If you're participating in the 8-Week Organizing Challenge, how did working on your kitchen or pantry go last week?
**psst - If you are just interested in the topic for Week #2, feel free to scroll to the bottom of this post.
I shared on Thursday that I was working on my pantry and I'm excited to show you some more progress today!
It is such a big improvement from before; mostly due to some paint and patterned shelf liner. That part was a lot of work though and it was much more fun to start filling up the shelves!
Since I have an almost 3 year old, it was important to organize our pantry in such a way that jars that could break, or food that can spill, where stashed out of his reach. This also allowed the lower shelves to be filled with his snacks. We have two baskets for him, one with the healthier snacks and the other for his fruit snacks that are more of a treat. He likes to grab his own cereal box too, so those also worked well on a lower shelf.
Since paper products aren't breakable I stuck them in the back corner of his snack shelf. They're just sitting right on top of our popcorn container {which has popcorn packets stuck down in it.} To me, it's always a bonus to use one of our serving containers for storage. We don't eat popcorn every night and when we do, we can just set the paper products on the shelf.
Our drinks {lemonade, hot chocolate, tea, coffee, etc.} are all stashed in a basket with handles so that we can pull it out and move it into the kitchen when we are making drinks. I also leave things like marshmallows, coasters, straws and creamer in this basket too.
All of these baskets and bins were pulled from around the house. So, even though they don't exactly match, I did stick with a general color scheme of silver, browns and blues. If you don't have many containers around the house check places like the dollar store, supermarkets and consignment shops for affordable options.
Baskets make things feel more organized, but they actually make things more organized too. All of my baking items are stashed inside two metal baskets, side by side. This includes things from flour and sugar to sprinkles and icing.
To the right of these wire baskets are my cupcake liners stacked in a mason jar.
I used a couple turntables in the corners to hold various jars, bottles and spices. These are so handy since they keep everything easy to access, even when it is in the back.
Even though all of these baskets and bins were used, I did grab this glass jar for $6 + 40% Off coupon at Hobby Lobby for pasta and labeled it with some washi tape and my label maker.
So when do you label? For me, it is only when it make sense. For example, I don't label the shelves holding our canned food. Sometimes we'll have more green beans {or diced tomatoes, corn, etc.} and other weeks there will be less. Therefore, I don't worry with labeling that shelf.
However, labeling each container is very functional for our family since it makes it easy to refill the pantry after returning from the grocery. Or, in the case of our serving basket, after we empty the dishes.
We used the hooks in the pantry for some of our cleaning supplies. To make them easy to hang I strung some leftover cording through each handle.
I'll share a little more about some of the decorative details in later posts since I wanted to focus on organization and functionality today. Soo... now that we've looked at the progress made during Kitchen and Pantry week, let's announce week #2!!
Tomorrow we'll share a roundup of office and desktop ideas to get you started and then look for ideas through the week on our Facebook page too.
Of course, we'll be sharing this post and are excited to hear what you completed this past week... and then we'll do the same thing next Monday after we finish Week #2. Make sure to like us on Facebook and subscribe so that you don't miss any of the challenge!
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Linked to: Remodelaholic,
Thrifty Decor Chick,
Your Designs This Time, The Makers, Inspiration Link Party, Thank Goodness It's Thursday, Talented Tuesday, Create and Share DIY and Recipe, Moonlight and Mason Jars,
Labels: 8-Week Organizing Challenge, Before and After, DIY, kitchen, Organization
