The Great Pantry Project of 2020

There are two types of people in the world, the kind that think our dream pantry is amazing, and the type that think this is insane and over the top. I think it’s pretty clear where we land on this.

We knew from the day we saw this pantry that we would want to give her a little face lift and this weekend, we decided it was time. It was busting at the seams and the wire racks needed to go! As we were pulling everything out to get started, it felt a little like a clown car, like, where is all of this stuff even coming from?! Also, why do we have a bag of seaweed from 2017? Do we need this? (Nick says, YES!)

Not our proudest moment, but peep this before: NAILED IT!!

We had been pinning inspo pantries long enough, it was time to take matters into our own hands. We both knew the direction we wanted to go pretty quickly. First step was to choose the containers. I did tons and tons of research, and then a little more research. We landed on glass.

I started pricing out different options and was initially looking at Mason Jars or Ball glasses. Either folks got tired of baking sour dough and moved onto canning, or everyone else in the world is currently reorganizing their pantries as well because y’all, there ain’t a glass jar to be found. Bare shelves at ALL. THE. STORES. I took to the googles and the Amazons and nothing. Nada. Zilch.

We ended up going with ULINE glass jars. The prices were unbeatable and we loved the aesthetic.

Before ordering the glass, we pulled everything out of the pantry.

This way we could get rid of the old stuff that had turned into a science project and get a visual on what we actually wanted to keep.

We went through everything and made a list of what size jar was needed for each pantry item. This gave us a great idea of how much to order. Another reason we went with ULINE is that they sell in bulk. We tacked a couple extra jars onto each size in case we needed them for the future. Not to toot our own honkers, but we were pretty spot on with our estimates. We didn’t run out nor did we have a ton of extras (which is typically the norm around here.)

Next up, say syronaya to the wire racks!

As with almost any project of ours, we start by painting something black. We wanted to add some dimension and since the metal lids on the glass jars were white, the only option for the walls were black. Because, black and white, duh!

We picked up some boards from Home Depot, sanded them smooth, threw some stain on them and actually put the boards back in the same spot the wire racks were previously hung.

While pouring the food into the jars we used dry erase markers on the bottom to add the expiration date and made notes of any special instructions for preparation!

Time for the best part… Put that ish back in!!!

It’s unreal how much space was freed up by storing our food this way. Not to mention, it’s pretty cool to actually see what we will eat, rather than just the packaging. It is so much more calming to see our food and what we have in the pantry.

We ordered a few of these Kraft Reusable Bags in the Large and Extra Large sizes for the bottom shelf to house some of the stuff that we won’t put in the glass jars.

Real talk: when we got everything put back in the space, we both just sat and stared at it. Bless us. We’ve been wanting to do this for so long, it was so fulfilling to see it come to fruition.

This one was a fun! As usual, on to the next one…

Alright people, what team are you on? Think we’re ridiculous? Or do you love it and want us to come do yours?!