Everyone has that one cabinet or closet that is a complete disaster, mine was my pantry. I mean, just look at it! What a disaster! Looking at that before photo makes my eye twitch. How on earth did I live like that? As you can see, it was filled to the brim with junk and I wasn’t able to find anything I needed. I needed to fix this and fast. Knowing that organizational tools were expensive, I decided to see what the dollar store had to offer. Let me tell you, they’ve got some great stuff for even greater prices! Here are my tips for giving your pantry a much-needed makeover. (Scroll down for the “After” photo.)
Purge
Just like when you’re decluttering your wardrobe, you need to get rid of the old, gross, and useless. See, this is a problem I have; I can never finish food. I see something I like, I buy it, I start eating it, and then get sick of it. Food always ends up going bad at my place. This is why I’ve decided to make an effort to clean out my pantry every month. Not only does it keep my pantry clean, but it keeps me from buying junk food because I know I’ll be throwing away a lot of it. Purging is a great way of figuring out what you need to make space for.
Create Zones
This step is important! You need to create zones for “like items”. For example: put all of your spices together. I’ve zoned my pantry by shelves and put my most used items where they’re easy to reach.
Organizational Tools
Ahhhhh! Much better! Now that you have your pantry cleaned and zoned out, let’s talk about organizational tools. By “organizational tools” I mean trays, baskets, containers, racks, etc. These can be super expensive, especially if you have a large space you’re trying to organize, but it doesn’t have to be. When it comes to organization, I feel like the dollar store has a great selection! My dollar store of choice is Dollarama. They have everything you could possibly need!
Wire racks: These are great for getting extra storage! I use these to double up on extra storage for small and short items. Things like almond butter and small bags of snacks. As you can see in the photo above, I’ve used two different types of wire racks. Each one cost $3.50 (CAD).
Glass containers: I love these so much! Not only do they look nice, but you can put so much into them! I like to use these for things that come in bags, like pasta and lentils. There’s nothing more annoying than only using half of a bag and trying to find ways to store it so the rest of the contents don’t fall out. These are super sturdy, made out of glass, and the glass is dishwasher safe. If you’re looking to stack them vertically, you can turn them on their sides and stack them that way! Each container was $2.50 (CAD)
Fabric basket: Under two of my wire racks I’ve used some baskets. These worked perfectly for my bagged spices and smaller baking essentials, like sprinkles. Actually, I use these all over my house. They’re amazing as drawer dividers and come in a variety of sizes and colours. The baskets I used were around $2.50 (CAD).
How easy was that?
As you can see, it doesn’t take much to take your pantry from a disaster zone to a well-organized cabinet. By going to the dollar store, I was able to do this makeover for around $40! Not bad if you ask me. I hope you found this post helpful and you’ll feel like you can finally tackle your messy pantry. What is the messiest space in your home? Leave a comment down below!
xo Little J
