Pantry Organization for a Small Kitchen

Pantry organization for a small kitchen is tricky ~ especially when there isn’t really a pantry! Come see how we turned an ordinary cupboard into our pantry.

Can I share a secret with you?

I’ve never really liked my townhouse kitchen.

I can’t believe I just typed that out loud. I don’t want to sound whiny or ungrateful, but honestly, it’s just not ever been my favorite.

I’d made peace with that fact.

However, this organization challenge forced me to take a good look at my humble little kitchen with fresh eyes. I’ve organized that thing about 5 times since we moved in, but it still felt off.

But, the 6th time?

It was a charm.:)

I’m happy to report that after a few days of hard work in my kitchen, I’m actually starting to like it in there.

In fact, I just might love it!

I decided to break down the process in sections ~ like I did in real life. Today is Pantry day.

Let me introduce you. This is it in all its messy glory.

Obviously, I’m using the word “pantry” loosely here. In all reality, the kitchen doesn’t really have a pantry. We just decided upon arrival that this odd towering cupboard at the corner intersection of the room would become one.

After about 3 days of living here, my husband got tired of standing on his head to find the cans of soup and installed some lovely sliding drawers. (They are a life-saver!!)

As I begrudgingly began the process of re-organizing it, I first stood back and assessed what was working and what wasn’t.

What was working:

1.  The pull out shelves my husband built right after we moved in.
2. The microwave perch
3. The large round plate chargers on the top shelf works dandy, as I can stand on my tippy-toes and reach them.
4. The cookbooks & recipes I reach for often are easy to access.

What wasn’t working:

• The baskets on top of the microwave for dishtowels and dishrags. (I didn’t like how it looked or functioned.)
• Using precious drawer space for items I rarely use.

With those positives and negatives in mind, I started arranging and rearranging to try to solve all the problems.

Here’s how it ended up:

I kept the things I loved, but tried to improve on them. I finally painted out the drawer fronts of the pantry shelves and added metal label holders (from Lee Valley Tools).

(Font for labels is “Antero”)

The chargers went back up on the top shelf. Beside them, I put extra cookbooks that I want to save but don’t use often.

I relocated all my water/ juice pitchers in the back of an upper shelf and placed taller grocery items in front.

Everything that was previously in the top drawer fit perfectly in two pretty totes from Superstore, and fit perfectly  above the microwave.

Having all that stuff out of the drawer allowed me to lay out the dishtowels neatly, and tuck my rolling pins behind.

All the negatives became positives, and I’m loving my newly organized pantry cupboard.

But the part that makes my heart sing and my eyes twinkle? It’s this:

The apron my sister-in-law gave me hung on the side. I love its pretty stripes and the memory of the day we found it.

It’s one of Joanna Gaines’ from her new line at Target.

It makes me feel like there’s a little farmhouse in my townhouse kitchen…

To see all the links for the 8 week whole house organization challenge, go to this post.