Extreme Makeover: Pantry Edition!

Ok, so it's not that extreme, but I was having trouble thinking of a title for this blog, so just go with it!

As promised, here are some pictures of my mini-pantry makeover from Friday night:

Not the best before picture, because I remembered to snap one AFTER I had already cleared out the top shelf - the third shelf down (mostly baking ingredients) was the worst one of all and I despised looking at it day after day!

This is After picture 1.0 (see below for the final "After")

- I added a bin to the top shelf to corral all of our snack-y type foods (granola bars, popcorn, etc.):

- Cleaned out a bunch of stuff and just kept the things we needed:

- Switched the 3rd and 4th shelf so the baking items (which are the heaviest) are on the bottom:

-I took the wire rack from the 2nd shelf (it's barely visible in the before picture) and added a bin to hold random baking ingredients (shredded coconut, butterscotch chips, Heath bar candy):

I thought this looked pretty good. Then I spent 2+ hours drooling over The Container Store's website. I trekked up to my local store on Saturday and grabbed some more stuff for my pantry makeover. By Sunday, it looked a little something like this:

Top shelf: The only thing I added was a container for granola/cereal, but I was glad to eliminate another box/plastic bag and now I can see how much is left = saving $$

2nd shelf: moved the wire rack back to it's original home, used another clear container like the one on the top shelf to store pasta. Bought this to store spaghetti. Oh, and that white bin that had been on the bottom shelf? Now it's used for this:

Brown rice, gravy and spice packets!

3rd shelf: didn't change too much - just rearranged some items

Bottom shelf: Bought another wire rack to make use of the vertical space, got a smaller bin (actually for spice packets) to hold my random baking items and check out the sugar and flour containers (found here and here) that will make for less messes:

Oh, and I picked up some scoops to use with our cereal canisters (I had been using some old measuring cups - not very aesthetic!) and plopped them in an IKEA vase:

I love having a pantry where I can see everything and find stuff quickly!

I'm still planning to do a switcheroo with our lower cabinets, but I need to sort it out a bit, draw some sketches, take some measurements before I pay another visit to my new BFF, The Container Store!!