I was tired of being unable to find stuff in our pantry and not knowing whether there was one granola bar left in the box, or 12. I thought about building another shelf inside our pantry closet, but then I realized there was an easier way!
I used a simple over the door shoe organizer, but not for shoes. Instead, I used it to help organize our pantry.
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Pantry Organization Hack – using an Over the Door Organizer
Years ago I converted a coat closet near the kitchen into a pantry closet. You can still see the closet rod in the photos below.
The main shelf around chest high was crammed full of snack boxes, granola bars and other dry goods. This was the problem shelf.
I was going to add another shelf inside the closet to organize this stuff, but I thought of an easier way.
Pantry Closet Before Photo
There is a swinging door on our pantry closet and a full doorframe. I noticed the gap between the door and the shelves. (Shown in the picture below.) This gap gave me an idea. A very simple idea.
I went to Walmart and picked up an over the door shoe organizer.
It came with four metal hooks that hang over the door to hold up the organizer.
You can see the hooks in the photo below. And notice the clear plastic pockets. These are important.
Pantry Organization – During the Process
I started by taking the granola bar boxes and snack pack boxes off the shelf.
I emptied the boxes and put the granola bars and snacks into the pockets of the organizer.
It was surprising how much each pocket could hold. I quickly emptied a lot of the boxes as you can see by the picture below.
Getting rid of this many boxes really freed up a lot of space on the “problematic” shelf.
Having the over the door organizer did 3 main things:
- Freed up a lot of space on the shelf
- Allows me to see how many granola bars and snacks we have left (transparent storage pockets)
- It made me realize we have a lot – probably too many – packaged food and snacks
In point #3 I said how it made me realize we have too much processed food like granola bars. A part of this because previously we couldn’t easily tell how many bars or snacks we had remaining. They were inside their cardboard boxes. Therefore, we’d just buy more.
So having the bars and snacks clearly in view will allow us to shop more efficiently, and not buy duplicates or triplicates of stuff.
What else did I use to organize the pantry?
The over the door shoe organizer was the main thing I used to help tidy up our pantry closet.
But it wasn’t the only thing.
I also used an acrylic organizer tray. It is a long and narrow container that some people use to organize their fridge. I discovered it works well to hold bags of crackers (like Goldfish) and small bags of chips.
I’m also trying a pantry shelf riser to help take advantage of vertical space in the pantry.
I’m undecided if I want to continue to use this wire shelf or build my own riser out of wood. This is working for now though.
Pantry Organization – After Picture
Everyone wants to see pantry makeover before and after pictures so below is my “after” picture. But it really is a continuously evolving process.
I’ll try it for s couple of weeks and see if there are other things to be improved.
In case you need a reminder of the before picture, I’ve added it again below.
And freeing up space on the bottom shelf even allowed me to put our bread machine back in there.
Is this the prettiest pantry makeover you’ve ever seen? NO.
But it is simple, quick and easy.
The trifecta of organizing for a busy family.
If you can put an over the door organizer on your pantry door, then for less than $10 you’ll be able to greatly enhance your pantry organization.
I hope this helps you. Let me know in the comments below.
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Did you know an over the door shoe organizer is one of the water bottle storage ideas in this article.
Thank you.
Tim from LearnAlongWithMe.com
Tim worked in construction for a few years before going to university. Then he worked in a pharmacy for 10 years and now works as a full-time writer and online publisher. He has experience in several different, far-reaching lines of work.
“I sincerely hope you find the articles helpful and informative.”
Tim from LearnAlongWithMe.com
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