How To Organize a Pull Out Pantry

Having a hard time finding items in your pantry? Keep reading for my 5 simple steps on how to organize your pull out pantry.

Have you ever had a clear vision on how you want to accomplish a task and there’s absolutely no way you’re budging from that vision? Some people call it a my way or the highway mentality. If you have, you’re not alone. 

A few months ago my husband and I attended our first ever parent teacher meeting with our son’s wonderful Pre-K teacher. We sat across from her, smiling from ear to ear as proud parents do, as she walked us through his progress report. We approached the comment section which was littered with very kind words, and… the suggestion that sometimes it would be helpful for our son to try to be a bit flexible if other kids do things differently than he would ideally like them to be done.

I get it, dude. I totally get it!

And, I’m sorry. You may have got it from yo’ mama!

Almost eight weeks ago I shared my lonnnggggg home reno project list and I’ve yet to really start any of them.

I’ve had this clear vision that I must declutter and organize the house before I start any type of “cosmetic” project. I feel like this vision wasn’t even created consciously, but it’s there and there’s absolutely zero budging. 

Since quarantine or more like quaranclean, I’ve decluttered, deep cleaned and organized every single room on our main floor. The master bedroom, master bath, both kids rooms, guest bath and we can’t forget about the garage.

Today, I’m happy to say I’ve reached the end of the cleaning phase and I’m so ready to move on to the creating phase. But, before I do that I want to share my 5 simple steps on how to organize a pull out pantry.

HOW TO ORGANIZE A PULL OUT PANTRY

Step 1: Remove It All & Clean

• Remove everything from your pantry. Now is a great time to scrub it down, considering it’s empty.

Step 2: Sort & Purge

• Sort food into like items (canned goods, pasta, crackers, etc) and purge anything that is expired. I had wayyy more expired food than I expected. And now I give more thought to purchasing those one off items you use for one recipe and then it sits in the pantry till it expires. 

Step 3: Create A Plan

• Play around with the space you have in your pantry and the grouped items to create a plan that utilizes the pantry and your lifestyle as best as possible. Lowering the shelf in our upper cupboard to make room for the cereal at the back allowed us to use this cabinet much more effectively. This step takes some trial and error, but it’s definitely worth it in the long run.

Step 4: Invest In Containers & Baskets

• Investing in coordinating containers and baskets not only gives your pantry a clean look, it takes up less space and keeps items fresher than the original packaging does. Keep in mind you are storing food so you will want something that is easily washable. The containers I used were on super sale and the baskets are from my local Dollarama. Don’t be afraid to use what you have on hand, like I did with our DIY spice jars. The best part about the baskets? We dedicated an entire basket to smores, so we can grab the whole basket and head outside for a fire. 

Step 5: Label

• Label your containers and baskets as it works for you. You’ll notice I labelled the lids of our containers. Our pantry is deep and when we pull out the shelves, we are looking at the top of the containers so that made the most sense for us. If you have a walk-in pantry with shallow shelves you may want to label the side of the container.  You’ll also notice I didn’t label all the baskets, only the ones that I can’t see in. It didn’t make sense for me to label the ones that I look into from above. 

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There you have it, my tips on how to organize a pull out pantry and a little sneak peek into my pantry. How do you organize your pantry? Let me know in the comments below.

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