Organization 101: Kitchen Pantry

If you're anything like me, you probably look around your house sometimes and get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work there is to do. You can clean all day and still find nooks or crannies that need attention.

For me, besides the day-to-day cleaning, the lack of organization in my home bothers me. We don't have a lot of storage here, aside from the attic, and the kids have a tendency to mess things up pretty quickly. To help combat the mess, I've made it a goal to organize 1 small space each day.

Today, it was the lower half of the pantry. I decided to go through and give it a quick (less than 10 minutes) organization using some bins I found. I also took the time to refill canisters and toss out expired products.

Here's the before photo:

Kind of a cluttered mess as you can see. Now, remember that I did this in less than 10 minutes with a couple of bins and a goal of tossing anything obviously expired, hardened or otherwise unusable. Here's the result:

Not bad, right? Not only does it look nicer, I also know what I do and do not have now. I really like the little bins I used - the white one stores all of my packet gravies, ketchup packets, etc. The lower one I used for baking items like extracts, pudding mixes, cupcake wrappers, etc. I'd like to get 1 more bin to hold chocolate chips, powdered sugar and other open bag items. I wish there was a nicer way to organize my pasta collection on the top, but since I like having them portioned out in their original boxes, there's no way to do that that I can think of.

Now that you see what 10 minutes and a couple of bins can do, pick a small spot in your home that could use a little help and go organize something. It'll give you a feeling of accomplishment and propel you to continue working through your house and maybe even tackle some bigger projects. Whenever possible, break big jobs into smaller ones to help yourself feel like you're accomplishing things so you continue with the momentum.