most of the time, you can look at the things and tell what you are storing, but you won't know when it's gone bad. So write the expiration date on there, so you know when to toss it.
