My pantry is a MESS! It's so embarrassing that I can't even bring myself to post a before picture until there is an after picture to show that I really am organized, it just takes the right tools, time, and motivation.

The motivation struck after months of buying stuff I already had and running out of things, because that plastic green bulk bag from Whole Foods in the back of pantry totally has rice in it right?! Oh wait, that was popcorn... shit!

One nice thing about working at a college is I still get a spring break! WOO HOO! So over my spring break I plan to reorganize my kitchen and my pantry. Now that we are all settled in to our house and have purchased the things we were missing or really wanting for our kitchen collection, it's time to make some more permanent decisions. Before we moved in I planned out our kitchen and pantry using pictures I had taken when looking at the house a list of all the stuff I knew we had or wanted to buy as soon as we had enough room. Then when we moved in we put that plan into action. So far my planning has worked really well and I've only made one small adjustment to our kitchen organization scheme since we moved in.

My pantry on the other hand has become a jumbled mess of food stuffs and I cannot take it any longer!

So this weekend the gathering of supplies began. My friend Miranda (HI Miranda!) gave me a cool OXO pop top lid canister for my birthday. It took me a while to decide what to put it in. Literally for almost a month it just sat on my counter and I played with it when I cooked, then I'd hold it and stare into my pantry, get frustrated because it was SO BAD, and give up. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. And so on.

On Thursday I made rice and bean for lunch and used up the last of my rice, that by the way was being stored in a plastic ziplock bag. So off to Whole Foods I went. I bought a bunch of new rice and when I got home I was so excited to put it in my new container! Except the 4 pounds of rice I bought didn't fit into the little container. DANG IT! So I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to see what other sizes they had and I bought these bad boys!!!


The shorter one I used for my new rice, and the taller one can hold up to a 5 pound bag of flour or sugar, so I put my flour in that one. I plan to go back and get more of these containers once I decide how many I need and collect enough BB&B coupons that I don't have to pay full price for a single one of them!

For the last seven ish years I have stored my flour and sugar in cheap plastic ziplock food storage containers.  You know the ones made for putting Christmas cookies in for your neighbors or leftovers or something. They're not exactly meant for long term use.



I love these containers because they stack so well and use the space I have super efficiently. And I cannot find anything like it in a more durable long term use food storage container. But since my dream product doesn't exist, my new OXO canisters are pretty awesome and I can't wait to fill my pantry with them.