How to Organize a Small Pantry (on a budget)

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Are you looking for easy ways to organize a small pantry, without spending a lot of money or time? You are in the right place!

Last summer, we moved from a 3,000 square foot home over into a 1,019 square foot house in order to reduce our expenses to pay off our six figure debt.

You can probably guess that our tinier home, also came with a very small pantry.

We were in need of some serious pantry organization ideas, in order to reduce clutter and make our small pantry and kitchen functional for our family of five.

A few things that helped us keep our small pantry from becoming a large issue include:

• Sticking to a meal plan to reduce miscellaneous food items
• Only buying one week of groceries at a time in order to save room
• Utilizing small space storage hacks like hanging things on the inside of doors

Read: How to Save Money on Groceries

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Watch the full video of our tiny pantry declutter and organization on YouTube here!

This has been a great start to ensuring our small pantry stays organized and clutter free, but I am always interested in learning more and improving our household organization.

I love bins and baskets to keep the pantry organized, but sometimes the answer is not more stuff.

If you are in need of some simple organization ideas for your small pantry, you’ll love these tips from a few other amazing organized women.

Read: Small Space Organization Hacks

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10 Easy Ideas to Organize your Small Kitchen Pantry on a Budget

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Clean and Paint before you Begin

Joy from Joyfully Treasured has some excellent makeover tips for a small pantry. Something simple as doing a thorough clean, and applying a fresh coat of paint can be a great way to open up a small pantry before you start to organize.

Go through the Pantry Regularly

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An organized pantry can be as simple as doing a regular clean out.

Lyne from Ottawa Mommy Club has some excellent tips on how to keep your pantry organized (and they don’t cost a dime!)

Read: Meal Planning Tips on a Budget

Follow the 3 P’s for an Easy Pantry Clean Out

Stephanie from Simple Modern Mom recommends an easy way to control and clean out your kitchen clutter, which is so important if you’re working with a small space.

She says to follow the 3 P’s: Purpose, Place, and Purge. Simply ask yourself if the item has a purpose and a place and if not…it’s probably time to purge! You can read more of her organization tips, and see her beautiful kitchen here.

Stick to a Meal Plan

Our pantry is super tiny! The best way we are able to keep it organized is by sticking to a meal plan and shopping for only what we need for our meals in a given week.

This keeps our pantry clutter free and makes it easier to find our dinner ingredients on those busy weeknights!

You can grab our family’s meal plan and recipes for a whole month here:

Make a Space for Your Cookbooks

Sarah from Feast for a Fraction, suggests giving your cookbooks a space in your pantry in order to keep them away from the stove. The water and oils from cooking can be damaging to your most treasured books.

Store “Like Items” Together

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Stacie from Simply Stacie, recommends storing similar items together for a more organized pantry. This makes things easier to find and gives everything a place (which will hopefully prevent the disorganization from returning!)

Shop Space Saving Products

Stephanie, from Sonshine Kitchen, suggests using space saving products like command hooks and stackable storage bins to utilize every inch of your pantry space. Try shopping at dollar stores (especially The Dollar Tree) to find frugal alternatives.

Label Bins, Baskets, and Jars

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It’s quite a task to get your small pantry organized, so once you get it in tip top shape, you’ll want to keep it that way!

Placing labels on bins, baskets, and jars will ensure that everything finds it’s place in your pantry and keep all of your hard organization work in tact for longer.

You’ll want to check out this beautifully labeled farmhouse pantry from Creative Green Living. I’m swooning!

Keep a Pantry Inventory

Keeping up with what you already have in your pantry can be really helpful in achieving organized status!

A pantry inventory will help you keep track of expiration dates, and help you stick to your food budget by preventing duplicate purchases.

Faith from For Mommies by Mommy even has a free printable pantry inventory sheet that you can grab on her site here.

Use a Lazy Susan to Access Deep Cabinets

Our small pantry is deep to the back, and that space is usually completely unusable.

It’s difficult to reach, and I find myself digging in the back and knocking over everything else in the front! It’s beyond frustrating.

A lazy susan like this one here, is a simple and affordable way to fix this problem, without having to rip out the cabinets and call it a loss!

If you’re looking for easy organization ideas for a small pantry, then I hope these will help you!

It won’t take much time or money to implement this small pantry organization tips, and you will love the end result.

A clutter free, organized pantry is important to sticking to your food budget and making meal time easy and stress free.

Happy organizing!

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