How to Declutter a Small Pantry

Is your pantry a bit cluttered? Or maybe more than a bit? Here are a few tips on how to declutter a small pantry!

Our Pantry Hall Closet Before

Since our kitchen is a galley kitchen and very short on storage space, we have been using one of the hall closets as a pantry. I had a bad habit of just sticking things in there without much thought.  It was definitely time to figure out how to declutter a small pantry!

The light wasn’t very good in the closet so it was hard to see what was in there.  The closet had wire coated shelving.   In order to make more room , I added additional wire shelves.  I had to line the existing shelves with pieces of cardboard so that the little legs didn’t fall thru.

I knew I needed to get this space under control.  I decided to order a few things from The Container Store.  The closest store to us in over 2 hours away so I ordered online and they arrived in a couple of days.  The items were on sale at the time.

Similar items can be found at other online retailers or traditional brick & mortar stores.

The Organizational Items I ordered

The Container Store has numerous products .  I was trying to stay within a budget so I decided to order three basic things to help me solve my problem.

Shelf Liner for Wire Shelves

Clear Expanding Shelf

Large Expanding Shelf

By using the clear shelf liner, I could get rid of my makeshift cardboard shelf liner.  The clear shelf liner helps keep the items in place while still allowing light to shine through to the next shelf.  The clear shelf liner is also easy to clean.

I love the concept of the expanding shelves.  They are a great way to organize your spices and your canned goods.  I used the clear one for the spices and the white one for our canned goods and slightly larger items.  I only ordered one of each but I definitely could use at least one more of the white ones.

Organizational Items I Already Had

I already had several different sizes of baskets as well as several different sizes of wire shelves.  I also had a variety of glass Mason jars as well as set of canisters.

Ready to Declutter

Once my products arrived, I took everything out of the pantry and wiped the shelves and walls with a cleaning solution.  I then lined each shelf with the clear shelf liner.  I decided to place the most used items on the two shelves that were easiest for me to reach.

In order to lift up the spice shelf, I did use a cardboard box.  I can’t quite seem to give up my fondness for cardboard boxes!

I went thru my spices and condensed any spices that I had duplicates of.

I used vintage Mason jars to store dried beans, bread crumbs and extra sugar.

I put the things that we used the least often on the higher shelf.  I added a small standing wire shelf to the floor area.  This helped lift things off of the floor and also allowed more things to be stored in the pantry closet.

Any items that didn’t really belong in the kitchen pantry closet were relocated to an area that made more sense.  For example, I found some matches up on the top shelf.  I moved them to a drawer where all my other matches were.

Adding Extra Light

My husband had purchased a battery light for my closet when we lived in Illinois.  Now that we have everything here in Florida, I decided to use it in our pantry closet.  I did leave the cardboard lining the shelf so that the velcro had something to attach to .  We also added some wire to the ends of the light to make it more secure.  Adding this light really helped brighten the pantry.  We can actually see what is in there now!

 

The Pantry Closet – After

After completing my decluttering process, the pantry closet is much more organized!

Other Small Space Makeovers:

5 Linen Closet Storage Ideas

Let’s Build a Closet