My Pantry

Come along with us as I show you how I have organized and stocked my pantry. You know, there are just some rooms in your home that say ‘you’.  Those are the rooms in which the ying and yang come together and the rooms epitomizes your loves, your comforts, and your motivation.

 As embarrassing as this may be to say out loud,  my pantry is one of those ‘rooms’.  Now, it’s not ‘room-size’, but it truly is a microcosm of me, my loves and my motivations.  Let’s have a look, shall we?

First…the door!  This may be one of my favorite features of our home.  We found it in a salvage store and refinished it. The glass, which is very thin and wavy (which is why through the glass looks a tad blurry), must be original to the door.  Imagine my shock and relief, that this glass is still intact after being thrust open regularly for the past 11 years by my now 15-year old son who is regularly in hunter-gatherer mode in my pantry.

I’m a firm believer in functional aesthetics… serve a purpose and look good doing it.  Because the contents of my pantry are visible to everyone, I’ve endeavored to make the inside as pretty as the outside, while still being fully functional and organized as a pantry.  Luckily, my preferred method of purchasing food (in bulk when possible), storing food (in glass containers), canning my food and minimizing processed and prepared foods helps create a pantry that is truly mine. I avoid like the plague processed food, trying to eat our foods as close to natural as possible.

My pantry is L-shaped.  When you open the door, this is what is facing you.  From top to bottom:  In terms of my pantry organization, I keep liquor, vases, and items not used very often on the top shelf.  The second shelf down, from left to right, holds my vegetable and beef stock, my baking supplies organized into use (extracts, food coloring, chocolate stuff, etc…)  I found the metal mesh trays and mounted label holders onto the trays and then printed out the labels in an old-looking font.

The font looks very ‘Jane Eyre’. To the right of the baking supplies are my jars of jams, jellies and preserves, and tapioca.  Farther to the right is my son’s favorite area…the snack area, where I keep pretzels, nuts, crackers, etc…

The next shelf down holds, from left to right, my chicken stock and bone broth (I did a big can between the time I took the top photo and this one!), jars of dried beans, the few items I buy in cans and jars (olives, refried beans, Asian sauces) and farther to the right you see my Costco brand canned and diced tomatoes.  For what it’s worth, all of Costco’s branded canned items (Kirkland) are in BPA-free cans!  Got this straight from the Costco employee on that specific task force.  Yay for Costco.

Next shelf down holds, from left to right, my jars of vegetable and beans soup, jars of rice, quinoa, etc…

From this angle, you can see the bottom shelf and the floor.  The bottom shelf holds oatmeal toppings in the wire basket, dried fruit in the wine crate and dog goodies.  I store my crock pots, pressure canner and large canning pot on the floor.

Here’s a view to the right side of the pantry.  The very top shelf holds more items used infrequently, decorative type stuff.  Next three shelves down hold nuts, nut butters, snacks, and some odds and ends. The next shelf holds items used infrequently (vinegars and cooking wines, Worcestershire sauce, unopened mustards, molasses, etc…).  I  buy cans of Coconut Milk in bulk from Amazon Subscribe and Save, and they’re down there too.  You can see my canning supplies on the bottom shelf.

One last nugget of pantry organization, contents and storage:

I buy spices in bulk (myspicesage.com is the bomb) and store them in the very bottom drawer of my spare refrigerator.  In case of my demise, I showed the fam my organizational system (sweet on the left, savory on the right, and big bags in middle)

They were also quite tickled by my door organization.  I keep all this stuff (almond flour, cashew flour, tapioca flour, all those Bob’s Red Mill products) in the fridge to keep them fresh and to avoid the little weevils and gypsy moths that sometimes rear their ugly little heads.

Thanks again for spending a few minutes of your busy day with me today.

Thanks for making my day by SHARING!!