Kitchen Pantry Before And After (2024)

Last Updated on March 2, 2024

It’s finally time to share the final installment of the New Year, New Room Challenge hosted by my friend Stephanie of Casa Watkins Home. Rather than a full room makeover, I took on a smaller project and decided to organize the kitchen pantry because it was a hot mess. Is it Pinterest perfect where everything is in a matching canister? Nope. This is real-life living, and it was completed on a budget. Oh, before we jump in, I want to mention the other gals who joined in this challenge. I linked them all at the bottom of this post.

Table of Contents

A Looksy At The Before

As you can see, organization is not always easy to maintain at HOH—especially when you have kids. It just takes one thing to be misplaced for it to all unravel.

I already had a few food containers on hand, but to control the chaos, I needed to order a couple of lazy susans, plastic bins, and a can organizing rack (which turned out to be the most valuable piece storage-wise). I did not want to invest a lot of money into this project, so I decided to work with what I had. I mean, everything sits behind a door, so there was no need to buy all new just to be matchy-matchy.

After Look At The Pantry

Before I get into the steps I took to reorganize the pantry, I want to give you the final reveal. No need to drag that out, am I right? Ta-da!!!!!

Sliding Wire Basket

The Steps I Took To Organize The Pantry

While working on the kitchen makeover, we asked Mitch to add lighting to the pantry interior. It would have been the first step in this makeover if we had not installed this already. Once you have interior lighting, you can’t live without it.

2. I mapped out my pantry as a guide before starting. This gave me a plan of attack.

3. Pull everything out. This was the most overwhelming task for my ADHD brain. Seeing everything on the counter, tossing expired salad dressing and canned pumpkin, and wiping everything down was a tedious job. I was over this part before it started.

4. Before putting everything back, my original plan was to paint the interior, but that overwhelming feeling took hold, and I decided that painting was for another day. Instead, I wiped down the shelves and called it a day.

5. I put everything back and organized it by category to access what bins I already had and what I needed to purchase.

6. Once my new storage bins and lazy susans arrived, I got to work. The loaves of bread and rolls that were usually tossed on a shelf were placed in a large storage bin. Canned food was wrangled into a storage rack, and coffee received its own dedicated lazy susan, as did bottles and spices. My morning smoothie ingredients were placed in a dedicated wire basket.