6 Tips to Organize your pantry (especially if it’s small)
We recently gave our tiny pantry a non-traditional update. Typically, you would expect the pantry to be light and bright, but I chose to go in a different direction because I want our little closet pantry to disappear into the background.
With a little paint and DIY shelves, we were able to completely update the tiny pantry, taking it from builder basic to sleek and organized.
6 Tips for a Non-Traditional Pantry Update
A light pantry highlights everything inside (which is great when you have lots of space and want good visibility in ANY closet). But, I chose to go dark with the paint colour because our pantry is visible to everyone and I really wanted the shelves (and items on them) to disappear into the background.
We replaced our old builder-basic wire shelves with homemade walnut shelves. In a perfect world, I would have created a completely custom shelving system with more discrete adjustments, BUT I’d prefer to spend the money on something else (not to mention, I wanted it finished quickly!). Instead, I opted to install shelf tracking against the back wall so we can easily adjust the shelf height depending on our storage needs. (and we ALL know how much I like to move things around, so adjustable shelves get LOTS of use around here)
Adding different sizes and shapes of containers can start to look disheveled and messy. One of my favourite tips is to use multiple containers of the same size. I fully believe your containers don’t need to be expensive, but they will LOOK neat and tidy if you use the same size next to one another on the shelf. We are reusing our old OXO containers (which I admit, were a splurge), however simple mason jars would look equally great here.
If you have deep shelves like we do, then you may notice things can get a little lost if too many items are stacked in front of one-another. The perfect solution to this is to use a lazy-susan / turntable. My favourite turntables are the clear acrylic ones that don’t take up any visual space. I also love the turntable to have a “lip” around the outside to prevent anything from tipping when little ones give it a spin.
I am using The Home Edit 3 tier expandable shelf. What sets it apart from most, are the deep shelves. Large cans will topple on most tiered shelves, but the deeper shelves on this one make it perfect to store pasta sauce and large canned goods.
Some of our larger backstock items get stored in the panty so I placed 2 baskets on the floor to hide the visual clutter. The first holds extra paper towel and tissues, whereas the second holds bulky lunch supplies like extra water bottles and the kids lunch bags.
Would you ever consider a dark pantry?
