10 Tips for a Perfectly Practical Pantry

My hubby and I recently moved to a new home, and for the first time, our new house came with a small pantry that seemed perfect for our needs. However, after a while, we realized that we needed a more organized approach to make the best use of space, and to help us find and replenish things more easily. Below are a few tips on how to design the pantry that you want, using materials that you prefer. The picture below is the end result of our pantry redesign!

As a first step (which may not apply to you), we decided to remove the existing fixed wood shelves and replace them with our favorite IKEA Boaxel shelving system. This enabled us to use more of our 9 ft high wall space. The hardest part of the redesign was for my hubby to remove the existing shelves and repair the walls. Even though we changed our shelving, the ideas below can work equally well with your existing shelves!

*Posts on DecorRefresh.com may contain affiliate links. Please read the full disclosure policy here. Where relevant, I have provided links to products below each photo. Where the original product is no longer available, I have provided links to similar products.

Product Sources: IKEA Boaxel Shelving System | Rubbermaid Brilliance Dry Pantry Containers | Decorative Plastic Bins with Cut-out Handles (Medium) | Decorative Plastic Bins with Cut-out Handles (Small) | Decorative Plastic Lid | IKEA Risatorp Metal Small Basket | Wine Rack

Tip 1. Decide What to Store in Your Pantry

It may seem obvious but figuring out ‘what’ to store is an important first step. Otherwise, you may end up with a mish-mash of things that should go somewhere else! We started by moving everything out of the pantry to a temporary holding area. While my hubby was removing the shelves and repairing the walls, I started looking at images of beautifully organized pantries on Pinterest. I saved many of these to a Pinterest folder that I had created. Many of the pantries on Pinterest had items that we didn’t need or want, and they lacked some of the things that we like to store, such as cleaning supplies, dog food, and paper products. So, taking some of the ideas from Pinterest, we decided on a rough list of what we wanted to store.

Tip 2. Design Your New Layout, and Where to Place Everything

My next step, which may not apply to you, was to design the shelving system inside the pantry using IKEA’s Boaxel Planner tool. We essentially ended up with seven long rows of shelves on one wall, and a shorter row of four shelves, and five pull-out baskets on the slightly narrower wall. Our space was a couple of inches too small for wall-to-wall shelves with no gaps, but we were pleased with the overall space, and who knows, we may use the ‘gap’ spaces for hanging storage in the future!

In terms of what to place where, we decided to place the most frequently used supplies in the middle shelves, the more bulky, but frequently used items, such as dog food and cleaning supplies went on the bottom shelves, and paper products went on a slightly higher shelf. Chips went in the top pull-out basket (we like chips!), and other smaller snacks and pouches of instant oats, and breakfast bars went in a lower basket.

Tip 3. Choose the Right Containers for Your Needs

Having a matching set of containers for dry food helps to reduce visual clutter in a pantry, as well as keeping everything dry and more easily accessible. I did a lot research before choosing my containers for storing flour, sugar, pasta, cereals, and so on. I liked the Rubbermaid ‘Brilliance’ collection for a number of reasons, including; airtightness, ease of cleaning, overall quality of materials, and availability as individual items as well as in sets. A number of local stores stocked this collection, so I was able to see the quality of the materials before committing to a particular brand. Finally, I didn’t want to get different sets of food containers for different purposes, and this collection provided an adequate range of sizes to suit our current (and future) needs. FYI, I bought three sets (each containing one 16-cup, one 12-cup, and one 7.8-cup), two extra 12-cup containers, and one extra 7.8-cup container. Each of the 16-cup containers were large enough for a regular size box of cereal.

Product Sources: Rubbermaid Brilliance Dry Pantry Containers 

Tip 4. Place Labels on Containers and Baskets

Labeling containers can really help to elevate the 'organized look' of your pantry, and make it easier to find things at a glance. If your handwriting style is awesome, you can create your own custom container labels using different styles that you can buy from various retailers. However, if you’re like me, and your handwriting is not that legible, then you might want to consider buying ready-made pantry labels. I tried a set from Amazon, and although the labels were nice, the set didn’t have all the labels I needed, and some of the label sizes were not right for our particular application.

In the end, I designed my own labels using Avery’s design website. I found some 2” x 3” Avery white glossy labels (22890) on Amazon, and on the Avery site, I chose a font called 'Shadows into Light'. I then used the design tools to create labels with white text on a black background. Designing the labels in this way allows you to use larger or smaller fonts and to use a different size or shape for your labels. I have placed all the label files that I created for our pantry at the bottom of this page. You can print these on your own printer just to see if you like the design etc. Please bear in mind that they are were what we needed for our pantry, and you may have to design your own.

I also found some really practical and attractive black metal clip-on label holders that I used for our various baskets. These are also available in white, and would look equally good with a white self-adhesive label and black text. I personally prefer white text on black labels! When you use the labels consistently across all the baskets and containers, they look as though they are all from the same collection, don't you think?

Product Sources: Rubbermaid Brilliance Dry Pantry Containers |  Decorative Plastic Bins with Cut-out Handles (Medium) | Decorative Plastic Bins with Cut-out Handles (Small) | Decorative Plastic Lid | IKEA Risatorp Metal Small Basket | Avery Glossy White Labels (22890) | Talented Kitchen 18 Pack Clip-On Black Metal Label Holders

Tip 5. Baskets for Vegetables, Fruit, and Snacks

We like to store fruit and vegetables in breathable baskets. Potatoes, in particular, stay fresh longer, when placed in a basket in the pantry. Not all fruit and vegetables can be stored in a pantry, so its useful to check on how to store these items beforehand. For example, some fruit, such as bananas, stay fresher when stored in the fridge. In our pantry, we have four small metal mesh baskets for fruit and veggies, and five pull-out baskets for other items.

Product Sources: 3-Tier Expandable Spice Rack | IKEA APTITLIG Lazy Susan

Tip 6. Use a Consistent Style for Baskets and Bins

If possible, try to use storage baskets that are similar in style. This will help to make the space seem more cohesive and organized (and hide a lot of ugly packaging)! I prefer baskets and bins that can be cleaned easily, so I tend to veer towards plastic and metal bins for storing certain types of items. I find it really convenient to store cleaning supplies in plastic baskets such as the ones in the pic below. These baskets are from Target's Brightroom range and come in three sizes. I got the small and medium sizes for our pantry. These look great below the metal mesh baskets from IKEA!

Tip 7. Expandable Spice Rack and Lazy Susan

We don't use a lot of spices in cooking, so we didn't need a large spice rack. However, we like to store a few cans, jars, and bottles in the pantry. The expandable rack I found on Amazon is not only large enough for our needs but it also has slightly wider tiers that accommodate larger cans, pasta sauce jars, and olive oil bottles! Like everything else, it is easy to clean, and matches the overall style of our pantry. At some point in the future we may decide to add a tiered rack specifically for spices, but for now, our spices and other condiments are easy to grab from the 'Lazy Susan' turntable.

Product Sources: 3-Tier Expandable Spice Rack | IKEA APTITLIG Lazy Susan 

Tip 8. Place the Least Used Items on Higher Shelves

As you see from earlier pics, we placed the items we use everyday within easy reach. Things like cereal, condiments, snacks, kitchen roll, dog food, and cleaning supplies are all easily accessible. In contrast, pots and pans that are not used very often, a picnic hamper, a freezer bag, and other supplies such as batteries and candles, are on higher shelves. However, our family's needs may be very different to yours, so you need to think about where to place items to best suit your own situation.

Tip 9. Use Smaller Baskets to Organize and Segment Smaller Items

I used a few smaller IKEA Skubb tubs to separate some of the items in our pull-out baskets. This is a good idea if you want to see what you have at a glance, and more importantly, what you're running low on. Things like gravy, breakfast bars, cereal pouches, and tea bags, are so much easier to keep track of, and take up a lot less space without their original packaging.

Product Sources: IKEA Skubb Boxes

Tip 10. Use Rolling Carts to Store Bottles and Bulky Items

When we were planning where the Boaxel uprights (that hold the shelves) would

be positioned, we decided to leave enough room (at least on one side) to have some deeper bins or crates. We tend to store bottles and bulky items like white vinegar, water, and other soft drinks in our crates but you can store whatever you like! We put wheels on our crates to make them easier to maneuver!

Product Sources: IKEA KNAGGLIG Wood Crate

Pantry Label Files