If you’re like most busy parents you aren’t inviting anyone to look at your pantry. It’s ugly, it’s chaotic. In fact, it’s probably a complete disaster. It’s hard enough to see that the laundry is put away and the dishes are done. Who in the world has time to clean cabinets all the time? On the occasion when they do get straightened out, it only takes a meal or two of hunting for ingredients to trash the whole thing again. Really, if there’s a secret to keeping up with it all in Mary Poppins fashion someone needs to let me in on it.
Enter the impossibly brave Elle from the incredibly popular YouTube channel What’s Up Moms. She opened her pantry to the world and enlisted the help of fellow YouTuber Kathryn from Do It On A Dime to help her calm the storm. When we are first invited into the space it’s a jumble of boxes and bags, cans and jars of all sizes intermingled with random packages of snacks and household items. The secret is out. Those hip, got it all together moms who always seem to have everything, where and when they need it, aren’t so organized off camera. I’m feeling better already.
Fortunately, for all of us, Kathryn shows us all how to break down the seemingly impossible task and create a manageable way to keep things under control. No weird rhymes from great-grandma’s era or Heloise’s Hints to make you think you’re remedial mom. We’re talking baskets and bottles, things I might begin to understand despite a teething toddler and a mounting sleep deficit that looks an awful lot like the national debt. The first step in the process of getting control of the pantry is to empty it completely, spiders included. Now that you’ve got everything out where you can see it, separate your goods into categories. How did that much stuff come out of there anyway and how’s it going to go back in? Don’t panic. Well, at least not much.
Kathryn begins to work her magic by estimating what sort of space she has to work with for different kinds of items. She places baskets destined to hold certain items in the space to get a feel for how it should work. Each pantry will be a little different when it’s done since we all have a few different things that join the cornflakes and canned goods in there. Once the initial plan is hatched Kathryn and Elle start moving things into the baskets by categories and putting the baskets in place. Lighter items are placed higher up and heavy, odd things, such as tool bins are put closer to the floor. At eye level, a shelf is reserved for plastic containers and glass jars into which staples such as flour, beans, rice, and pasta. How pretty and practical is that?
The key to keeping it all in order and putting an end to the dinnertime hunt for pasta sauce and olives is labeling everything. Kathryn used classic looking chalk tags that can be changed as needs evolve. For convenience, she took parts of labels with preparation directions on them and taped them to the backs of the corresponding jars. Little touches like separate baskets for full boxes of snack foods and loose ones help keep things in order and minimize digging. Elle’s children even have access to snacks that they can get themselves in baskets placed at just the right height. No space is left out. The previously bare inside of the cabinet door gets in the organization act too. The addition of cork tiles creates a handy place to tack up lists and reminders. In the end, Elle has a space she’s happy to show off and we have the inspiration we need to tackle our own pantry projects.