Thank you to Brother and the P-touch Cube for sponsoring this post. All opinions, as always, are 100% my own.
It’s springtime which means that my intense yearly urges to spring clean have officially kicked in. I turn into something of a monster every year around this time. Poor Anel! But this year I took it up a notch and finally did something that has been on my mental to-do list for literally years: I made it a priority to have an organized pantry!
My pantry, no matter how hard I try, has always been a hot mess. We always end up with multiple bags of tortilla chips open (that inevitably get stale) and when I would open the cabinet that held our food, I’d end up shuddering and just shutting it again because it just didn’t feel worth it to dig around for what I want.
That, in turn, made me feel uninspired in the kitchen and hungry when I wanted a snack.
After obsessively following professional organizers on Instagram and seeing their work on some beautiful pantries (one day we’ll have a full room!), I was inspired to get organized once and for all. You guys saw how amazing my fridge looks after our weekly meal prepping parties, and that gave me an odd amount of joy, so I decided to follow suit with our non-perishable items.
The first thing I did was buy matching containers with pop up lids so that I can easily open and shut everything with one hand (I often have a baby in the other).
I went through everything on our shelves and figured out what products we used the most from brown rice to baby oatmeal and chia seeds and lentils. I wrote out a list of all of those snacks/ingredients and bought containers for each one. This is the hardest and the most tedious part of the process, but if you don’t do your due diligence at the beginning, you’ll end up in a mess later.
Then I took my favorite new game-changing label maker, the P-touch Cube, opened the Brother P-touch Design&Print app, picked a script and got to labeling. It might not be hand written by a professional organizer, but come on, how pretty?!?
When I showed my sister these photos she asked me what I do with all the extra food and things that aren’t in jars. I put the extra stuff behind each container so I can easily refill it when I need to. As far as things like crackers that we don’t eat as much and other ingredients, they all live in a pantry closet in our kitchen that also holds cleaning supplies and Boots’ food. That’s next on my to do list to tackle with the P-touch Cube.
We’ve had this new system in place for about three weeks now, and it’s been so great. I always know where everything is, and I actually feel more inspired to make better snacking decisions simply because of how they’re presented. It makes no sense but it works.
I thought Anel would hate it and think I’m insane but he said that he feels the same way so win/win!
Photos by Julia D’Agostino.
This is the pantry of my dreams! You made it look so nice and so organized! My cabinets looked okay for about a week after we moved, and now they are a disaster. I always say I’m going to buy food storage containers, but seeing what a difference they can really make has me motivated to truly do it this time! xAllie http://www.theallthatglittersblog.com
Looks amazing! quick question – how do you know the expiration date of the products that you put into the containers?
That’s actually a great question… I hadn’t even thought of that, oops! We go through most of this stuff so quickly that it’s not an issue but maybe I’ll label with dates for things that we don’t eat daily.
I just ordered new clear containers yesterday! I’ll be re-organizing my pantry this weekend and I can’t wait haha.
Yes! So excited for you. You wouldn’t think it would make that much of a difference in your life but it does!
Are your containers glass? The link is for plastic containers.
They’re plastic, I’m so dumb and misspoke (or typed!) Here are glass ones though by the same brand: http://bit.ly/2q6UJdL
Pantry goals!
I’ve been wanting to do this for so long, as well. I think you may have just inspired me to make the leap.
Do it!! Honestly, life changing 🙂
Could you link the glass containers, please? All I could find were plastic.
I’m such a moron. This whole time I was thinking they were glass but they’re actually plastic. Palm, meet head! Anyway I found glass ones from the same brand here: http://bit.ly/2q6UJdL
I just came back to this post to look up the kind of label maker you used. In two of the comments I noticed that you replied that you are “so dumb” or “such a moron.” AHHHHH! Not true! Be sure to lift yourself up so that others can do the same! Thanks for the post – it WAS helpful!
Thank you so much for the kind reminder Anna!! xo
This gives me all the feels.
My pantry is half way there and I LOVE it! But I think a label maker is a great idea.. I have chalkboard tags and they’re hard to write on.
Another suggestion : for some things (i.e. collagen) I cut out the nutritional information and just placed it in the container in case I wanted to know that information in the future!
Seppy | http://www.elleisforlove.com
Where do you get these?
Hi there, what font did you use on the brother label maker? thanks
Oh no, now I can’t remember I’m so sorry!