Kitchen Pantry: A Few More Details…

This has been a season of plenty. We were in Los Angeles this weekend attending the wedding of a college friend on Saturday and the baby shower of another friend on Sunday. It seems like the entire second half of 2013 has been full of these types of celebrations! So happy for all of these new marriages and new babies. Speaking of LA though, I graduated from USC and any opportunity to get back to the city of angels is one that I enjoy. While there we also visited the Rose Bowl flea market (how perfect is timing that we should be in LA the same weekend…) and I found many amazing pieces but actually snagged just a few new finds for the girls’ room (which has taken a regrettable pause).

But first! An update on the new pantry. Because, you know, organization seems like a really great idea when you initially buy all of those boxes and bins and jars, but then the real test comes when you live with that organization. Did I store the cereal in a jar that’s accessible enough for everyone to actually use said jar (rather than stuff unlabeled bags into pantry crevices)? Can I find that bag of flour that I need for a recipe? or am I shoving cans and plastic bins aside until it unveils itself… it’s the little things in life that tend to irk us the most ;-).

We are three weeks in and I think that we can say that we are good! The thought and planning behind how each little corner of this space has, so far, paid off.

Apologies again for the terrible pics…

I thought I might share a few more details about the new pantry that I left out when I first shared the ‘after’ shots as well as a few little additions we’ve made over the past couple of weeks to make this space more functional.

So lets talk about dry storage for a minute. New house rule is is that as soon as a bagged or boxed food item is opened, it gets repackaged into an OXO container. I shared earlier how we’ve had to throw away massive piles of perfectly good food because of these guys that sneak in in bags of flour and then cross contaminate. So I bit the bullet and purchased OXO in bulk.

I loved the idea of stacking the food containers so that we could see what was inside, rather than just shelving them 4 or 5 containers deep into the recessed depths of the pantry. By converting a wine rack into vertical storage, now we can see dried goods that are ready for use – and spaghetti and beans alike are not forgotten about.

But what about labeling? If you toss that box, the instructions on how to cook (and even the name of said bean) go with. Now I clip out the important stuff and store it right in the container.

Next up on the list was fixing the snack area. The red basket is stocked with snacks for on the go (pre baggied options) while the jars in front are filled with bulk snacks like goldfish and pretzels. I found these clear cute little scoops at The Container Store for $1.50 and they’ve made a big difference in how easy it is to serve the snacks vs. bare hands reaching constantly reaching into the jars. I think they had a range of sizes – good to know for other foods that might need scoops like oatmeal or even dog food.

And that cork there on the right?

Those are actually cut out pieces from adhesive drawer liner cork rolls that are framed in red Ikea frames. The wood pallets actually serve as pretty great pin holders so I didn’t worry about tracking down thick cork tiles (like we did for our kitchen art corner).

The cork rolls are lined with a sticky film on one side:

But the stick was not strong enough to keep the cork squares up on their own. I used push pins to help finish the job.

And the last little detail?

Hooks for hanging the dustpans (both Liv and mine).

Sometimes it’s the little details that make all of the difference!

More pantry pics and the full source list here. Happy Monday! Hope you are having a beautiful start to your week!