Kitchen Pantry

 

Of all the things that I have done in my life, I regret one thing: not taking a before picture of this pantry. If you would have seen the before, only then would you know the extreme impact of decluttering and organizing this pantry. The picture above is pristine, I know, but it does not show how many things were stored in here. For example, there were 5 cans and bottles of gravy. You think that's funny? Look at your pantry and tell me you don't have cranberry sauce from last Thanksgiving. There was also a large basket on the floor that housed a lot of Nutrisystem, but we ended up throwing that away along with the 8 other trash bags of expired food and one box of donated canned goods. 

Since these shelves are pretty deep, the main problem with functionality in this closet was the visibility of all the food items. I suggested that we use Lazy Susans from Bed Bath and Beyond for canned goods and bottles. This way, Cindy and Greg would easily find items and save money by not buying doubles of something. Something as simple as Lazy Susans created a more functional pantry. There was no need for labeled containers, or fancy shelving, which is what I feel like people tend to resort to in times of pantry disorganization. The more simple a solution is, the better!

 

We then separated the food into sections to the left and right of the Lazy Susans.The categories that work best for this family ended up being pasta, breakfast, snacks, Nutrisystem shelf (my personal favorite, since it's now all in one place and organized by meal), plastic bags and storage, baking, party supplies, and cooking supplies. Some minor adjustments that we made were adjusting a shelf to fit cereal boxes, fixing a crooked shelf, and removing the basket on the floor! Ta-da!