Update: Giveaway is closed.
Welcome to Organizing Your Heart and Home 2011!
If you missed the introduction to this series, click on the button to find out the details.
My sister and I are having so much fun getting to know you as we organize our hearts and homes together!
This week I am focusing on organizing your kitchen and my sister is focusing on organizing your prayer time. So when you are finished reading my post, click on my sister’s button at the bottom of this post and pay her a visit. You will be glad you did. :)
I hope you are having as much fun as I am organizing your home!
Last week, I showed you my craft closet makeover…
I was so impressed with all the closet makeover that were linked up to my Closet Makeover Party on Friday! If you missed them, you can see them HERE.
All of the participants were entered in a giveaway for a set of chalkboard labels from Leen the Graphics Queen and a Chalk-ink marker.
The winner is….
Congratulations!
I will be emailing you to get your address so I can ship your goodies to you! :)
Thanks for linking up!
Now this week I am going to show you my pantry makeover!
You will have one week to work on your kitchen makeover and join my “Kitchen Clean Up Linky Party” on Friday, January 21st. You can organized a drawer, a cabinet, or a pantry. Whatever needs to be done in your kitchen! Can’t wait to see it!
This is embarassing, but here is what my pantry looked like last week…
Holiday-whoobie-whatie?
Shut. The. Door.
No rhyme, no reason…just a mess!
My husband actually built this pantry in our kitchen 3 years ago. Before that, we had absolutely NO storage for food. We had to take up cabinet space with groceries.
He installed the wired shelving when he built it. It has worked okay, but my boxes tend to fall over a lot, and it drives me crazy.
My cookbooks fall through the cracks…
The inside of the pantry was painted the same yellow that our kitchen used to be painted. But now that our kitchen is Khaki Shade by Sherwin Williams, I knew I was going to repaint the inside.
The floor is where I stored my crock pots, dog food, and the boys’ lunch boxes. Ugh.
The door has wire baskets on it to store my spices, sandwich bags, plastic wrap. etc.
I like having it there, but when we installed this door on the pantry, we never painted the back of it. So it was an off-white color.
And the door was still sporting the greasy handprint that my hubby left when he installed it. (See right side of door.)
We are sentimental like that. :)
So I cleared out the pantry door so I could give it a fresh coat of white paint.
And I cleared out the pantry. Notice the difference in colors?
Since the boys had a couple of snow days last week, I decided to put them to work.
Luke helped me put my spices in alphabetical order. It is my goal to someday be able to afford matching spice jars to put them in, but can’t do it right now.
And Jonathan checked all the dates to see which ones had expired…
We had to throw the pile in the front of the picture below away…all expired!
Since I didn’t have the time or money to install new wood shelves, I decided just to add a thin piece of material to each shelf to make it more sturdy.
So I went to Lowe’s and bought a large 4 ft x 8ft piece of tempered hardboard (item #15483) for only $7.25.
I had the Lowe’s guy cut it into five pieces the same size as my wire shelves.
There were several pieces left over that I hope to use for later projects.
I painted the fronts and backs white and put them in my closet.
The closet was already looking better with newly painted walls and new white shelves.
And the door got a fresh coat of white paint too.
Here is something I learned during my pantry makeover:
CONTAINERS ARE EXPENSIVE!!!!
I mean….seriously?!
I trotted down to Walmart to buy some containers, saw the prices, and left empty handed! I wasn’t trotting when I left. :(
So I have been frequenting Goodwill on the hunt for containers.
I found some, but was still needing more.
So I had to break down and spend a little money on a few. But I tried to get them as cheap as possible. I have less than $30.00 in this whole makeover.
Here is a look at my new clean pantry!!!
Isn’t she lovely?!
I am so happy with it!!! (Sorry the pics are a little blurry. We had no sunlight today and I tried to take pictures manually…obviously, I’m still learning.)
Here is a breakdown of what I paid for my containers purchased at Goodwill, Dollar General, and Kroger….
The cute rectangular chalkboard labels are from Leen the Graphics Queen. The two curvy ones I made using my new Silhouette Machine!
I used a chalk-ink pen to write on the labels.
I fell in love with these little jars from Kroger. I wish I had the money to buy more. They were on sale last week and may still be.
And I love the two tall glass jars I found at the Dollar General. They are very sturdy. They have smaller ones for $2.00 that I am wanting to go back and get.
See those cute little tin containers on the left wall in the picture below?
I found them at Goodwill for $1.50 a piece and I love them!
I used my Silhouette Machine again to make labels for each container.
I used wall screws to attach them to the wall.
We eat a lot of popcorn and oatmeal at our house. :)
And the bottom container holds drink mixes that usually get lost in our pantry: hot cocoa, lemonade, crystal light packets, etc.
And look at how my cookbooks stand up nice and tall now!
Notice my favorite? Reluctant Entertainer, by Sandy Coughlin, of course! :)
The next shelf holds my plastic containers and white bowl full of soup mixes and sauces.
I got two packages of 3 plastic white containers at Kroger for $5.00 each. The boys love being able to see their cereal in the containers.
And they are so much neater than those cereal bags!
All of the baskets in my pantry used to belong to my mom.
I made one a bread basket and used the two matching ones to hold baking supplies and boxed goods. (I am still planning on making labels for my baskets. Just got a cute idea tonight!)
On the floor, I have our chip basket and potato basket.
I don’t like having the baskets sitting directly on the floor, so I sat them on two things that I use very often. The chip basket is sitting on my large flat skillet, and the potato basket is sitting on my crock pot.
Perfect!
I am so very pleased with how it turned out!
The spices I just put back in the racks on the door, but they are in alphabetical order now, so hopefully I will be able to find things more easily.
I am so thankful for my blog and the inspiration it has given me to get things done!
My husband has told me several times today how much he loves it. And the boys “ooh” and “aah” every time they open the door. :) Yeah me!
I even had a little more fun with my Silhouette machine and made this for my pantry door…
Here is the before and after picture you have been dying to see, right?
So now it is your turn!!!
Clean up your kitchen, ladies!
Check those expiration dates!
Throw stuff away!
Organize!
Go! Go! Go!!!!
You will be so glad you did!
Kitchen Clean Up Linky Party
Friday, January 21st
(Party will remain open all weekend and all entries will be entered in another great giveaway!)
By the way…
Did you like all the cute little things I made with my new Silhouette Machine?
Would you like a Silhouette too?
Come back here at 3:00 pm today to register to win a Silhouette!!! Woohoo!!
Now click the button below to visit my sister’s blog
and find out how to organize your HEART.
This week she is focusing on prayer and has another cute giveaway!
Linking this Pantry Makeover to…
Great job!! I just cleaned mine out a couple of weekends ago but really wanted to go back and do labels and such! Perhaps I will have to do that now and party on!
LOL! What a perfect day for this post! Pantry cleaning is on my to do list today. I’ve been surfing the web instead of doing it though. You’ve given me the inspiration to get up off my bum and go do it. Yours looks super fantastic, BTW. I have pantry envy. Oh, and yes, containers ARE expensive. What’s up with that?
I’ll be back later for the silhouette giveaway. I totally NEED one.
Traci, you and I have the SAME EXACT PANTRY! (except mine has wooden shelves instead of wire) LOL You did a great job on your makeover! I am finished with mine! (well, except for finding containers..you’re right, they’re expensive!) I LOVE the ones you got from Dollar General…may have to take a trip out there today and look around. :-) Have a great day sweet lady!
Hugs
Missy
Awesome makeover! You’ve inspired me to take a peek at mine! Love the wall pockets for your popcorn, oatmeal, etc., packets. GREAT idea! Enjoy your day, Becca
Traci. It is JUST FANTASTIC!!!! You did a great job. I know it will add peace to your day and save you time!!!
I did my pantry with Bowl full of Lemons last weekend. But I wanted to tell you, for spice jars, I use half pint jelly jars. I love them. All 1 uniform size, and a large enough mouth that I can use any size measuring spoon. And they are clear so that I can see when I am low on something.
Have a great day!!
It looks wonderful! I don’t have a pantry. We do have an unused coat closet in the hall that I have begged my hubby to turn into a pantry for me so I don’t have to store extras in the basement (such a pain). It is on the list and he has promised the first free weekend after ski season to tackle it.
I use my kitchen cabinets for groceries and only so much can fit…I am in the process of at least making them over though. Now that I see what you have I only want my pantry sooner!
The pantry looks beautiful and you have given me some great ideas for when I actually get mine. Your big chip and bread baskets are great and I love all those pretty glass containers. My favorite…the fluted milk white vase…it adds the perfect touch of class to the pantry.
Again, would love a pantry right about now…we use the balcony or the sauna in the master bath when the weather gets too hot!
Would I be crazy to say that yout pantry looks beautiful?! I’ve been inspired to tackle my mess of a pantry!
Looks gorgeous, Traci! And matching spice jars are overrated :D I love unmatchy stuff better.
I did it! Huzzah! I’ll link up on Friday, but if you’d like to see it now, you can find it here:
http://myheelsarehigherthanyours.blogspot.com/2011/01/mini-pantry-makeover.html
It’s not quite as pretty as yours, but it sure looks better.
Well, it looks a lot better. I love those tins you found too! But…..tacklin MY pantry might be a bit SCARY! I’ll give it a try though!
Impressive! That looks incredible – makes me want to go redo my pantry! Thanks for the motivation!
Your pantry looks awesome! Love it!! :)
k, girl, you are on like Donkey Kong! I am going to reorganize my pantry and I am coming back at 3 to register for that awesome Silouette! Cool beans!
Great job on your pantry makeover! It looks great! Love how you shopped and found great deals on all of your containers and love all of the chalkboard labels! Sooo cute!! I really enjoyed your closet linky party this week & I’m totally bumming this week because I don’t have a pantry :( Maybe I will makeover wanna of my kitchen cabinets instead! We’ll see! The hubby & I are leaving to go to Cancun, Mexico this Thursday so I have a lot to do to get ready for that! Super excited about the silhouette giveaway!! I’ll be back later this afternoon!!
You did a wonderful job on your pantry. It’s nice to see someone has a pantry the size of mine and not those huge ones I’ve been seeing everywhere. I added wire storage to mine too, but it’s time to update it again. If I have time I’l work on it this week. Thanks for the inspiration.
Love your blog!
Holy Canoli batman! That is awesome! :) (I really did say that out-loud-in-my-head when i saw the after… is that any oxymoron??) Anyways great great job! :) Now I am inspired to go work on my pantry this week and see what i can come up with! :) Thanks for the great inspiration lady!
You have totally given me some inspiration on my pantry…oh girl I was needing that! Thank you!! I kept wondering what to do with all my spices and baking supplies…thank you!!! Love how you transformed it all!
I reorganized my pantry after Christmas. I like how you covered the shelves. I have those kind of shelves in my craft supply closet and I know I cannot put certain on them or they will fall over or slip through. Great idea!
I know this is off topic but I was thinking about the recent post on the house update. Perhaps the intention of why you want the house needs to be thoroughly explored. You mentioned what the updates could do for the blog but perhaps there needs to be a different reason for a new house? Maybe He is telling you “no” for a reason.
I know you did not ask but this keeps coming to my mind since I read the post.
Your pantry looks so nice! My pantry is similar to yours except it’s still a mess! I love the tins you found and put on the side of the wall. What a great idea!
Lori : )
Thrifty Decor Mom
Girl, your pantry looks marvelous! You should be so proud!!
I love this makeover because you show what a great look can be achieved without spending tons of money. There have been a few pantry makeovers that are really pretty, but they require several hundred dollars’ worth of containers, or wallpaper, or vinyl. Yours is cost-effective AND wonderful!
I think my favorite part is the baskets on the wall – what a great way to use that space!
I also love the way you turned wire shelves into solid surfaces. I use an actual kitchen cabinet for my pantry, but I’ve lived in places before with the wire shelves. They never made much sense to me – very few things ever sit straight on them!
Great job! So much better! I really wish I had a pantry.
Great pantry! I am needing to redo mine, too. I can see how helpful the Silhouette has been for you!!!
I’m oohing & aahing all the way over here in CA!!! LOVE IT!! I personally like the mis-matched jars & containers. Gives your closet some character! Kinda like when people use mis-matched china or tea cups :) VERY impressed & VERY inspired!!
I did leave a comment , but can’t see it here.. humm
Well, I’ll repeat that I am new to this Blog world and am probually the only one here who yes, did live under that rock..:0)
Wow, thank you for showing me this amazing toy..oops. I mean tool.Ha!
Wall decor and labels all over the house..to start with,
Thank you
Mia
I left a message that you sent me, so I did both.
Mia
I have been inspired by following your blog!
It truely is a “now let’s go do it” instead of just talking about what a good idea something is.
Thank you for living the example!
Mia
Looks fabulous, Traci!!! What a great job you did!!
I love it!
Suzanne
Hey Traci! I fall in love everytime I visit!!!! Looking forward to using these inspirations in our new home!!!!!! I visited the Silouette site, became a follower, and left a message. Now off to facebook!
Ooohhh – to be specific…
All of our “stuff” has been in storage boxes for more than seven months now. This includes toys, games, photos, and ALL of my scrapbook and crafting items(my do I have some catch up to do-can’t wait)!!! When God opens up the door to our new home it will be my pleasure to find everything and put it in it’s proper place. It would be WONDERFUL to be able to label all those storage bins of my dreams and have a truly peaceful and organized home for my little ones!!!! Thanks for opening up this contest!
Shana
Your pantry looks GREAT! Love the jars from Dollar General & Kroger. I am going to have to find out where the closet Kroger is in my area?? The Silhouette Machine would definitely help me with all my labels, love the chalkboard labels.
That pantry has the power to bring PEACE to your kitchen and family. Lookin’ good, girl!
Hi! Great job on your pantry…I just redid mine too, but can’t figure out how to link up the pictures. You can find them on my blog (above).
Thanks for your great ideas!
~a
It looks fantastic! Always amazing what some cute labels, baskets and containers can do for a pantry!
Traci,
It looks fantastic! Your pantry is transformed! I love those adorable signs you made with your Silhouette, bet you had a ton of fun using it. And are you ever right that containers cost a lot — I can never get out of Container Store without spending $100 — I come home and do a purchase review, and always end up saying “that’s IT?” We don’t have a Kroger or a Dollar General around here. Will have to search out similar sources.
Thank you for the inspiration. Terrific post!
Kimberly
Wow!! It looks great!! I used to have a pantry exactly like that, but we tore it out and my husband built a couple floor to ceiling cabinets with pull out drawers to be used as a pantry. I’m still trying to decide how to organize it! I would love if you would post this in “Simplify for the New Year” at A Home Made by Kiki! I am your newest follower too!
I love your pantry! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you Traci! I can’t believe I won! I am soooooo excited and can’t wait to put those labels to good use! Thanks for having this series; I love your blog and all the ideas you have. You are such an inspiration! I can’t wait to see what you come up with next ;-)
Blessings,
Heather
Traci, looks great! You need to check the dollar tree for glass containers. I found some like the ones that you have with the latch on them a couple of weeks ago. I am working on organizing too! Must be the idea if Spring coming soon! :)
how did you secure the shelving on the door of the pantry? My door is hollow and will not support the shelving…
So a good place to get containers is Ikea…not sure if you have one close to you but theirs are inexpensive and make the whole pantry look nice!