Sick of seeing
perfect Pinterest-worthy pantries
and feeling like you just can't measure up?
Today I'll be showing you
how I organize my realistic, imperfect pantry.
We'll be cleaning out the shelves,
using some simple, budget-friendly bins and containers
to make things less messy,
and then we'll group like items together
so that they make sense.
The goal is to embrace the space that you already have,
while feeling like you still have your life together.
I'll share some budget-friendly tips,
as well as how to organize a small space.
Come organize with me.
Hey, guys, it's Taylor from The Girl on Bloor.
I'm all about sharing easy meal prep strategies
and kitchen tips and tricks to make your life easier.
If you're new here, welcome.
I normally share meal prep recipes and meal planning tips,
but a big part of a healthy lifestyle
is also taking care of your mental health,
and getting organized can really help with that.
Now all of that said,
I feel like whenever I see organization videos,
whatever space is being worked on
looks like it could belong in a magazine,
and honestly I find it kind of discouraging.
I also feel like I see people have all these crazy bins
and organizational tools that can be quite expensive,
so today I'm showing you how to organize a smaller space
very realistically, all on a budget to boot.
Now ,I'm lucky enough to have a big kitchen
for a downtown Toronto condo,
but as with most condo kitchens,
there really isn't a designated pantry space,
so I added a bookshelf to the den
located next to the kitchen.
My den is my catch-all room for everything from my shoes,
to my workout stuff, and my blogging equipment.
My pantry bookshelf is massive because I'm a food blogger,
and I have a crap ton of dishes and props
that I use in my photography.
You can see just how narrow the actual area is
with my dry food and ingredients that I use
as a quote, unquote pantry.
Don't get me wrong, it's a decent amount of space,
but it's pretty narrow and the shelves are deep,
and if you don't organize the right way,
it can be pretty awkward.
So the main point I'm trying to make
is that even if you have a small space,
you can easily build a bookshelf
and fit it in somewhere near your kitchen.
It's a cost-effective solution
and a wise way to make the most out of any small space.
If I didn't have a den, I'd probably put the bookshelf
along this wall near my kitchen here.
Now, you're seeing my pantry at its messiest,
and I'll be honest, it gets this way over time.
And I wanna emphasize that that is normal.
Every week I do a mini pantry inventory
as I do my meal planning,
so sometimes I'll mess it up as I'm doing that,
and that is just life.
If you wanna learn more about how I meal plan,
I highly encourage you to watch
how I meal plan in four easy steps each week.
I've linked to it in the description of this video.
So messy pantry, it happens to the best of us.
What I do to reduce the overwhelm of having a perfect pantry
is to organize it every quarter or every season.
I usually do a clear out in the winter, spring,
summer, and fall, and this allows me
to take better overall stock of what I have,
and then add any organizational pieces
if I see opportunities to make it function better.
This way, you also don't have to
spend a ton of money up front,
and can add things over time
instead of buying all this stuff
and then maybe not using some of it
if it turns out to be unnecessary.
So let's dive right into this hot mess now, shall we?
The very first thing I do
is I take everything off the shelves
so that I can give the shelves a proper wipe down.
You have no idea how satisfying this part is.
It's surprising how much dirt and dust
can pile up after a few months.
Now with everything off the shelves,
step two is to sit my butt down on the floor
and start going through everything I have.
Sometimes, unfortunately,
I will have to throw things out that are going bad,
but because of my weekly pantry inventory,
this is pretty rare.
The goal with the weekly check-in
is to constantly refresh your brain
as to what you have on-hand at home.
This is way easier than making a list
and trying to be too organized.
And honestly, like you, I'm super busy,
so I just don't have time
to make some sort of fancy spreadsheet,
so that's why I advocate for the weekly check-in,
as opposed to the running inventory list.
I just do a fast weekly assessment, and then plan my meals
based around what I already have on-hand at home.
You'd be surprised at how little you throw out
when you don't overbuy and you regularly check-in.
The things I end up throwing away the most
tend to be junk food like stale chips,
and occasionally, things I don't use very often and go bad,
such as dried berries.
I'm going to do a video on things you can freeze,
because even I should be freezing a lot of things
that I throw out from my pantry,
and you can basically freeze anything.
Okay, once you've wiped down the shelves
and cleared away the clutter,
now step number three
is to group your remaining items together.
There's no right or wrong way to do this.
It's mostly just about how you yourself
go to look through your pantry,
and what you think might be most efficient
as you do your pantry check-in each week.
You can also think about this
in terms of how a grocery store
might group up items together in certain aisles.
I usually have a baking section
that also contains nuts, nut butters, and honey,
along with a canned and savory condiments section
that includes onions and potatoes,
and I group all my pastas, rice, and dried legumes together.
I have a section for snacks,
and then a section for drinks and teas.
Finally, I have an overflow section
with protein powders, extra kitchen items,
and anything else that doesn't fit in the other categories.
I usually keep this overflow section
at the very top of my pantry,
since I don't use these items as much.
Now step number four is to assess
whether or not you'd like to buy some bins, containers,
or racks that you think would make your life easier.
I did a little assessment
and bought some stuff ahead of time for this video
just so I can show you what I already have
and what I'm adding in this time.
So going in, I had these OXO Good Grips pop containers.
The lids pop down to provide an airtight seal,
and they are stackable.
I treated myself to these when I moved into this place,
and let me tell you,
they have definitely extended the shelf life
of my nuts, flours, oats, legumes, and sugars.
I also had some old glass containers
from Canadian Tire and IKEA from several years ago.
The OXO containers are expensive
and not accessible to everyone though,
so don't worry about needing to get
fancy containers like these.
I love Mason jars as well
for organizing different things like nuts, seeds,
legumes, rice, and other dry goods,
and they are much more affordable.
You can even save jars of pasta sauce for things like this,
or even leftover yogurt containers,
so just know that you really can do
the whole pantry organizing thing on a budget.
I just recommend that you label any yogurt containers
or others you can't see through.
Another cheap idea is to go to the dollar store or IKEA
and buy some bins so you can group items together
and pull them out for easy access.
This is especially handy when you have a deep pantry.
I bought a bunch of these bins off of Amazon for this video,
as I feel like I have enough containers
and wanna organize a bit further.
I got a set of 12 bins for $60
so you're looking at a very reasonable $5 per bin.
Once you have all of your equipment,
step number five is to obviously add ingredients
and food to your containers
so that they are all ready to go back up on your shelves.
I'm adding some rice to my Mason jars,
along with some other dry goods.
Now the final step, step number six,
is to put everything back on the shelves.
At this point,
you should have everything grouped by category on the floor,
so you'll just be choosing
which shelves to add everything back to.
Like I mentioned earlier,
I recommend that you add things you won't be using as much,
or things that are easier to reach,
like larger items on the top shelf,
then you'll go down
in order of how much you use everything from there.
First up, we have miscellaneous items up top,
then we have the baking section.
After that is the rice, pasta, and legumes section,
followed by the savory ingredients section.
Then we have snacks and drinks on the bottom two shelves.
Et voila, the perfectly imperfect pantry.
You've probably noticed by now
that I don't keep my spices in my pantry,
so I'll touch on that quickly.
Now if you want to, you can keep your spices in your pantry,
but I personally keep my spices
in a kitchen cupboard close to my stove.
If I'm ever cooking something on the stove
and want to add some seasoning last minute,
I like having my spices close on-hand.
I just find this cupboard is way more functional for me.
And I know, my spices are not at all organized.
I just keep this bin with all the spices in there
because I don't think it's a good use of my time
to be emptying all these spice packets into jars
when they come in resealable packages anyway.
Maybe one day when I have room for an actual spice drawer
this may be worthwhile,
and maybe I'll even make a video showing the transformation,
but honestly, until that time,
I just find that it doesn't take me that long
to look through my spice bin when making a recipe,
and if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
I don't have time to fill all these pretty jars
just to have things look perfect,
so again, you see me prioritizing function over perfection.
Now, back to my glorious new pantry.
It obviously looks good if I do say so myself,
but I wouldn't say it's Pinterest perfect
or expertly styled.
What it is, is realistic and functional.
Obviously, I'm not hating if you wanna make your pantry
look super pretty and matchy-match.
If that sort of stuff makes you happy,
then definitely go for it.
But, I just wanted to show you in this video
that you can do a lot with Mason jars and bins alone,
which is the best way to organize on a budget.
But if you know it's just not going to be realistic for you
and is gonna be a source of stress
trying to make it look perfect all of the time,
then I am giving you permission
to just get your pantry to a point
where it works for you.
Owning a business has been super helpful
in reframing how I feel about perfection.
There comes a certain point
where you have to embrace efficiency
and let go of perfection to succeed,
and most of all, success to me looks like consistency.
My process is simple, easy, and achievable,
and at the end of the day, that's what you want.
Okay, guys, that about wraps up my pantry organizing video.
I hope you enjoyed it
and picked up a few new tips and tricks
for when you go to organize yours.
If you're loving my videos,
be sure to give this video a thumbs up,
and let me know if you have any other pantry questions
in the comments below.
Or share this video with a friend
or family member who needs it.
Thanks for hanging out in my pantry today
and I'll see you in the next video.