Sunday, February 28, 2010

Do two people really need this much food?

I always thought our pantry was a pretty decent size -- a definite upgrade from the non-existent pantry we had when we lived in our apartment. Well, as it turns out, the more space you have, the more you buy to fill it up!

Awhile back, I bought some little wire racks at World Market in an attempt to better utilize the height of the shelves, and that helped for awhile. But every time we stock up on sale items -- like I did on my most recent grocery shopping trip -- it gets a little more out of control in here. It doesn't help that we also have to dedicate one of the shelves to small appliances, since we don't have enough cabinet space in the kitchen.



 
If you were ever curious as to what we eat, now you know.

Things are just stacked and piled on top of each other wherever they fit, and it takes some digging to find what we want. Plus, stuff gets buried and we forget about it until we discover it much later. It's very depressing when you're really craving some popcorn, only to find out the box you have is a year past its expiration date. I ain't messin' with that.

So I finally got sick of staring at these cluttered shelves every time I opened the pantry door, and took a visit to Home Depot to see what storage solutions I could find. Luckily, they just happened to have two of these 3-tiered wire racks left, at about $11 each, a price I could definitely stomach.

I snatched them both up, of course. They may not be the most glamorous, but this project was all about function, not style. The racks came with anchors, screws, and plastic clips for mounting, but those anchors weren't going to work for our hollow pantry door. So we took a trip to Lowe's, where we had previously seen anchors made specifically for hollow-core doors. Genius! 

The anchors worked pretty well, except some of them tore up the door a little bit. Oh well, it was covered up with the mounting clip anyway.
 

After about 45 minutes, the racks were installed!

 

Of course I wasted no time sorting through our shelves and deciding how to best fill those gleaming white racks. I didn't want anything too heavy on them, so this is what I ended up with:

And here are our newly organized pantry shelves:

Maybe you can't tell much of a difference, but I know I can!

For under $25, we were able to add much more functional space to our pantry. Now that we can find things easier, maybe we'll also waste less money on expired food that we end up tossing.

Do you have any pantry problems? 

18 comments:

Patricia said...

wohooo!
you did a great job!!

micah said...

Those wire racks ARE genius. We have one on our pantry door - maybe we need another?! I'm sure we've got some expired items too... oy vey.

Carrie @ Two Poms and a House said...

great idea Amanda! we have cabinets that are long and narrow, some have sliding drawers which are nice but the ones that don't are a pain in the butt b/c my arm is not long enough to reach to the back. i know what it feels like to go searching for something just to find out it is expired. Yay for organization! ps- i just started my own blog (two poms and a house)& the countdown to jbj is on...11 days!

Amy @ Design-Aholic said...

Do I spy some girl scout cookies on the top wire rack?! :)

I so badly wish I had a pantry!

Heather said...

Fantastic! Loving the organization! Our pantry was used by the former owners as a coat closet! WEIRD! http://mckinneyliving.blogspot.com/2009/07/task-1.html

Amanda @ Little House on the Corner said...

Carrie - those sliding racks for cabinets would be nice! We saw those at Home Depot, too. Maybe we will try them sometime too.

Amy - Good eye, catching those Girl Scout cookies! hehe

Heather - I checked out your post. I'm so glad you're getting some use out of that "coat closet" now!

Meg said...

SO smart!! I love that idea and I can totally tell a difference too! Lee's closet is tiny, tiny and we've been talking about wire racks for his closet to create more storage space. Your post has got my wheels turning. You've had some great projects recently!

Danielle and Clint said...

Those shelves will come in handy over the years! Great job adding more space to the pantry!!

Anonymous said...

Very nice. I can't wait until I have pantry problems- once I get a pantry! All those organizer thingies you can buy really do make a big difference.

Unknown said...

I LOVE LOVE yuor pantry size whoa! We have no pantry nada zip zip zero -- I like that you added the door shelves - makes a differance

kristi.w. said...

Wow, your pantry is awesome! So much storage. It looks very neat and organized now.

Kim at Yellow Brick Home said...

Oh, how I LOVE an organized pantry!

Well, we technically don't have a pantry, but last month I reorganized all of our kitchen cabinets while the hubs looked on in amazement. But when I was done, even he could admit what a difference it made in our kitchen workflow.

Dolores said...

I wish I had a pantry room. What I thought was our pantry closet was actually our water heater's headquarters. How weird is that??

Anywho, using the door racks in your pantry room is a genius idea! Great job.

Cara @ Live the Home Life said...

Pantry problems? Oh we got 'em! Even though there are just two of us, the pantry remains an eye sore in our house.

But yours looks great!

-Cara @ Live the Home Life

Megan said...

Well, I'm envious of your big pantry - we don't have one! :( I love your organizational skills! Looks great now!

Lauren @ withTWOcats said...

Great job - I wish I had a big pantry like yours!

Kasey at Thrifty Little Blog said...

Ugh, yes... my small pantry is a big problem. It's on the to-do list though!

Unknown said...

Hi Amanda, pantrys are always hard to keep organised. You did a great job with the racks. Great idea. I am enjoying looking back over your blog.
Nellie xx

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