Pantry organisation

I'm kind of obsessed with pantries and laundry rooms. I don't have a laundry room in this house but I do have a pantry! It's in the corner of the kitchen between the stove and the fridge.



It has a light that automatically comes on when you open the door - ooh, fancy!

This is how it looked inside before our goodies arrived and I could organise it:



If you look carefully you can see two shelves stuck together (the second from bottom shelf). I thought I'd move the second from bottom shelf down, then move the extra shelf up a little. No can do - the second from bottom shelf is fixed and unmovable. Okay, plan B - move the shelf above it up and the other two shelves up too. You can see the switches on the right hand wall; they are for the light and the fridge. At first it didn't look like I could move the shelf up beyond them, but in the end I managed it by tilting it. Voila, a whole extra shelf.

And here's how my pantry looks now:



I put two clean release hooks on the door - one for my apron and one for this clear shoe organiser. It holds food colouring, flavourings, candy thermometer, balloon pump, icing bags and nozzles, and other odds and ends like that.



I created labels for everything in the pantry (the font is Pupcat):



Okay, top shelf. It has one big and several small plastic baskets on it (find similar at the dollar store):





Here is a picture of the big basket:



The labels are laminated and stuck on with dots of hot glue. I love hot glue - it just peels off if you want to change things.



Next two shelves:



These containers are by Cuisine Queen. I found them at The Warehouse and they have no more stock anywhere. An employee says no new orders have been placed but the item has not been discontinued so they should get more in in the future. They are about shoe-box sized and hold 3.2 litres and were $6.99. You can see from the labels what's in them. The two jars hold cookie cutters (there is a second jar behind the first).



Here is the left hand side of the shelf. I take the Omega 3 every morning and the magnesium every evening so I like to have them handy. The round tray was on sale at The Warehouse for $4.99. I bought two (you'll see the other one in a minute):





Okay, next shelf down. These containers are also Cuisine Queen from The Warehouse and were about $5.99 each. They hold 1.5 liters, I think.



There are two rows. The front row holds caster sugar, oats, cereal bars, cocoa and basmati rice. The back row holds jam setting sugar, excess herbs and spices that won't fit in my spice jars, macaroni, chocolate chips and risotto rice:



To the left (there's the other round tray). The label on the bread flour basket says "bread flour & yeast" but I couldn't find sachet yeast, only a tin that needs to be stored in the fridge. The garlic is stored in a candle holder from Ikea:





The bottom two shelves:



These little square baskets are so handy. The stock cubes are stored by flavour in empty pasta sauce jars. And yes, here and in the UK and South Africa (everywhere I've lived) we store our eggs in or out of the fridge and they are sold on unrefrigerated shelves at the store.





The sugar is for the kids, who like it on their Weetbix (wheat biscuit cereal). I've put a stainless steel half-teaspoon measuring spoon in it and that's all they're allowed.





Bottom shelf. The Weetbix box is also Cuisine Queen (The Warehouse) and is made specifically for Weetbix. It has Weetbix on the label. They fit perfectly in it. The rest of the cereal: I remove the bag from the box, ditch the box, clip the bag with a plastic bag clip and throw it into the basket.





Oops, looks like I forgot a label! I stand my oils inside the top of an egg box. When it gets all oily I simply toss it and use a new one. It keeps the shelf clean.





The floor: often-used appliances.





If you're wondering where all of the cans of food are, they are on plastic shelves in the garage. I go and "shop the garage" when I'm about to start cooking. We also have an extra freezer there where I store milk, bread, baked goods, meals I've cooked for freezing (including bags of cooked rice) and meat. I'll do a post on how I organise all of that later, as well as how I organise the rest of our kitchen cupboards and drawers.