A Pantry Organized for a Family
Did you know you can do a virtual walk through of our new pantry with me? Check out the video on my YouTube Channel!
We moved into this home about three years ago and one of my very favorite parts about it immediately…the pantry design organized for a family. Large with lots and lots of shelving. We had spent the previous ten years in a home with a small kitchen and tiny pantry – so space felt like my new best friend!
But what I quickly realized is that more space comes with more stuff! I was making more Costco purchases to fill up my new space and it was a little overwhelming to look in our new pantry. Just ask my husband. He approached me about a year in and asked if I knew of a solution to “hide” some of the stuff.
Yes. Yes, I do…
But like with any new home purchase, we had spent a lot of money that year furnishing and decorating, so I wasn’t really feeling like we had a lot to spend on pantry bins. So we started small and I decided to make one change at a time and then see how it worked for our family.
We started with these super inexpensive IKEA Drona bins to help hide the items that looked the most chaotic. Here’s where that got us initially.
I added labels that were similar to these Amazon bin clips that ALSO come with pantry label stickers! What what?!
I decided pretty quickly that:
I didn’t want my kids to continue to touch my new, black bins with their grimy hands.
The things that we use the most (snacks, breakfast) I wanted to be more visible so they go back to the right place.
The Pantry Bin for Families
So I did some shopping and found these glorious Container Store Large Wooden Bins that fit my deep shelves perfectly! These wonderful inventions do stack, which makes them even better. But for the height of my shelves just one was perfect.
Okay, you might be judging me for mixing black cloth bins with wooden bins. But here’s the deal…I get bored with too much of one look. And I think mixing 2-3 different textures adds a little style to a pantry. Call me crazy.
We have two walls of shelves in our pantry. So I designated the wall straight ahead to be all the things our family, and more importantly, our children use every single day. I put the wooden bins there so they can see the options, and easily put back things where they go (cue the angelic singing of praises).
Here’s where that wall ended . I organized by snack type first. I like the look of “styled” bins so I enjoyed making the snacks looks pretty in each bin. And I am happy to report, that it’s been fairly easy to keep it looking this way. I go through every Sunday and pull snacks from my backstock bins and fill each wooden bin back up for the week. AND…this makes it so easy for me to create my grocery list because I can see what we are missing.
Next I noticed I had a little room in between the wooden bins so I added some affordable Walmart clear snack bins in the middle for those snacks I buy in bulk and not individual sizes. And actually, my kids have LOVED these.
Snack Bin Links: Variety Pack | Small | Medium | Large
Finding a Way to Hide Pantry Chaos
Now it was time to focus on the long wall. I really liked the black IKEA Drona bins we had been using – so I decided to keep those and buy more to fill the whole wall. I had already pulled everything out of the pantry and organized it on my kitchen counter by like items – so I knew how many more bins I needed to buy.
These were all the things that didn’t need to be visible, but just needed a contained home. Check out the final on that wall.
Long Wall Product Links: IKEA Drona Bin | Cereal Bins | 12″ White Turntables | Glass Jars | Container Store Label Clips OR Amazon version with label stickers | My Fav Chalk Marker
You guys!! I so wish I had a picture to show you what it looked like before. But this is how I felt about it before this update!
Can you relate?? Listen, I love love to organize pantries. It’s my jam. If I could help you with yours either virtually or in-person in Kansas City, it would just make my day. Reach out to me about your project and I’ll touch base with you to schedule a free 15-minute phone consultation.
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