Pantry Organisation

When we decided to build our home I was really excited that I'd be able to make changes throughout the original house plan thus making it OUR design and our family home. One of the areas I spent a lot time on was the kitchen and the adjoining butlers pantry. Our previous house had a five shelf pantry that was about the same height as a refrigerator and I was forever getting frustrated as I never seemed to have enough room to store things other than food. So I really wanted a pantry space in this house that would allow me to store food, containers, special items and things that I don't want my nearly two year old to get to.

 

During one of our many visits to the house during construction my brother's girlfriend asked me what the small room at the other end of the kitchen was. I told her that it was a linen cupboard that I could use to store things that didn't fit in other area's of the house, she suggested that I use it as another pantry as that would allow me to store more food and possibly reduce the number of times I had to shop during the year. The reason for having this space was because I've always believed Australian homes don't have enough storage within the house for families. Nowadays builders seem to be providing us with even less storage options than what they provided twenty-five years ago when my parents were building their home.

 

After listening to her idea, Mr Opoes and I went back to our rental house and spoke about what she had suggested. Having decided to use it as a linen cupboard was OK but technically it was in the wrong position and as we already have a large area in the laundry to store our linen it just made sense. If I'd been honest with her I would have told her that I'd always had a problem with the cupboard been off the kitchen and it wasn't possible to change the position of door due to the nearby rooms. So with a few months left of the build I got to thinking which space would be to store my food and which would be used to store my Tupperware, special items, containers etc.

 

Recently I watch Quinlan playing with all my plastic containers and that's when I got to thinking that I needed to create a storage solution to look after the growing collection of plastics and Tupperware that I've accumulated over the years. So with this in mind I got to thinking about what I could create and where I'd like to position my plastic and Tupperware collection. I purchased a few weaved baskets from my local Kmart store and a can of PlastiKote spray paint from the hardware store.

I wanted a hot pink colour and I fell in love with the colour of the lid so I was really surprised to find out that the colour I'd chosen was called Heather Violet but I must admit it's a really nice colour if done in moderation.

So this is what I came up with. I undercoated a small section of each basket, left it to dry for the required time and then I sprayed it pink. I had to spray it twice with the pink so that I could get into all the uneven spaces that each basket has. I then left it to dry for 48 hours just to make sure it was really, really dry. Lastly I stuck four one inch felt pads on the bottom of the basket so that it wouldn't mark the bottom of my pantry shelves. I haven't completely finished the baskets yet as I'm still waiting for Mr Opoes to drill holes into my chalkboard labels so that I can use the large tin of chalkboard paint I have.
 

I'm going to say that these new storage containers will save my plastics from disappearing, I'll be able to match them up when I use them and they'll be up high enough that my four lovely children won't be reaching up to steal them time and time again. It'll also help heaps next year when I have three children attending various educational locations so that means I should have more room for lunch boxes and drink bottles. So do you have a special storage trick that you use to keep all your plastic container under control. I'd love to hear about it as I'm desperate to get our house de-cluttered and organised before the year's finished.

 

Megan