Pantry Make-Over

*The process of cleaning out and reorganizing my Mom’s pantry seems like it might take a LONG post, so I apologize now!

It all started 2 weeks ago while my Dad was in Florida for a bike ride. My Mom and I took advantage of the empty house to begin what seemed like a ‘simple’ pantry cleanout. Little did I know what we were in for!

The night before, while on our way home from Grammy’s 87^th Birthday dinner in SF, we stopped in Corte Madera at the Container Store. We figured why waste a trip to the Bay Area, not to mention the closest Container Store to Sacramento. We loaded up on storage & organization goodies for the walk-in pantry closet. The next morning my Mom began clearing out the pantry dividing everything into: garbage, keep, donate, & new trailer.

Here is the pantry BEFORE. (shelving from IKEA)

Once we had it all cleared out we cleaned the floors and shelves. We then assessed what needed to go back into the pantry. After taking stock of our Container Store purchases we realized we had bought WAY TOO LITTLE! Looking at what we had made us realize what we wanted more of.

Here is the pantry EMPTY.

 We set off to Bed Bath & Beyond and Walmart. I will admit, we should have just gone to Walmart first and got everything there.

We bought items like this

and this

and this

and this

Once we got home and began putting everything away I figured my Mom would be able to fit more food panty items then she had before. This project was a huge undertaking and made such a HUGE impact on my Mom’s house and life. It was definitely a long time coming! Now I like to call myself the “Pantry Parole Officer” making sure I check in with my Mom and keep her and her pantry in line!

Here is the finished product!

And a little play by play action for you!

Enjoy!