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In this video I share with you how to organize your pantry on a budget! Everything shown was purchased at the Dollar Store (Dollar Tree) for a total of $43! This is part 1 of 4 in my Dollar Store Organizing Series!

Part 1 of 4 – Pantry Organization on a Budget!

Part 2 of 4 – Desk Organization on a Budget

Part 3 of 4 – Desk Drawer Organization on a Budget!

Part 4 of 4 – Closet Organization on a Budget!

Hope you enjoy the video!
Alejandra

Pantry Organization on a Budget: Dollar Store Organizing

Hi everyone. I’m Alejandra from Alejandra.tv and in this video, I’m going to show you how to organize your pantry on a tiny budget. But first, if you are looking to start getting organized for the very first time, you can check out my free video series.

Benefits of an Organized Pantry

So when it comes to preparing for breakfast, making lunches, cooking dinner, you have to have an organized pantry to be able to make the whole process easier, faster, more efficient and there’s no better thing to do than have an organized pantry.

So one of the things that people always think about when you think about organizing the pantry for the very first time is that you have to spend a lot of money to set up systems by expensive organizing products and I’m going to show you that, that that is just not the case. So I’ve tackled my entire pantry right here for our – all stuff from the dollar store and I’m going to show you all the cool systems that I set up to inspire you to organize your pantry with whatever budget you are working with.

So let me show you exactly what I’ve done. Top shelf here is reserved for all of the big things we buy from Costco, like things we buy in bulk like paper towels, like big things of chips, big things of cereal. So that just stays nice and empty, available for stored space.

DIY Lazy Susan

This shelf right here, this is where I have all of my like bottles, spices, oils, vinegars and stuff and I wanted to use Lazy Susans because Lazy Susans are awesome for storing round things because you just – you turn them and you find exactly what you’re looking for.

DIY Lazy Susan

Unfortunately, the dollar store doesn’t sell Lazy Susans. So I made my own. I took two baking pans from the dollar store. I took a pack of marbles. I put the marbles in between and now I have a my own DIY Lazy Susan just like that and it turns really smoothly really nicely. It’s like these supplies were made for a Lazy Susan and it costs $3 each. So these stay up here. Spices are in the corner.

Budget Friendly Snack Food Organization

On this shelf right here, I have all of the snack foods, dinner foods, desserts and all I did was take dishpans from the dollar store. So just because it’s a dishpan doesn’t mean you have to use it like under the sink or by the sink. You can use it as a storage bin in the pantry or any other space in the house.

So I thought this is perfect for categorizing all these small things in the pantry. What I also did was I found these – they’re double shelf bridges. This is what they look like right here. They’re hard to find. I got these last year at Dollar Tree. They’re currently out of stock. I visited seven Dollar Trees and I called like a total of 15 in the area and they were just out of stock.

But what I did here was I put a shelf here. I put a dishpan underneath, a dishpan on top and nothing is puttied down. It just works like this but you pull this out and it’s like a drawer. So you have these two dishpans. You have this double shelf right here and it’s like a set of drawers. It’s like made to go together. They need to start selling this together because it just works so nicely.

Cheap Pantry Organizing Tip: Use Dollar Store Dishpans to Organize Snack & Dinner Foods in the Pantry #AlejandraTV

Cheap Pantry Organizing Tip: Use Dollar Store Dishpans to Organize Snack & Dinner Foods in the Pantry

It only works with these particular double shelves. If you buy double shelves somewhere else, they’re going to be a different size and it’s not going to work. I tried it below and it just doesn’t work.

So anyway, that goes there. I put nice big labels here, so I could see what is where, because the space is kind of dark, but yeah. So all the snacks, I take them out of the box and I just throw them in here. The same thing with most of the desserts. I take like the cookies out of the box and then they just get tossed inside of this dishpan just like that.

Budget Pantry Organizing: Dry Goods

Down here, this is where I have all of my dry goods. So it’s hard to find dry good containers that are airtight for a low price. I found these ones. These were the best that I found. They are not airtight. But they have a nice seal. So like this top – yeah, the top clasps clips on to the bottom really nice and secure.

Then this lid right here to open it is pretty tight and they make a tall one and they make a short one. Again, they’re from Dollar Tree.

So, the tall ones are hard to find. Out of all the stores I visited, I only found four and I visited seven different stores. These are the smaller ones right here.

Low Cost Organizing Idea: Dollar Store Food Containers are a Great Option for Storing Dry Goods #AlejandraTV

Low Cost Organizing Idea: Dollar Store Food Containers are a Great Option for Storing Dry Goods

So again, they’re not airtight but they are functional and they do hold all of your dry goods. Then over here is where I just put cereals because it seemed like the best logical place to put them.

Then the bottom shelf, I did the same thing with all of the dishpans. I took four dishpans and then I separated them out into baking, specialty, tea and coffee, and then this is an empty one.

But these double shelves right here, these are from – they’re actually my grandma’s. They are like 20 years old. She got them probably at Kmart. She loves Kmart and they don’t work. If you try and pull this out, it doesn’t work. The double shelf moves. So you have to use the ones from Dollar Tree to do this.

Then of course you need a shelf liner at the bottom of the shelf to make sure that the double shelf does not go through the ventilation of your shelf.

You can get a shelf liner at the dollar store. It’s not like – I like this one better because it’s flat and it’s nice and secure. What you can do is the dollar store sells film poster boards, one of those thick poster boards. You can cut that and put that on top of your shelf as your liner because it’s going to create a nice like non-ventilated surface. Then you can put these double shelves on top of that.

Dollar Store Pantry Organization: Bulk Items

At the very bottom of the pantry, I have all of my refills for all of the containers in here. So I just found these little tubs. I like these tubs because they have a handle. They’re not clear. I didn’t want to see like all the bags down here. They come in blue and then white of course.

So I just categorized refills in two of them, bags and then paper goods like picnic stuff in the corner, one over here. Then I just put a big label down there.

Dollar Store Kitchen Organizing Tip: Use Plastic Bins to Store Bulk Items in the Pantry #AlejandraTV

Dollar Store Kitchen Organizing Tip: Use Plastic Bins to Store Bulk Items in the Pantry

They’re kind of flimsy but I mean it’s a dollar. So it’s a good price and then over here, I found this. This was another container from the dollar store. This one comes in four sizes. Out of all the Dollar Trees I went to, only one store had one of these really tall ones with the nice pink top. But this is perfect for pet food, like Mojo’s food. This is like – it has a nice handle back here and put a label right here.

But they sell four sizes. The small one is blue. There’s a medium green one. There’s a tall red one and then the tallest is pink. So yeah, that just goes to the bottom of the pantry.

Low Cost Over the Door Storage

So then over the door right here, I found this nice hook that is nice and secure. So the dollar store sells different over-the-door hooks and I found this is the best one because it has like the tightest fit and it just seemed like it was the best quality and it has two hooks. There’s the smaller one and then there’s the top one.

So I just put my two aprons right here and then my picnic bag goes on top and I like this because it’s not even like puttied down or anything and it doesn’t move. The hook is pretty well in place.

So that was a great find. So that’s how I’ve organized my entire pantry. I’m going to count everything up and show you that I didn’t spend a lot of money in the entire – the pantry is all organized. My systems are functional, easy to access and everything just looks so beautiful. So OK, there’s nothing up here. These were $3 each, two baking pans so 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43.

So I’ve organized my entire pantry for $43 and my system is now beautiful. Now, when I go to cook, I’m going to be able to find everything, easily access everything and I can just show off how beautiful it looks.

So I hope this video has inspired you to work with whatever budget you have and still set up organizing systems in your home with whatever you’re working with.

If this is your first time watching any of my videos, you can subscribe to my channel for more tips on getting organized or check out my website Alejandra.tv. Thanks for watching and I will see you soon. Bye.

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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