We converted our laundry room into a walk in pantry last year, and I wasn’t sure if we would actually be able to stay on top of it being organized! We still have the small side pantry in the kitchen which many of the odd end items and half eaten bag of chips land. Overall, we’ve been able to keep up with this setup, and this pantry has been so helpful with staying on top of food organization. We no longer have to store half of of our food items in the garage, and we can now keep better track of what what food we have in stock and what we are running low on. Having a place for everything has really cut down on waste and spending!
I do miss having the laundry room on the main floor since I seem to never be able to remember the wet load that needs to be switched to the dryer! It hasn’t been too bad though since it is now right off of the studio/play room in the basement. We are hoping to finish up the laundry space soon. If you want more details on how we built the pantry shelving you can read this post.
As our family has grown, I’ve really had to rely on keeping better systems of organization to keep things flowing. I take stock of everything we have + meal plan on Sunday. Gabe and I divide and conquer store runs for the week. Gabe usually is the better sport about this job. (Why is grocery shopping the worst?!) We usually shop at Costco once a month for bulk items, and order weekly groceries online through Kroger Clicklist. Sprouts is the cheapest for good produce, so we also head there whenever we can. It is quite the task keeping up with keeping food in the house, as it seems my boys manage to consume food like it is their full time job. I might have to buy chickens and cows when they reach high school! Here is a rundown of how we stay on top of monthly groceries…
Costco:
Snacks
Breads
Meats
Dairy Products
Frozen foods
Paper products/Food storage
Amazon or Thrive Market:
Clean Detergents and Cleaning Supplies
Sprouts:
Produce
Organic staples
Vitamins
Kroger Clicklist:
Everything else!
You can find a few of our go to dinner recipes for our family in the recipe gallery!
I’m really happy with the storage pieces we ended up choosing for this space! The woven baskets have been really helpful for canned goods, open packets and bags, snacks, etc. The wire baskets are fantastic for potatoes and larger fruit as well as storing things like lunch boxes or paper party products. Glass canisters vs solid canisters are much easier to keep to track of what you have and how much. (This is the labeler I used for the canisters.) We do have to lock this place up though to keep it safe from toddlers constantly on the hunt for snacks.
We were able to move our coffee and keurig maker off the kitchen countertops and into the pantry for a little fuel up station. (Side note- Costco has really good strong keurig coffee pods that are compostable!)
Storage Supplies
Glass Jars with Oak Lids
Similar Hermitage Glass Jars (3 ltr.)
Prokeeper Flour and Sugar Containers
Cereal Dispensers
Acrylic Canisters (Used for coffee)
Slide and Pour Dispensers (used for rice)
Snack canisters
Rustic Wire Storage Baskets
Woven Storage Baskets
