How to Organize your Kitchen Pantry like a Pro

An Organized Kitchen Pantry is what we all dream about, it doesn’t matter if it is a closet pantry or just couple cabinets, we all dream of being able to find anything we need instantly. Here are some tips and tricks to organize your kitchen pantry like a pro.

kitchen Pantry organization, organize pantry, Organize your Kitchen Pantry

A few months ago we cleaned out our kitchen pantry, we just about emptied it completely out because it was at the point we couldn’t find anything and we mean anything. We were purchasing items that we already had 4-5 of because we didn’t know we had them. What a waste of money!

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Our pantry is not picture perfect, I’m sure those picture-perfect kitchen pantries don’t stay that way very long. Our goal was to set up our kitchen pantry to stay organized with a minimal amount of work. We wanted it set up so when we return from the grocery store, everything new has a place and the groceries are put away quickly.

Other Household Tips:

Prepare to Organize your pantry:

We started our kitchen pantry organization project by examining our kitchen pantry contents and then we gathered together baskets, jars and our trusty label maker and we made some additional purchases. So before we begin we took a day or so of our time and purchased a few new baskets, bins, jars and labels.

Certain pantry items can be grouped together by uses, for instance, all vegetable cans together, all tomato sauces and diced tomatoes together. The goal was to never move anything out of the way to find an item that is different, that’s how things get overlooked and lost. All the bags of rice, pasta, and beans that take up space and get lost are placed together in another wire basket.

Our pantry is now something we are proud of and we can find exactly what we need in just a second or two. It just took several creative tricks and a few extra purchases, and we will share some of our ideas today.

Organize your Kitchen Pantry

We used a variety of containers, jars, and baskets to look more like a grandmother’s pantry. Our pantry has a personal feeling of a working kitchen pantry with a homey flair. Everything doesn’t have to match to make it awesome. We now have an organized pantry and we can find what we need quickly.

The first thing we did was start with our spices. This awesome Chicken Wire Hanging Spice Rack Organizer with four tiered shelves holds all our spices on the wall clearing up counter and shelf space. We purchased this set of 36 empty jars with labels separately and used only the labels of the spices we used the most. This jar set comes with 340 different preprinted spice labels so I’m sure you will find the ones you need, but if not, there are 56 blank ones.

We bought several of these “Under the Shelf Wire Baskets”, and they were a lifesaver in our pantry organization plan. The top bar slides onto the top of the current shelf and this basket hangs underneath.

These are perfect for those little boxes of jello, paper plates, dinner napkins or coffee filters to increase your pantry storage ability. Smaller baking items like baking soda and baking powder are placed conveniently under the flour and sugar canisters. Other small items that seem to get lost are easy to find with these under the shelf baskets. We found several different sizes at The Container Store

We also purchased several of these Wire Baskets, there are perfect for those little boxes of rice, mixes and sauce bottles.

Using the wire baskets, everything is visual and there is no need to “dig” to find what you need and I love the copper handles, makes my pantry look a little more personable. You can find them on the Target website right here.

We also purchased several additional Mason Jars and filled them with beans, rice, and pasta. Mason jars are clear so one can see exactly what’s inside and how much is remaining, which it makes it easier to fill out our grocery list. Wide mouth quart Mason Jars are easier to pour and fill but regular mouth Mason jars would also work.

One way to organize your kitchen pantry like a pro is to clearly label all containers. We found several different kinds of labels at Amazon but decided on these cute chalkboard sticker labels which come with a white chalk marker.
I just love the way they look! But if you are looking for something more colorful or different then see these other choices on Amazon.

kitchen pantry organization, Organize your Kitchen Pantry

For Cereal, snacks, and chips we choose these 10 piece air-tight food storage containers. They have an airtight locking system with a silicone ring around the lids to keep that cereal and snacks fresh and dry. I love the way they are clear and we went ahead and added labels to those also.

We love the look of these antique cracker jars. We keep our extra Coffee and Tea, Flour and Sugar in them. (also notice the Under the Shelf Wire Basket conveniently located just above the jars to hold extra coffee filters)

We used our chalkboard labels and simply printed out the name of the contents. But you could also use a label maker if it was a wide label maker. These darling Cracker Jars can be found on Amazon.

Even though we used old fashioned containers and baskets, sometimes we need to use more of a modem container with a seal especially for brown sugar. As you know brown sugar has a tendency to seize up and become a hard lump.

These containers for brown sugar have easy catch lids and a silicone seal for air tight storage. And this brown sugar keeper has a removable terra cotta disk that you can soak the in water and snap it under the air-tight lid to keep sugar from drying out.

Last but certainly not least are baskets, straw baskets are awesome, they come in numerous sizes, shapes, and colors. You may already have several around your house that you could use.

We used baskets to contain or corral our snacks, bags of chips, bread and other loose items.

We keep our potatoes and onions in this Two-tiered Chicken Wire basket and Stand (from Amazon) right on the counter but it would be super cute inside the pantry. The only change we made was this basket comes with a handle on top and we left it off so it would fit more neatly under the shelves.

Also use these other ways to organize your kitchen pantry:

A can goods organizer works very well, you can store up to 36 cans and the dividers are adjustable for different can sizes. And several can be ordered from Amazon and stacked.
Since our pantry shelves stopped about 30 inches from the floor, we added a couple of free-standing shelving units from Shelving.com. to increase our storage ability. These shelves come in several sizes and we purchased a couple to fit completely underneath the current shelves.

Other Places to Find Items to Organize your Kitchen Pantry like a Pro

Here are some of the other of our favorite places that we would recommend to find storage items. Using a few of these items you can truly organize your kitchen pantry like a pro.

Antique Farm House has some unique and creative baskets and containers that would rock your pantry. Just because it’s a pantry, it doesn’t have to be industrial looking, make it your own. When you enjoy your pantry, cooking and working in the kitchen is so much more fun.
I check almost every day at Decor Steals, they have daily steals that only last until they are sold out. If you are fast, you can grab some super cute galvanized containers, wire baskets, and farmhouse signs.