pantry raid!

I amuse myself sometimes :)

As we get closer to having usable kitchen cabinets, I've been researching and brainstorming how to organize all of our kitchen goodies. In the process, I've been battling a little green monster-- who just seems to grow with every new pantry I see.  I love a pantry-- the idea of so much storage.. *sigh* and these organized spaces make my little semi-OCD heart go aflutter.

I a bit of a  basket case and Dana's pantry over at House*Tweaking has me drooling..

I love her baskets and bins!  They are one of the my favorite ways to "pretty up" storage and make for easy to use organization. I love the mix of natural baskets with metal wire.. a good idea for my mix and match space.

Then I ran across Sarah's over at Thrifty Decor Chick.  I love how she used taller containers on their sides to stack in a not so tall space... so smart!

I also love how she labeled her shelves by category, such a good idea to help keep things neat and tidy!

And then there was the pantry that seems to have been *everywhere* in blogland.  Shelly over at House of Smith's did an amazing job on her pantry makeover and really captured a lot of great ideas into one space.

Love, love, love her labels!  Apparently I'm not the only one-- as I've seen her mentioned in a number of other blogs and she's been filling tons of orders.  Vinyl seems to be the latest trend and I haven't tried it yet.  I'm anxious to as the idea of using vinyl seems so appealing to me.  She used it on her container labels as well as the quatrefoil design on the wall. 

 Also, who doesn't love cute glass jars, pretty baskets, and cute bins and boxes.

 

Speaking of cute bins and containers, Chris over at Just A Girl recently finished reworking her laundry room cabinets.  It's not a pantry, but my kitchen is a kitchen+laundry nook.. so that's close enough.

She spray painted a mixture of Dollar Store bins in a pretty bright blue for a cohesive look. 

Why haven't I thought of that? I'm always so concerned with finding things that match and this is a great way to dress up that perfect size bargain find.

Plus her ribbon labels are adorable! It's all so bright and happy.

 

Another non-pantry that's surely worthy of envy...John and Sherry's kitchen cabinets.

 It's just one of the many lovelies over at the Youngster's kitchen.  They did a "Tackle it Together" series a while back that focused on kitchen cabinets at YoungHouseLove.

And tackle they did.  Look how clean.. and neat!

As if I wasn't enamored enough as it is.  I love, love, love these shelf labels.  The fact that they were just scrapbooking notions is genius to me.

If you haven't noticed lately, I've also developed a bit of a thing for glass jars.  I have a grouping similar to this (I used the smallest one recently to hold strawberry spoon cake.)  The Dad also gifted a cluster of cuties with black metal lids for my birthday.  I'll be using them to hold flour, sugar and the like... as soon as I can find my flour and sugar... I think they're in the closet of the guest bedroom.  Maybe?

Obviously, I have a lot of re-organizing ahead of me, along with a lot more work on even getting the kitchen closer to a finished product.  In the meantime, I'm still on the hunt for great kitchen storage ideas... pantry or not.

I think I'll always be on the hunt for great storage ideas...

there's just something about an organized space that makes this nerdy bird sing.