Hi everyone.
I’m Alejandra from Alejandra.tv and in this video, I’m going to show you how to organize
your pantry on a tiny budget.
But first, if you are looking to start getting organized for the very first time, you can
check out my free video series on my website Alejandra.tv.
There’s a link below.
All right.
So when it comes to preparing for breakfast, making lunches, cooking dinner, you have to
have an organized pantry to be able to make the whole process easier, faster, more efficient
and there’s no better thing to do than have an organized pantry.
So one of the things that people always think about when you think about organizing the
pantry for the very first time is that you have to spend a lot of money to set up systems
by expensive organizing products and I’m going to show you that, that that is just
not the case.
So I’ve tackled my entire pantry right here for our – all stuff from the dollar store
and I’m going to show you all the cool systems that I set up to inspire you to organize your
pantry with whatever budget you are working with.
All right.
So let me show you exactly what I’ve done.
All right.
So up here, so the top shelf here is reserved for all of the big things we buy from Costco,
like things we buy in bulk like paper towels, like big things of chips, big things of cereal.
So that just stays nice and empty, available for stored space.
All right.
This shelf right here, this is where I have all of my like bottles, spices, oils, vinegars
and stuff and I wanted to use Lazy Susans because Lazy Susans are awesome for storing
round things because you just – you turn them and you find exactly what you’re looking
for.
Unfortunately, the dollar store doesn’t sell Lazy Susans.
So I made my own.
I took two baking pans from the dollar store.
I took a pack of marbles.
I put the marbles in between and now I have a Lazy Susan just like that and it turns really
smoothly really nicely.
It’s like these supplies were made for a Lazy Susan and it costs $3 each.
So these stay up here.
Spices are in the corner.
On this shelf right here, I have all of the snack foods, dinner foods, desserts and all
I did was take dishpans from the dollar store.
So just because it’s a dishpan doesn’t mean you have to use it like under the sink
or by the sink.
You can use it as a storage bin in the pantry or any other space in the house.
So I thought this is perfect for categorizing all these small things in the pantry.
What I also did was I found these – they’re double shelf bridges.
This is what they look like right here.
They’re hard to find.
I got these last year at Dollar Tree.
They’re currently out of stock.
I visited seven Dollar Trees and I called like a total of 15 in the area and they were
just out of stock.
But what I did here was I put a shelf here.
I put a dishpan underneath, a dishpan on top and nothing is puttied down.
It just works like this but you pull this out and it’s like a drawer.
So you have these two dishpans.
You have this double shelf right here and it’s like a set of drawers.
It’s like made to go together.
They need to start selling this together because it just works so nicely.
It only works with these particular double shelves.
If you buy double shelves somewhere else, they’re going to be a different size and
it’s not going to work.
I tried it below and it just doesn’t work.
So anyway, that goes there.
I put nice big labels here, so I could see what is where, because the space is kind of
dark, but yeah.
So all the snacks, I take them out of the box and I just throw them in here.
The same thing with most of the desserts.
I take like the cookies out of the box and then they just get tossed inside of this dishpan
just like that.
All right.
Down here, this is where I have all of my dry goods.
So it’s hard to find dry good containers that are airtight for a low price.
I found these ones.
These were the best that I found.
They are not airtight.
But they have a nice seal.
So like this top – yeah, the top clasps clips on to the bottom really nice and secure.
Then this lid right here to open it is pretty tight and they make a tall one and they make
a short one.
Again, they’re from Dollar Tree.
So, the tall ones are hard to find.
Out of all the stores I visited, I only found four and I visited seven different stores.
These are the smaller ones right here.
So again, they’re not airtight but they are functional and they do hold all of your
dry goods.
Then over here is where I just put cereals because it seemed like the best logical place
to put them.
Then the bottom shelf, I did the same thing with all of the dishpans.
I took four dishpans and then I separated them out into baking, specialty, tea and coffee,
and then this is an empty one.
But these double shelves right here, these are from – they’re actually my grandma’s.
They are like 20 years old.
She got them probably at Kmart.
She loves Kmart and they don’t work.
If you try and pull this out, it doesn’t work.
The double shelf moves.
So you have to use the ones from Dollar Tree to do this.
Then of course you need a shelf liner at the bottom of the shelf to make sure that the
double shelf does not go through the ventilation of your shelf.
You can get a shelf liner at the dollar store.
It’s not like – I like this one better because it’s flat and it’s nice and secure.
What you can do is the dollar store sells film poster boards, one of those thick poster
boards.
You can cut that and put that on top of your shelf as your liner because it’s going to
create a nice like non-ventilated surface.
Then you can put these double shelves on top of that.
So anyway, that is that shelf.
At the very bottom of the pantry, I have all of my refills for all of the containers in
here.
So I just found these little tubs.
I like these tubs because they have a handle.
They’re not clear.
I didn’t want to see like all the bags down here.
They come in blue and then white of course.
So I just categorized refills in two of them, bags and then paper goods like picnic stuff
in the corner, one over here.
Then I just put a big label down there.
They’re kind of flimsy but I mean it’s a dollar.
So it’s a good price and then over here, I found this.
This was another container from the dollar store.
This one comes in four sizes.
Out of all the Dollar Trees I went to, only one store had one of these really tall ones
with the nice pink top.
But this is perfect for pet food, like Mojo’s food.
This is like – it has a nice handle back here and put a label right here.
But they sell four sizes.
The small one is blue.
There’s a medium green one.
There’s a tall red one and then the tallest is pink.
So yeah, that just goes to the bottom of the pantry.
OK.
So then over the door right here, I found this nice hook that is nice and secure.
So the dollar store sells different over-the-door hooks and I found this is the best one because
it has like the tightest fit and it just seemed like it was the best quality and it has two
hooks.
There’s the smaller one and then there’s the top one.
So I just put my two aprons right here and then my picnic bag goes on top and I like
this because it’s not even like puttied down or anything and it doesn’t move.
The hook is pretty well in place.
So that was a great find.
So that’s how I’ve organized my entire pantry.
I’m going to count everything up and show you that I didn’t spend a lot of money in
the entire – the pantry is all organized.
My systems are functional, easy to access and everything just looks so beautiful.
So OK, there’s nothing up here.
These were $3 each, two baking pans so 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24,
25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43.
So I’ve organized my entire pantry for $43 and my system is now beautiful.
Now, when I go to cook, I’m going to be able to find everything, easily access everything
and I can just show off how beautiful it looks.
So I hope this video has inspired you to work with whatever budget you have and still set
up organizing systems in your home with whatever you’re working with.
If this is your first time watching any of my videos, you can subscribe to my channel
for more tips on getting organized or check out my website Alejandra.tv.
Thanks for watching and I will see you soon.
Bye.