Getting Organized! The Pantry.

Since organizing is one of the biggest "resolutions" women make, I'll be taking Thursdays to show you some of my past and recent organizing tips.  I'm excited for this new series!  Hope you'll join me on Thursdays! 

This was my most popular post last year.  I guess we all want to be organized and having an organized kitchen is a beautiful thing.  Starting out a new year and getting organized is on all of our list of things to do, but it doesn't have to be expensive.  Here's what I did....for just a few bucks.

Here it is....The pantry is finally made over!  (At least half of it is) and it looks Be-Ute-Ta-FULL!  Isn't that a weird word to describe a pantry?  But I think it fits.  You be the judge.

 The best part of this pantry makeover is that (mostly) everything your see here is up-cycled.  That means many of my organizing containers were headed for the trash, but I re-purposed them instead.  That makes the cost for this pantry makeover less than....wait for it...$10!

So here's what it looked like before.  Don't you just LOVE before pictures.  They really shows how far a project has gone.

See, I have open bags everywhere and things were pretty disorganized.

 I started by buying these little shelf racks/organizers at the Dollar Tree.  I bought a total of 5. These little babies save you tons of space. 

 Instead of having open bags of flour and sugar and everything else, I decided I wanted containers for everything.  The problem is containers can be quite expensive. 

 I decided to start re-purposing some Almond containers.  You can read about how I did that HERE.

We obviously eat a lot of almonds.

 The only thing I bought new for this pantry is the white lid cereal container from Wal-mart.  The other cereal containers and the basket came from thrift stores a while back.

*UPDATE*
Similar (Almond) containers can be found at Walmart for about $2 each.

And here is my baking section. I'll post more about how I organized my baking "tools" later. 

These containers used to be Christmas cookie tins.  I always get a few of these over the holidays, and instead of throwing them away, I decided to re-purpose them to look like this.  You can read about that transformation HERE.

I made all my labels using Picmonkey and, yes, I'll provide a link for you all to download them this next week. 

 Do you like my baskets?  You will never-ever believe what I used to make them, but you'll have to wait until this weekend when I post about them.   Muahaha...my evil plan to have you come back.

 I love the way they turned out.
*UPDATE*  Click HERE to read about how I made my "baskets".  Seriously.  Click on it.  You won't believe it.

And I love the way my pantry has turned out!  It's organized, beautiful, and best of all, didn't cost me much since I up-cycled!  I'm telling you, that's the way to go!

 Honestly, it took me a few months to collect my containers, but the transformation is well worth the wait!

So what do you think? 

Was it worth the wait?  I think so!  Oh yeah!

 Hope you enjoyed today's post, and I hope you found some inspiration for your own makeovers!  Have a great day, friends!

*UPDATE*
Here is the link for the labels:
http://lewisvillelove.blogspot.com/2013/02/pantry-labels-just-for-you.html

Also:  if I were to do this again, I would use a clear finish spray paint to keep the silver paint from chipping.  It's been almost a year since I've done this project and I need to re-spray some of my most used canisters. 

Blessings,

Lisa