Pantry & Drawer Organizing

Aug 13

3 min read

Updated: Aug 26

The pantry room, or any food storage space can be an ongoing cycle of organizing - when I decided to tackle our family pantry room - I was overwhelmed with the amount of stock. Looking at the pantry - my first thought was, where do I start? I am usually the type of person wants to organize the whole thing at once, it's the perfectionist and ambitious side that starts to kick in; which slows me down and aggravates me to the point where I want to throw in the towel, so I decided to be patient with myself and organize one shelf/section at a time.

Not to mention, it can be tempting to run out and buy matching bins and jars right away, but the real work starts first by observing the general layout of your architectural space and the height of your shelves.

After, as I started purging the shelves, I noticed a common theme: hidden duplicates of certain dry goods, like grains and pasta scattered throughout the space alongside unused jars. To reset the space, any grain or dry goods that developed a stale scent were dumped into the compost bin.

Next, I noticed a hidden stack of kefir/sour cream plastics containers and stacks of egg cartons were recycled and the space started to feel less heavy.

Once the purging process builds momentum, you slowly start to see the physical results of your hard work. This visual clearing acts as fuel - leaving you motivated to continue tackling your space.

The next step is cleaning your shelves and sweeping the floor - we need a clean area before we start to categorize our items. Now that we see the items we own - we begin to question, why we bought numerous tubs of bread crumbs? No judgement, it's the result of having a scattered pantry room. Unnoticeable items end up becoming hidden gems tucked into dark corners, resulting into unused food equals spending money.

Another good organizing tip: "Shopping your own pantry first," check existing supplies first before heading out and buying more goods. This saves us time and money.

If anyone lives in a multi-generational home, we know this can process can trigger friction and arguments. Family members who grew up with a different mindset believe discarding unsued items is similar to throwing out hard earn money. By clearing these shelves, we become mindful of items we consume daily use vs seldom used items.

By examining the pantry area, first, we simply started organizing the bottom shelf. This helped prevent an overwhelming amount of work and burden to our organizing project. Not to mention, this helped create early momentum, showing immediate progress before tackling higher shelves.

Not only did we want to make the small space look organized, but aesthetically appealing. We chose wooden storage boxes to create a warm and natural feel to the space. The organic texture instantly softens the grey/white color palette. Making minor adjustments to your space creates wonders