Project Organization: Pantry Reveal

Here it is, in its clean and organized glory!  Of course, even when I'm "done" I never feel done, so I'm tacking on my disclaimer that in a perfect world (one in which I have infinite amounts of time, money, patience, and talent) I would have repainted the shelves and stenciled the walls with a beautiful design and the baskets and containers would be pricey and designer gorgeous. You know, like all the beautiful pantries becoming famous on the internet.  But I live in the real world, where kids and budgets and time constraints exist.  So my shelves are a little dirty and the bins are a bit haphazard and I bought them at the dollar store.  But, fantasies aside, this pantry is really beautiful to me, and even more important, it is super functional! 

Okay, I'm going to do as little narration as I can get away with because I'm tired and I really think the pictures are the most interesting part anyway (at least that's what I would want to see the most).   Because it's pretty impossible to get a good picture of the whole pantry since it's in a corner and the lighting and angle are difficult, here's a diagram to show you how all the individual parts fit together.  (You can click on it to enlarge it if you're having a hard time reading all the tiny print and you're dying to know, for example, what that weird-shaped thing in the corner is.) 

So, starting from the top left shelf, moving across and down:

the large items and appliances on the top shelf

paper goods and lunch containers

junk food (up high, out of the kids' immediate reach)

dinner bins 

(the weeks' dinner recipes clipped to the bin containing canned goods, etc. for that dinner)

dinner/breakfast appliances and canisters

the rice cooker in the foreground and yes, that is a waffle iron peeking out from behind

breakfast shelf

 

baking goods

LOVING the lazy susan for the #10 cans

lunch shelf: sandwich/toast station and drink mixes

 

dinner shelf

snack shelf

um, yeah, portioned snacks are frequently running low...these kids are eating us out of house and home!

(among other things)

my awesome sugar and flour buckets

which have gamma lids on them so I can just switch out the buckets from my food storage when they are empty!

onion and potato bins

I seem to be missing the shot of the stool and oil...but I think you'll forgive me, right?  (I mean, really, a stool is a stool, and last time I checked there was nothing exciting about oil.) 

So, to recap, here is a before and after: 

 A few more details, in case you're interested....

The shapes for the labels came from this site, and the font on the labels is MTF Skinny Jeans.  I just played with them in Photoshop to make them the size I needed, then laminated them.  The baskets and the zip ties are from Dollar Tree and the canisters are from Family Dollar.  (Thanks to Leslie for all her research and hard work in finding them!)  The wire shelves, gamma lids, onion and potato bins, and some of the small packet baskets came from Walmart. 

I am loving, loving having an organized pantry!  Thank you again, Leslie!