Kitchen

I first blogged about my pantry bins about three years ago.

Since then I have added to my collection and thought I'd update the pictures here as well.

I know it might sound silly to think that looking in my pantry makes me happy, well really giddy on a frequent basis (I'm strange I know).

But it seriously does! 

It is one of the few places in my house that almost always stays cleaned. 

And it is one place that I have prized being organized in because it is something I use EVERY SINGLE day! 

Now I didn't just alphabetize these bins for the picture or for your viewing pleasure (although they are wonderful to look at, don't you agree?).

This is really how they stay in my pantry.

Ask any one of my kids.

There is a method to my madness, hang with me.

See, when I first did the tubs, I found I was constantly looking for which tub I needed because when the tubs were pulled from the pantry and then put away, they never landed in the same spot. 

Drove me crazy.

And so, I alphabetized--quite a simple solution!

Now, I (and more importantly my kids) always know where to

1. Find the tub

2. Return the tub.

Trust me. If there is anything you purchase from me--I would most highly recommend these labels.

And as a side note (for those interested) I purchased the tubs at none other than good old Wal-Mart for around $4 a piece. (which again, was why it took me a couple of years to build my collection) a good price in my estimation and well worth every penny spent.

Now as I mentioned in a previous post, a few weeks ago we did some re-building in my pantry to make utilize my vertical space. 

Which also meant I needed to make a trip to Ikea for a few different shaped tubs.

I found these for under $2 a piece (well the cereal ones I found at Costco for $10 for the pack of 3) and I love how they complement the rest of my pantry.

I prefer see-through tubs and was so excited when I found these ones.

Happy Organizing!

I have a large family. Which I absolutely love and purposely planned :) And part of having a large family means that we go through a LOT of food.

Now, back in the day, I could get away with just keeping my two small pantry sized flour and sugar tubs right in my pantry for easy access--I rarely had to refill them. However, now we fly through that stuff much quicker--and I've found that I have to refill them much more frequently then I once did. 

Now I've always had these bigger buckets that I use to store some food and grains for a rainy day. But do to lack of storage in my house I had to keep them stored in one of my kids closets and each time one of my smaller tubs ran out, I had to trek upstairs, pull out the tubs re-fill the smaller tubs, and then put everything back into place--big huge pain! 

So a couple of weekends ago, I took it upon myself to re-vamp my whole pantry to make for some easier storage. Now I don't have a super small pantry--you can walk in it--but I wouldn't call it exactly large either. But in order to optimize the vertical space in it, I had my hubby remove the bottom shelf and re-hang it above the tallest shelf (wish I had a picture to show). I can not believe how much larger my pantry seems now! I FINALLY have room to keep some of my bulkier tubs at the bottom which makes it much, much, easier to re-stock my smaller tubs. And still have all the same shelving space.

I so wish I had done that 4 years ago when we first moved here.

Lesson learned.