Pinterest is a rabbit hole of images and possibilities of how your home could look or outfits to wear and recipes to try. This time it got me with my pantry. I honestly didn’t care how my pantry looked a few years ago. I tried to keep it neat as best I could, but since that was a space no one would ever see it didn’t bother me that much. Enter Pinterest and it’s never ending barrage of pictures and tips on how to organize. It was probably something people had been doing long before the social media platform became a thing, but it seems like a trend just appeared out of nowhere. And yes, I took the bait and got sucked all the way in. I am not a trendy person by any means. Trends are typically here today and gone tomorrow, but this one I don’t think is going anywhere. Everybody wants to get organized so this is something that has serious staying power.
I told myself I was going to organize my pantry at some point and just kept putting it off. After the Covid pandemic hit I thought, ‘what better time to do it than now?’
Here is how to get a pinterest worthy pantry in six steps:
Step 1: Find a Reference Point
This is really where pinterest will come into play. Find images that will inspire you and give you a good starting point. Fair warning, one picture will have you in a whole other category and you will have forgotten why you were up there in the first place.
Step 2: Asses your space
You absolutely need to know what your space can hold and what will work for you. A lot of the pics on Pinterest are of pantries that are fairly large in size, so making sure you know how much space you’re working with is essential to knowing what you need.
Step 3: Buying Your Items
There are so many different store options to choose from, so at this point you can sort of set a budget for yourself and pick your store based on how much you want to spend. I chose Wal-mart, mainly because I was too impatient to wait for stuff to ship to me and they had a great line of the clear containers with the white lids similar to the OXO brand of containers. The Wal-mart brand was significantly less than the OXO containers, so that was a no-brainer for me.
Make a list of the things you need: from baskets to storage containers and so on. This way you can avoid buying a bunch of stuff you don’t need.
*TIP: Buy a few extra containers just in case you run out or have foods that you’re not sure of how to organize.
*TIP: Buying sets of the containers will help you save a lot of money and you can get the starter packs that give you a variety of sizes in the set.
Step 4: Pick a theme and be consistent
Containers come in a few different styles so you just need to pick the theme you want. I went with the clear containers with the white lids. There’s a bunch of choices so once you pick, just stick to that theme.
Step 5: Group things/Put things in categories
Cereal is an obvious grouping, so is pasta. I found these weaved baskets to display and store my toilet paper. This step will be different for everyone because it’s based on the things you buy and keep in your pantry. There really is no right or wrong here, just have fun.
*TIP: Everything should have a place. No matter what it is, make sure you have somewhere for it to go.
*TIP: Once you are finished with the overall look and organization, you can add more things later. You can also decide if you want to label your containers.
Step 6: Take everything out
This step is inevitable, and you really can’t get around it. Starting with a clean, empty space is best and it will really help you see where to put things and how to arrange them. There is seriously nothing like having a clean newly organized pantry!
This is a great project to take on and you will feel like a new woman when you see the finished product. The hardest part is trying to maintain it and keep it from looking the way it used to look. LOL!
*Everything I used is in the images below. You can click on them and shop away!
Happy Organizing!
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