Realistic Pantry Organization: How I Set Up a Pantry in My Small Kitchen
Check out this simple and realistic pantry organization breakdown to help you create a system that works for you!
Pinterest is full of beautiful walk-in pantries that are incredibly organized and aesthetically pleasing. But these aren’t realistic for 99% of homes. Some walk-in pantries I see on Pinterest are bigger than my entire kitchen!
So, I wanted to write a post that shows realistic pantry organization. I will show you my actual pantry organization system including how I sort everything, products I used, and tips to help you create a pantry that works for you.
This post is all about my realistic pantry organization!
Realistic Pantry Organization Guide
While I love a lot of things about my apartment, I definitely sacrificed kitchen space for other perks. Our kitchen is tiny! It doesn’t have a lot of cabinet or drawer space, which makes it very tricky to have a pantry.
The solution I came up with is to make my own pantry with a bookshelf (specifically, the Billy Bookcase from IKEA). At first, I was hesistant about this, but now that I’ve lived here for 8 months I’m so glad I decided to do it this way!
I didn’t want this open shelving taking up precious kitchen space (as I mentioned, the kitchen is small!) so the pantry is actually just around the corner in the hallway. I love that it’s tucked away in a more discrete location, but still easy accessible to the kitchen.
Top Level – Overflow Cooking & Baking Items
Starting at the very top of my pantry, I have 2 “overflow” bins. The chevron baskets are from Canadian Tire! The bin on the left is my overflow cooking basket, and on the right is my overflow baking basket.
The overflow baskets include things like infrequently used spices or baking ingredients, and sometimes duplicates of items (ex. a backup bag of dried cranberries if I bought a few on sale). They help fit anything that isn’t already on display in other areas of the pantry! I intentionally bought fabric baskets instead of clear ones, to conceal the contents and packaging of products in these bins!
Level 2 – Sugars & Flours
On the second level of my pantry, I have most of my flours and sugars. The patterned storage basket is from Canadian Tire and has less frequently used items like coconut sugar/flour, coconut oil, etc. The clear canisters are from Bed Bath and Beyond, and they hold everyday items like white sugar and regular flour.
Level 3 – Grains and Nuts
On the next level, I used the clear canisters again to store my staple grains including rice and pasta. I also have a bunch of nuts used for baking and cooking. They are actually stored in up-cycled salsa jars. If you’re looking for ways to organize your pantry on a budget, re-using jars in your pantry is a great strategy!
I also used a turntable to make all the jars easily accessible:
Level 4 – Cooking/Baking Staples, Boxed Grains
The fourth level of the pantry has a ton of other cooking and baking staples including lentils, dried fruits (cranberries & apricots), seeds (pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, sunflower seeds) and more. Again, I used a turntable to ensure easy access to all the smaller jars. In case you can’t tell, turntables are one of my go-to pantry organization hacks!
On the right side of this level, I used another patterned storage basket for all my boxed grains (ie. pasta, rice noodles, lasagne noodles, etc).
Level 5 – Snacks, Hand Towels, and Dish Cloths
The 5th level of my pantry is tall but I have somewhat small bins, so I used a shelf divider to create more levels:
Buy Kitchen Cupboard Organizer
The top 2 white bins are from the Dollar Store (similar baskets on Amazon here), and they hold my hand towels & dish cloths. The bottom 2 bins are from IKEA (there’s lots of sizes available but I used these ones) and they hold my snacks such as granola bars.
I could definitely fit one or 2 more baskets on this shelf! But, I prefer to set up my pantry this way so there’s room to add more rather than bursting at the seams. I find it can look a bit messy and cluttered if it’s too stuffed.
Bottom Level – Coffee & Tea, Instant Pot
On the bottom level of my pantry bookshelf, I have another chevron basket from Canadian Tire that has my tea and extra coffee. I have all my tea sachets displayed in this bamboo tea box organizer:
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The bamboo organizer perfectly displays all my different kinds of tea, and is fantastic to bring out when I have guests over.
The lowest shelf also has my Instant Pot. While all my other appliances (coffee maker, kettle, toaster, etc) are in the kitchen, I simply didn’t have room in the kitchen cabinets for the Instant Pot! Plus, I only use it about once per week so it made the most sense to store in my pantry instead of the kitchen.
Pantry Organization 101: Tips & Tricks
Now that I’ve had this pantry setup for about 8 months, what tips can I share to help you? Here’s a few things to keep in mind when designing your pantry:
- Use middle shelves for the most frequently used items. You’ll notice the highest and lowest shelves, which are also the most difficult to reach, are reserved for the items I don’t reach for every day!
- You don’t have to break the bank on products. While there’s tons of pantry organization products out there, you don’t need everything. I shared a few examples in this post of ways you can save money, such as up-cycling jars you have in the house and shopping for baskets at the Dollar Store! There’s lots of ways to make pantry organization budget-friendly. Start with what you have already, and slowly build from there.
- Don’t display product packaging. You’ll notice in the photos of my pantry that there’s no product packaging visible. I either put items in storage baskets, or pour them into clear canisters. This may be a personal preference, but I find following this rule makes my pantry look much neater and crisp! Especially since my pantry has completely open shelving, uniform displays are more aesthetically pleasing.
- Do what works for you, and don’t be afraid to change it up. At the end of the day, your pantry needs to work for you. You don’t need to copy exactly what you see online if it’s not practical for you! And also, once you’ve set up your pantry, it doesn’t have to stay that way forever. Over the last 8 months I’ve switched up the layout a few times when something hasn’t worked efficiently.
I hope you found this realistic pantry organization tour & tips helpful! Take these small pantry organization ideas and create your own dream pantry in your home.
This post was all about my realistic pantry organization.
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