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How to Organize the Pantry

How to Organize the Pantry

How to Organize the Pantry

How to Organize the Pantry

Alejandra: Hi, I’m Alejandra Costello and today, we’re doing a pantry makeover. Yesterday, we came in and we pulled out all the old food. We worked with the homeowner to pull out the old shelving which was collapsing and it wasn’t very functional. It was only half of the pantry leaving the other side with lots of dead space. So now that we pulled everything out, we pulled the shelving out, we had the homeowner patch and paint the pantry to a light green color to match the rest of the kitchen.

So we let the paint dry. And today, we are installing a customized elfa solution that we designed. And what’s really great about it is we have this angle in the pantry that we designed the shelving to kind of match the angle and not waste any space which it was doing before. So the next step is we’re going to go ahead and we’re going to install elfa. Once it’s all installed, we are going to go back and put all the food back in the pantry with some of the products that we bought. And then the last thing is the labeling.

How to Install elfa Shelving in the Pantry

Ed: So now, we’re installing the elfa. We made our marks for the top track based upon how tall the standard is going to be above the items that are going to be on the floor of the pantry. And then we’re going to place the top track against the wall so it’s pushed to the right side of the wall. And I’ve already made my marks according to the level so that the standard is going to hang off of this top track.

So next, we’re going to drill the holes. So we have our 1/8 drill bit in the drill right now and we’re going to drill pilot holes in each of the holes that I’m drilling for where the top track is going to be. And we’re going to use this pilot hole drill bit first to determine where any of the studs are. If we find these studs then we’re going to redrill it with a 3/8-inch drill bit.

When we drill the holes, we didn’t hit any studs so that’s all right. We’re just going to use these elfa anchors. And so, we’ll replace our drill bit with a 3/8-inch drill bit so that we can fit these anchors in. So the anchors come with the screws in so you just remove the screw and then you just tap them in with the cover on. After you have all your anchors in then you just pull up the covers.

Next, you want to take the top track and lining up with your anchors and then hand-screwing each of the screws. After you had each of the screws hand tightened in a little bit to hold up the top track, you want to use your level on top of the top track and then screw the screws the rest away with your power drill or power screw driver.

After you have your top track installed, you want to insert each of the standards into the top track on the notch. Everything is going to hang off the top track.

Organizing the Pantry

Alejandra: We just took everything out of the pantry and we started sorting everything by category. Over here, we have all of our canned goods and all of our soups. And then our snacks are over there. Over here in the middle is kind of some Tupperware that we found from the bottom of the pantry. And then over here is where we have kind of our dry goods like our beans, our flour, our sugar, our baking goods. We’ve containerized all those so those need to be labeled and they’ll be ready to go back on the pantry.

Over here is where we found lots of condiments, some oils, vinegars, jellies, dressings. Over here in the corner, we found seven boxes of powdered sugar. There are seven boxes so there’s really no reason to hold seven boxes in your pantry. And then over here are some of the supplies that we purchased for the project. And over there is our elfa shelving. And then back here, we have our pastas, grains, some of our dinner foods. And then we have some alcohol and wine down here.

We just finished installing our elfa systems on both sides of the pantry, practically doubling our storage space. So as you can see here, you can see the back wall has shelving from the floor to the ceiling and then within reach, we have two shelf baskets perfect for like snack bins, pastas, and other bagged items.

And then over here on the diagonal which was wasted space before, we purchased shorter shelves and did the same thing. We did from floor to ceiling and then you can see that when the two walls meet, there is a 45-degree angle between the shelves so they never touch each other.

And then the great thing about elfa is you can easily adjust the placement of the shelves. So if you’re storing something on this shelf that goes up to here and then in a month or so, you buy something else and it’s taller, you can move the shelf higher or lower accommodating the size of the item that you’re storing.

So now that we were done with our installation, we’re going to go ahead and grab our food from the other room and start organizing the pantry.

About Alejandra

About Alejandra

Since 2008, organizing expert & certified life coach, Alejandra Costello has taught thousands of students in 132 countries how to get organized through her video-based training programs. Her YouTube videos have been viewed 100+ million times. Named 1 of the 5 most organized people in America by HGTV and “The Decluttering Queen” by Good Morning America, Alejandra’s expertise has been featured in The New York Times, Oprah.com, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Good Housekeeping, Family Circle, Woman’s Day, Parents Magazine, and CBS. 

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