We Need To Talk About My Pantry

My pantry, also known as my masterpiece.

I have always been organized. I have always loved predictability and simplicity. I also really hate repeating myself. Or being mentally pulled out of whatever it is I'm doing. So when my husband shouts, "BABE, WHERE IS THE BROWN SUGAR," I die a little inside. I love him so, so much, but I die. So if I'm honest I will tell you that was the inspiration for this work of art.

Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair, or don't

Everything is visible. Everything is labeled. Everything is illuminated. Everything has its place, and everything will always be where you expect it to be.

You too, my friends, can live in this gloriously organized way. I will teach you my tricks. Be warned though, this is going to cost you between $150 and $250, depending on how many containers you find you need. But it's a one-time purchase that will give you decades of joy sooooo.

First, you'll need a label maker. I use the DYMO LabelManager 160 because a) It's Amazon's best seller in label makers, and b) it's less than $20. This is an important component of this project because powdered sugar looks a lot like flour, and table salt looks exactly like white sugar, and these are not the kinds of things you want to mix up.

The backbone of this project is the Oggi 5 Piece Acrylic Canister Set with Locking Clamps. They are durable, airtight, dishwasher safe, and they're clear - so you can see what you have, and the levels of your inventory. My pantry has three of these sets in there, so you get an idea. Also did I mention that this set of five canisters is only $21.99?

Once you get an idea where you stand in terms of what you need to store and refill as needed, you might find you need additional canisters. I have found that these 65-ounce canisters are the perfect size for a bag of popcorn kernels, flour, rice, and oatmeal. They are about $10 each, but you can buy a couple and then add more as you discover your needs.

The 65-ounce size might be too big sometimes, as I found was the case for snacks, pecans, crackers, and coffee beans. For these, I found the 51-ounce canister was perfect.

Back row: Four 65-ounce canisters topped with four 26-ounce canisters
Middle row: Three 51-ounce canisters and one 65-ounce canister
Front row: Four 26-ounce canisters

Since I'm a pretty smart shopper sometimes, and since I actually have to leave the house to get really good deals on things I need, I find myself lugging home five-pound bags of sugar from Sam's Club. I hate ants and also sticky and also messes, so there's absolutely no way I'm leaving this bag opened and just rolled shut inside my pantry. So for jobs like this, I bought two of the 130-ounce behemoths that hold my sugars beautifully, and I mean that in every way possible.

The best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry, I knew I would need to have an area where my husband, the perpetual shover, could shove to his heart's content, while still always knowing where his shoved goodies are at all times. That's where the baskets come into play.

Organized chaos

The Container Store, that glorious place that gives me the butterflies, sells these shelves for $3.99 each. Buy more than you think you need because oh my goodness they're so useful. I have two on top of my dryer where I keep the laundry pods, Borax, OxyClean, and dryer sheets. Attached to the shelves, I have a plastic baggie I use for lint disposal. I have four under our bathroom sink for extra soap, razors, feminine products, and soap sponges. We have two in the closet for The Perpetual Shover to stuff clothes he decided he didn't want to wear afterall. Blam.

Sometimes though I wish I lived in a world where I could just pull out everything I need all at once.

OH WAIT. I CAN.

After we moved, I discovered that we had like, twenty million of these plastic shoe boxes stacked up in our attic. I'm really short, and if anything finds its way to the back of the second shelf down, it required me to get a chair, sometimes a pair of tongs from the drawer, and a whole understanding of Isaac Newton's Principia to get what I needed. Oh-ho-hooo not any more. The lesson I learned in the Navy is that there is more than one way to skin a cat. I actually hate that expression because cats are so awesome, so let's change it and say there is more than one way to propel a rocket. Better. So now instead of becoming a Cirque du Soleil performer every time I bake a cake, I remembered my boxes, and went to town. Now there's a box for my baking stuff, my backup inventory of condiments, and one for spreads. Sidenote, don't you love those tiny jars of Nutella? I can't even eat them because I want them in my life forever. Anyway, Container Store sells bins just like this for $1.89, but you can also get them at Target.

Based on empirical evidence, there has been a 90% reduction in instances of "BABE, WHERE IS THE..." heard in our house. Which probably also means there's a 90% increase in the likelihood that me and my husband will remain in love for a long time. It's also really nice to be able to open the doors and know immediately that you should probably get more chia seeds (if you're into that sort of thing), or bouillon cubes, or chocolate chips.

Oh yeah, notice how my pantry is illuminated? That's not built-in. That's my handiwork. It was actually incredibly easy and inexpensive. So easy and inexpensive that I have duplicated my efforts on my staircase, my front hall closet, under my kitchen cabinets, and behind my TV. It owns. All you need is a roll of self-adhesive LED strip lights and a power adapter. I plugged mine in behind the fridge and snaked the cord around and up the frame of the pantry. There's about a 3" section of wire that you can see on the frame of the pantry next to the fridge, but literally no one notices it. I stuck the strip lights to the top of the interior door frame of the pantry and done. They are LED, so I don't have to worry about them generating heat, or sucking a great deal of power from my house.

If you're reading this thinking "that's all well and good but I would never have time to do all that." You're wrong. I mean, unless you're Elon Musk, and even Bae himself would probably just pay someone to do it for him, but you get the point. Here is my advice to you - do you know the best way to eat an elephant? One bite at a time. You don't have to transform your pantry in a day or even a weekend. You could buy one set of canisters and slowly integrate them into your life as needed, and then slowly add more as time goes by. The only way to get this project finished is to get this project started, so know that you definitely have it in you to do this, and that you will be so proud of yourself once its done.

Elon "Bae" Musk would probably agree.

Now go forth, and organize!