Organizing The Farmhouse Pantry

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A good Farmhouse Pantry Organization system can help you find things when you need them and make sure nothing gets forgotten, saving you time and money! Get some tips and ideas on how to organize a pantry to make the most of your space.

A good Farmhouse Pantry Organization system can help you find things when you need them and make sure nothing gets forgotten, saving you time and money! Get some tips and ideas on how to organize a pantry to make the most of your space. #farmhousepantry #pantryorganization #organization #organizedpantry #pantryideas 

Farmhouse Pantry Organization

Ever since I moved my food into the pantry that the hubby made me last year it’s been something of a mess. I’m not used to the wire shelving (which I actually requested for ease of cleaning!) and it’s a rather awkwardly created space to fit in where it needed to fit. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love it and am so glad that I’m lucky enough to have a real pantry in my kitchen! But there has been a definite need for some organization.

So this week as part of my fall cleaning I got serious about tackling the pantry and I’m very happy with how it turned out! While I’m not the perfect organizer, maybe this post will give you a few ideas on how to organize your own problem area!

Before…

pantry

I know it’s bad. I’m not perfect. 🙂

Organizing Chips in the Pantry

Organizing the Chips

We always have a good supply of tortilla chips and sometimes even some kettle-style chips on hand but they are such a mess to organize! I saw some ideas about hanging the bags up and we decided to create our own hanging bag system for these “unorganizable” items in the pantry.

All we did was take a shower curtain rod and secure it near the top of the pantry. Then I hung some extra child-size hangers from the rod so the bags would hang down to reachable length. Finally, we took clothespins and clipped the bags onto the hangers. Now they are up and out of the way and I created a whole extra shelf for other pantry goods!

If you don’t have child-sized hangers, don’t worry!  You can use adult hangers, or clip directly to the wire shelving. If you’re looking for hangers, you can always find some pretty inexpensively at the dollar store. There are several ways you can do this with what you have on hand. If you have space, a large basket with chips might even work best for you.

pantry2

Organizing the Bags

Since I buy much of our staples in bulk, it often comes in bags and I don’t always have a special place to put it when I get it.

–Learn more about buying in bulk with this Beginners Guide to Azure Standard

Organizing Bulk Items

I took all of the bags and placed the contents into these new Pop Containers from Oxo. I really like the different shapes they come in and how they can stack easily. I love storing things in jars but the stack-able feature of these is really nice for smaller items.

I also love that these containers seal with the push of a button. Another big problem we’ve had this year is that the humidity gets into our foods and is making them hard or soggy. Now at least I know the foods in these containers won’t have that issue because they are airtight.

If you are worried about storing your bulk goods this way, you can always add in a Stay Fresh Pack to containers you don’t intend on opening for a while to increase the shelf life by absorbing any excess air and humidity.

Jars in the Pantry

Organizing the Dry Goods

I had some larger amounts of dry goods that I placed in these half-gallon glass jars. The gallon-sized jars work great for even larger dry goods items storage too! I love glass jars…big, small, any size, they are all good! Just be sure to label the front of your jars or containers so that you can easily see what’s in each one.

–Mason jars are so versatile! Here are some other ways to Reuse Mason Jars (Other Than For Canning!)

 

Bulk Foods in the Pantry

Organizing the Mixes and Large Bulk Items

After all this cleaning I actually had room to add my homemade jar mixes into my pantry (plus room to spare!). And of course, I put my large bulk items (for us that’s raw sugar, dried beans, and rice) in food grade buckets with Gamma lids on the floor.

—Make your own Pantry Mixes from scratch to make mealtime simpler.

After…

After the Pantry Makeover

Now that I have organized my pantry, I have much more space in the pantry and I didn’t even get rid of anything, it’s just clean! Amazing how that works isn’t it? Plus now it’s much easier to fit our dehydrator, meat grinder, and some other kitchen appliances here whereas we didn’t have much space for them before.

–See all of my favorite products and appliances here!

No matter what size pantry you have, a little organization will help you make the most of it!

Looking for more pantry inspiration? Here are some posts you might enjoy!

Pantry Organization Ideas
Take Control of Your Canning Pantry (+Printable!)
Pantry Organization Ideas
Pantry Needs and Stockpiling (Plus Printable!)
10 Homemade Mixes That Need to Be in Your Pantry
7 Pantry Staples to Start Making

If you are looking to simplify your life even further, you may want to check my eWorkbook, 31 Days to Simpler Living! In it, you will find 79 pages of daily challenges, info and advice, and printable worksheets and checklists to keep you on track along your journey.

What are your best tips for organizing the farmhouse pantry? Tell us in the comments!

merissabio

This post on Farmhouse Pantry Organization was originally published on Little House Living in October 2014. It has been updated as of October 2019.

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29 Comments

  1. A nice difference! I love the idea of hanging the chips,,I don’t store many of those,but I already have a rod in the pantry! I am going to do some thinking as to what else could hang up alongside chips. As usual,another great idea!!

    1. I was thinking I could hang some of the smaller bagged items but I ended up having plenty of room for them on the shelves for now, it’s a possibility for the future though!

  2. Looks great!I wish i had a pantry in my kitchen. I just have my regular kitchen cabinets and then we put storage shelving in our basement.I like to buy as much of our food in bulk like our dry goods, mixes,and meat for the deep freezer, plus space for my canning jars.I have been doing my fall nesting it feels like! deep cleaning the entire house i want it to be as clean as possible for when we have to spend most of our days inside when its cold.

  3. Your pantry looks wonderful!! It is nice to see someone else using food grade buckets for food storage. I have several and they really come in handy for bulk storage.

  4. Beautiful pantry!!! Where did you get the glass jars with the white lids? I love glass jars too. Love your website and I visit it often.

  5. Thank you. I just ordered my first order from Azure. I will have to put the jars in my favorite. Now hitch size do you like the best – the gallon or the 1/2 gallon?

    1. I like both of them for different amounts of things. For larger bulk items that I have in a different cupboard (baking soda, brown rice flour, etc) I have in the gallon jars, in the 1/2 gallons we have coffee, smaller amounts of beans, and similar items.

  6. I have a pantry that is in desperate need of reorganizing. In fact, it makes your “before” photo look pretty darn good! You have inspired me… thanks for sharing!

  7. I love the idea of hanging the chip bags! Not only does it keep them out of the way, it keeps them from getting squished!

    Pantries are so hard to keep organized, Yours looks amazing! Cant’ wait for the giveaway!

  8. Wow! Your pantry looks awesome! Love the idea of hanging the bags of chips. I already store a lot of my dry bulk in the pop-top type containers, and just need to get some more.

    Bet it feels great to be better organized in your pantry (even though your before photos still looked great!)

  9. Merissa, what is the depth of your pantry. I love it but ours is only 16″ deep and my husband says it won’t work to do ours like yours. 🙁 I have one entire corner that is lost space since I can’t get into it or see it. Hating on it.

    1. The pantry is 5 feet long by 30 inches wide. With 16 inches you could maybe do some deep shelves depending on how it’s set up, they make some neat baskets for shelves too to help with organizing. I have somewhat of a “lost” corner in my pantry too but I just put the things that we don’t need often back there.

      1. Merissa, my pantry has one door that is a bit off to the right, long, deep shelves and no way to reach the left side. 🙁

  10. Like your ideas, I just got on been very busy, painting, cleaning and organizing crazy time still have to paint kitchen. Hope everyone is doing good stay safe

  11. Hey, I just had a great idea! Could you put a stick up mirror in your pantry in such a way that you could see stuff you put in that awful lost space?

  12. Thanks always for the great tips. In the process of putting our home on the market. Not something I had envisioned ever doing cause I love the house and neighbors. I took care of my Mom for 16+ years, alzeimers took her in July. Can no longer afford our home.
    Anyway thanks for this blog.

    1. Hang in there, Susan. It’s tough, but there is a brand new world waiting for you with your name on it!
      Sorry about your mom.

  13. Your pantry looks great and I love all the glass jars you have…I have several, but hope to get all glass and do away with plastic….

  14. I also like the idea of hanging the chips. Our pantry is a small room that also serves as a storage area and has our chest freezer and dehydrator. It is so easy to just throw things in there and shut the door, saving a mess for another day. Because of this the pantry is on our cleaning list nearly every day and is a ‘hot spot’ area (flylady).
    We are so thankful for the space and we’ve had to learn as we go what works and what does not work. We’ve been in this place for about 5 years and we are just now figuring out what works in that space … and then we are probably moving next year 😉

    Thanks for the chip idea!
    Joanne in SW MO
    frugalhomeandhealth

  15. Love your pantry organization ideas. Have you checked about getting plastic shelf liners for your wire shelves? You may need to cut them to size. I know they have some that are 18 inches deep.