Small Pantry Organization: 11 Tips, Tricks & Hacks

1. Before

When we moved out of our big house to a small apartment to save money fast, we went from a large walk-in pantry to a very small pantry. My small pantry quickly became a hot mess. It was time to organize! 

2. Wasted food

Emptying my pantry was a shock. Even though I only get what I need for our family in the timeframe that I’m shopping, I still found some surprises hiding in my pantry.

For example, I seem to have a problem with too many dried beans. Plus, I had so much expired food that I didn’t realize I’d purchased! What a waste!

This project pointed out how I need to be much more careful about shopping in my pantry first before making my meal plans. 

3. Plastic drawers

When you’re working in a small pantry, you want to maximize the space but working with the shelves you have may not be enough. I decided to take out the bottom wire shelf in the pantry and slide in some plastic drawers that I had repurposed from another project.

These plastic drawers tripled the space. The thing I love about these drawers the most? They fit a full-sized loaf of sandwich bread. The space on top of the drawers is perfect and just large enough for me to slide in my rolls of plastic wrap and aluminum foil.

4. Door shelf

I also took off the door shelves that the previous tenant left and put on a bigger one that I got from Home Depot. I bought the 18-inch shelf to fit the standard door on our pantry. If you have a smaller door, they have a 12-inch version of the same shelf. There are many more shelves on this rack than I had before.

5. Sticky notes

Use this tip whenever you’re reorganizing a space: use sticky notes to help you figure out what goes in what drawer or bin. You can move the sticky notes around before actually putting things away.

6. Baskets

If you’re working with baskets, store everything vertically to fit more and it will help you avoid losing things at the bottom of the basket.

7. Containers

I didn’t want to buy expensive canister sets. Instead, I went to Walmart and found gallon-size drink pitchers to hold flour, sugar, rice, and oats. These pitchers have convenient pour spouts which makes them great for measuring. These are two to three dollars cheaper than the canisters with plastic handles.

8. Use labels on baskets

I found great labels at Target’s dollar spot area. We have small kids so we put pictures and words on our labels. These baskets are from Dollar Tree.

9. Storing potatoes and onions

Finding a good place to store potatoes and onions in a small kitchen can be a challenge. I used mesh magazine files that I got from IKEA many years ago. The mesh lets them breathe and I am able to take advantage of the vertical space in the pantry.

10. Working with wire shelves

A quick easy fix for wire shelving is to cut a piece of foam board from the Dollar Tree to fit over the shelf. This hack prevents things from falling through the wire.

11. After

Our pantry was absolutely jam-packed and in a jumbled mess. But now I have room to spare in my pantry and I can’t believe it. 

Small pantry organization

I hope you liked these small pantry organization ideas! Let me know if you have a tiny pantry and if these ideas help organize your space. Do you have other tips on how to organize a small pantry you can share in the comments?