Kitchen Pantry Makeover

When we downsized 3 years ago, we felt the house had good bones on the most part. I say “on the most part” because the kitchen didn’t have a pantry in the kitchen, but instead there was was what I would have considered a hall closet which was located inside what we are calling the living room. It’s probably because the space we are using as a living room was separated into a small living room and formal dining room thus a closet as a pantry could be considered off the formal dining room.

We have since added a small pantry inside the kitchen in the breakfast nook area but it wasn’t big enough to provide much storage. Back in November I started researching on YouTube and Pinterest what others have done to organize their pantry. I began visiting Dollar Tree, thrift shops, 99 Cent Stores, Tuesday Morning and picking up containers to create general categories of items. I also purchased some chalkboard stickers and tags for labeling.

In January my husband went away for a few days which was the perfect time to pull everything out, go through items and get rid of anything with an expired date.

Here is where I started.


This is where I ended up. The empty spot is where my Instant Pot now lives.

Containers Labels: Bags, Kitchens Accessories, Seasonings, Snacks, Nuts and Seeds, Produce, Bags, Grains, Beans, Extra, and Paper Towels


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It’s now been 5 months since I did this project and I only wish I had done this project years ago because….

  • my cupboards have consistently remained organized
  • seeing what I have on hand or need to replenish is easy
  • allows my husband ease in finding items or putting them away
  • the large tub for Extras provides a sealed space to store items that come in large bags from Costco, etc.
  • placing measuring cups and directions with storage containers for rice and quinoa expedite cooking
  • storing larger items that aren’t used often in the back of deeper shelves is a good use of these space. The front part of the shelf can be used for what is needed most often.
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Small Linen Closet Makeover

It’s been almost 3 years since we downsized our home.  The list of home projects is becoming smaller but there are still a few to be tackled.  Two on this list are to organize our small hallway linen closet and also our kitchen pantry.

I’m happy to say that over the holidays, I accomplished the linen closet with the help of Dollar Tree.  I bought an assortment of different storage containers, watched a couple of YouTube videos and pulled a set of chalkboard tags I’ve had for a couple of years and set to work.

Here were some of the steps I utilized.

  1. Choose a color scheme to act as my guide:  blue, brown, white, gray and black.  
  2. Sort through towels.  I kept 8 bath for the closet because there were already two towels in each of the bathrooms.  I kept 5 wash clothes and 5 hand towels.  The rest were donated.
  3. Sort through over-the-counter and prescription drugs and dispose of them by town/city guidelines.  Create storage container with drawers for small items and a tiered storage area for larger supplements.  (I have a storage box that holds 30 days of my prescription and supplements.  This is in one of the drawers which makes a lot more sense from where it used to sit – on top of my sugar container with my baking supplies.)
  4. Use a container for toilet paper so we don’t have to retrieve from garage.
  5. Roll up beach towels and placed in a container on the floor.
  6. Create a cleaning container.
  7. Create two more storage containers of cleaning supplies.
  8. Create a storage area for lightbulbs.
  9. Create a storage container for batteries.
  10. The blankets on the left side of the top shelf were placed in pillow cases and tied off with ribbon which gave a cleaner look.

I took a side by side picture as I made progress – what a transformation and encouragement to keep on going.

Here is the finished project.  I couldn’t be happier with it.

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