Pantry Makeover!

I have really been itching to get this house more organized lately. For some reason I think I got Fall Fever instead of spring! I have found lots of little projects to do that I'll be sharing with you. I hope I can inspire someone else to be as crazy and organized as I am! (Ok, I'm not really all that organized... I'm trying though!)

So, without further ado, the Great Pantry Makeover! Here we go.

Here is a before picture: (I was so excited to get started that emptied the top shelves before I remembered the picture!)

The top half was just like this, but worse if you can believe that.

My helper

First, I scoured Pinterest and all my favorite organizing blogs for some inspiration. Lots of people have done this far better than I did, so if you need ideas check them out too! Some of my favorites are here, here, and here.

After I had an idea of what the end result should be, I set to work clearing everything out. I got rid of anything that was expired of course, and tried to group items together as much as possible. It was quite a mess! But, it always gets worse before it gets better, right?

Wow.

I decided I wanted to paint the inside of the pantry. I'm always better at keeping something neat and organized if I like the way it looks, so I figured this should be no different. This was a big reminder that I'm no painter! But we'll get to that.

This house was built in 1987 and I'm pretty sure no one had ever replaced the cabinets, so the shelves were pretty bowed and saggy. To keep costs down, instead of replacing them we just flipped them over! Free and way easier than having to cut all new shelving, and it worked just fine. Have I mentioned we are not handy people? We don't own power tools. Oh, I take that back, Rob has a drill. And I have a blow dryer... Does that count?

Once everything was emptied out, we wiped it all down and set to painting. I chose a pretty, sunny yellow.

Manual labor! She works for lollipops.

It was at this point that I started to regret the painting idea. Why, you ask? Well.

1. Painting with your head in a cabinet sucks. Really. Even though it was low VOC paint it's still stinky, and I kept bumping my elbows on the walls I'd just painted. Fun times.

2. Painting over bad wood-grain vinyl sucks too. It took no less than three coats to make it look decent. And, as Rob pointed out, it really could have used a fourth. But  refer to item #2 for why I was DONE after three, thankyouverymuch. 

3. The previous owners painted our cabinets a lovely shade of brown. It was to cover the lovely shade of peach which I appreciate (no, not joking! Look at the hinges in that picture.), but still brown. And I chose yellow paint. Now, maybe it's because I have two small kids and bodily functions are a decently large part of my day, but PEE AND POOP, ANYONE? Lol! Also very 70's. Oops.

Yikes.

So. After I got the inside all painted, I put some white textured shelf paper on the shelves. I thought it would hold up better against scuffing and be easier to clean. (Yes I put the green painter's tape on halfway through. Oops again. Not handy people, remember? :) That part was fairly simple, thankfully. 

I found some inexpensive plastic stacking baskets at Target and used my handy-dandy label maker to add a label to the front. I think I might need something bigger though, but those will work for now. 

Getting there...

And here's what I ended up with! I have to admit, the yellow is growing on me. And Lord knows there is NO WAY I'm painting that again anytime soon, so it's there for a while at least.

Tada! (Please ignore the finger prints on the fridge... Ugh.)

Bottom half is breakfast foods and baking, cans, and tall appliances that won't fit anywhere else.

Top half is medicines and things to keep the kids out of, pasta and random boxed food, and snacks. 

Bigger labels? We'll see.

There you have it! Not fancy, but cheap and much better than it was before. I can finally find things without digging and scooting things all around. It's nice! Now if we can just eat all 27 cans of diced tomatoes we have, we'll be all set.