Budget Friendly Cupboard Pantry Organization
Cupboard pantry organization; 7 easy steps to follow; Doing it on a budget; Before & after pictures of a client’s cupboard pantry organization project I did
I’ve recently published a blog post on achieving an organized pantry. However, I felt that visually, the blog post referred mainly to reach-in or walk-in pantries. It made me realize that not everyone has the space to have that kind of a pantry. Because of that, I thought I would show you the process I went through with a friend’s cupboard pantry organization.
The steps to follow are very similar to the ones listed in the blog post on achieving an organized pantry, with only a few differences. My main goal for this project was to only use containers and tools that I could find at Dollorama. I really want to show you that you don’t need to break the bank to achieve a cupboard pantry organization project that is functional and good looking.
When I asked my client (who is also a good friend of mine) what her budget was, this is how she responded. She said that her and her husband didn’t have a specific budget for me and that they trusted me entirely. There was no pressure really (not!). I decided to set myself a secret budget that I wanted to stick to and went ahead and started this cupboard pantry organization project.
1- Take everything out
I can’t stress this part enough! It is very important. Taking everything out is a tedious chore, I know. It will possibly get you feeling very overwhelmed by all of the food products that you have and that’s normal.
I know that you may want to go shopping for bins and containers right now and then organize your cupboard. I strongly discourage you to do that. Don’t worry, I have to hold myself back a lot of times when doing projects. I can’t wait to find bins, baskets and containers to use. You are not alone with this temptation.
What I did in this case, I laid everything out on the dinning room table, dinning room chairs and kitchen island. I used as much of the space as I could and kept everything close. I didn’t scatter everything around the kitchen with fear of forgetting something or not assessing the proper place for something.
2- Sort your food
Start grouping similar food items together. If in your mind, maple syrup is an ingredient that you use more for cooking than for breakfast, then you may not want to group it with your cereal and peanut butter. Group things in a way that makes sense to you and to the members of your household.
As I was taking food items out, I grouped similar ones together. For instance, I grouped the oils and vinegars together on the table. I used the dinning room chairs to group anything “dinner ” related such as canned goods, pasta, rice, etc. I also worked with another dinning room chair to group breakfast and cereal items together. Grouping items as you take them out will save you time so take advantage of that.
3- Throw away expired food
Once the sorting is done, have a look at the expiration date on your items. I’m not saying that if it’s past the expiration date that you should throw it out. It all depends on the food.
Did you know that according to the Food Inspection website “an expiration date is not the same as a best-before date. Expiration dates are required only on certain foods that have strict compositional and nutritional specifications which might not be met after the expiration date” whereas a best-before date “also known as a durable life date, tells you when the durable life period of a prepackaged food ends”. Keep this in mind when you are inspecting your food items.
The added bonus of going through your food and looking at the expiration date is that you can now sort your food like they would in a supermarket; the oldest date in front and the most recent one in the back. This will make for a good food rotation.
While you are looking at expiration dates, take the time to assess if the food you have is still something you would use. If not, see if it needs to be thrown out or donated. Also, take whatever you can out of its box. You would not believe the amount of space you will save by doing this. This will also give you a better visual of what you have.
4- Find its home
You now have to find the best “home” that you can for you food item groupings. This will differ from household to household so don’t compare your cupboard to anyone else’s. Think of what works best for you.
A couple of days prior to starting this projects, I met with my client asking her what worked best for her family. I asked if there were any items that she preferred would stay where it currently was. I also went over what they usually buy and if they like to stock up on certain food items. These are all day-to-day practices that I needed to know in order to not only make it look pretty but for the final product to be practical for their family.
5- Finding the right material to organize
With the cabinets now empty and the similar foods all grouped together, I assessed visually where everything would go. I knew for this project that I would mainly use baskets to keep the grouped items together. My client already had pretty jars for their main baking ingredients such as flour, sugar, salt, etc. Furthermore, I wanted to keep this project on a reasonable budget so I didn’t splurge on containers to hold pasta, rice, etc. But if you want to, you can certainly do that.
After assessing, I measured the space to see what my limitations were as far as space. Depth, height and width are very important to consider. I then went to the store with my scribbled plan on a note pad and tape measure and started shopping. As I found the items I needed, I checked them off on my scribbled design and knew what I had left to find.
6- Putting everything back
Although you may think that the hard part was to take everything out, I can assure you that putting everything back in is just as challenging if not more. I started by playing with my baskets to see how I wanted them positioned to give me an idea. I then went ahead and started putting the food back into the cupboards and keeping similar items grouped together.
Quick tip: I’ve learned this the hard way so I thought I would share. When you are assessing where everything is going to go, you also have to take in consideration “how” things are going to go back in. If you plan a section for crackers, that’s great! But, will the cracker boxes be standing up or laid down? Make sure you keep that in mind as well.
Also, when using jars to store your food, make sure to cut out the expiration date and stick it behind your jar (or in your jar in my case since the items going in were all individually wrapped).
7- Labelling
Now that all the food is back in the cupboards and you like how its positionned, you can start labelling to ciment their sections in. If ever a section becomes empty and it’s labelled, you will know what goes there. Everything now has a home to come back to.
As far as labelling goes, you can go as detailled or as general as you like. It’s your choice really so have at it and do what works best for you.
The final product!
All done! In total, it took me about 3 hours. I spent $50 in supplies which was my initial goal for this cupboard pantry organization project. This was certainly a win! My clients were very pleased with the end result which is the best part about the process.
I really hope it was helpful for you to see that any food cupboard can be organized and that it can be done on a budget. Let me know if you have any questions about this process, I’d be happy to answer them. If you’ve liked reading my blog post, make sure to share it with others.
