Organizing My Pantry, A Labor of Love


I hated my pantry! There, I said it. I didn't hate the space, I loved the space. It's wonderful to have that space in my small kitchen. Our pantry happened almost by chance, a second thought. We had been doing a little remodeling work, and we were going to be left with this rather awkward space. My DH suggested throwing some simple shelving in there and putting some bi-fold doors in front. Oh overjoy and wonderful! A pantry was born. But since we were already pretty tired from the original remodel work the pantry just existed, never repainted or made pretty, just functional. 


A few years later it was still the same only now more cluttered and in need of a good cleaning out. It was time....  Here's the thing, If something starts to bug me, to steal my joy, to become a point of stress, I try to do something about it. Its part of my thinking, the "Enjoy Life Anyway" way I have decided to approach things.

Cutting the paper and applying to shelves.
The shelving had shifted a bit and was no longer quite level, the shelves were stained and the whole inside needed cleaning and painting. Step one, decide to do it. Step two, go shopping. lol I didn't buy much, just one horizontal divider for platters, shelf paper, and some new storage containers. BTW, I got a deal on the containers, they were being discontinued and were half price. Yeah!

Loving this design,
First I had to empty the whole thing. Uggg and double uggg. What a mess. It took every bit of room in my kitchen for all the stuff I had in there. There are a total of 5 shelves, each 5 foot long and the floor. Next, removing shelving, cleaning, and repainting. Did I tell you I don't really like to paint? Well, I don't. I really dislike washing the brushes and cleaning up. Anyway, once cleaned and painted it was time to start putting things back. I changed the placement of some of the shelves and put things back a little differently. I did get rid of a few things, some old spices and a soda machine we no longer used.

Top shelf with paper on the bottom!
I really like the shelf paper I got, a cute blue and brown dot design. I decided to put the paper on the bottom of the top shelf. After all, I wouldn't be able to see it from the top and it looked cute that way. I put everything back in, putting like things together in nice little rows the way I like it. End product - I loved it. Now I love my pantry and life is a little bit happier. ♥

Horizontal divider for platters.
Under shelf basket I already had.
Very old Lazy Susan I just cleaned up and reused.
Rubbermaid containers for different types of flour.


As always, I would love to hear from you!




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