New and improved Pantry

I've been pinning pantry ideas like a mad woman for over a week. One day last week, I woke up and decided it was the day to get started.

I knew I wouldn't be able to 100% reproduce any of my favorite ideas- Mainly due to my limited budget.

So, I headed to the Dollar Tree first to see what they had to offer. To my delight, they had all kinds of bins and buckets to chose from. At $1 each!

I worked in this project in spurts and it took me 3 days.

Before:



And this was after I'd already cleaned off the 2nd shelf- which was the worst one! I couldn't find anything in there!

After:



I love it! Like products are grouped into separate bins. Canned goods are grouped together by type.

The pantry is really deep- I can hardly touch the back wall when I reach in- there are bins all the way back.

I have a large kitchen island with cabinets and drawers that were also so cluttered that I couldn't find anything.

I saw an idea to free up drawer space by putting the aluminum foil, Saran wrap, etc into the pantry. They are all in one of the little yellow buckets on the floor. I was able to reorganize all of my island drawers after that!

I stored all if my cake decorating supplies in the island cabinets. Since I'm not making cakes much (hardly at all) anymore, I decided to stow away those items. There are 2 large bins at the back of my top pantry shelf that are now holding the decorating supplies and the specialty baking pans.

Here is my island cabinets now:




I did keep a few baking items within reach. Springform pans. 8" non stick pans, loaf pans and all 7 cupcake pans in all of the different sizes. In the bin to the left are my good cookie cutters (not the plastic ones) and cupcake liners.
I also got my cookbooks out of a drawer and into the back of this cabinet.

When Jason can find the time, he's going to build me another shelf at the top of the pantry (it goes all the way up to the ceiling- it's at least another 4 feet!) I want to put the rest of my baking pans as well as some other rarely used kitchen items up there.

Right now those items are being stored in my linen closet and I don't have room for linen storage! :)

I've already totally cleaned out, re-arranged and organized the boys' rooms. I'm working on closets and Sissy's room now. I think I'm nesting. Apparently no surface in my house is safe from being organized. Or painted. Look out! :)