Cheap Small Pantry Organization Ideas

These cheap small pantry organization ideas are a great way to store your food in a pantry that is limited in space, you're working with a limited budget, and you need your pantry to be a functional food storage room for your family.

Cheap Small Pantry Organization Ideas:

We have never lived in a home with a large pantry. As I reflect on the 11 homes we've lived in over the last 13 years, we have never had more than a coat closet with shelves, and sometimes we didn't even have that. 

Over the years I have learned how to be creative and utilize the spaces we have well. I've purchased organization bins from Dollar Tree, and sometimes Target and I've created systems that have made food storage easy on our family so that food doesn't get wasted, people know where things are, and we're able to make the best use of what we have. 

The Best Affordable Containers for Pantry Organization:

We have used these same containers in our pantry for the last 5 years and they have been a favorite ever since. There is a look-alike version you can get at the Dollar Store to save some money, but the white ones are rarely in stock, and they're tapered at the bottom which makes them slightly less useful for food storage.

These Sterilite bins come in a six-pack on Amazon, and average a little over $4 per basket. They're a great rectangular shape with no taper which means boxes and other food items can stand up well in them. We group food items in each of these baskets and the system works well for our family. 

Storing Like Foods Together:

When I say we store like foods together in our baskets, I mean that each basket has a purpose. One basket is for all the kid's snacks, another just for all the different kinds of pasta. Another basket holds jars and sauces for dinners. We have a bread basket that holds just our bread and tortillas. There is a chip basket that houses all of the chips. 

My best advice is to group items that make the most sense for you and your family and see what items can be grouped well. 

Over-the-Door Can Storage:

These pictures in this blog post were taken a few years ago in a different home, but for the most part, our pantry looks the same. The only difference is that when we moved into this home, there was a can storage unit screwed into the pantry door and it has made all the difference in the world. 

We used to keep our cans stacked in a basket as you can see in these photos, but being able to free up that space with this can holder has been a complete game changer. There are a lot of door organizers on Amazon, but this one is the most similar to the one we have in our home right now. 

Decide What Supplies Don't Need to be in The Pantry:

We have decided for our family that our baking supplies don't need to be stored in the pantry. We have one cabinet in the kitchen where we keep all the spices and baking supplies, and we have large canisters on the counter that house the flour, sugar, and oats. This frees up the pantry to store our most used everyday food items and prevents the pantry from getting too overcrowded. 

Cereal Containers Aren't Worth It:

The internet might cancel me for saying this, but we bought these cereal containers years ago and I just don't personally think they're worth it. We eat a lot of cereal in our home and go through it at such a rate that I was refilling these containers all the time. I think that the boxes having their own dedicated space is "good enough" and seeing them in their original packaging doesn't bother me that much.

Store Serving Dishes on Top Shelf:

We have a few large serving dishes and items that we use for entertaining stored on the top shelf. They are items that we're not reaching for regularly, but we have access to them if we ever need them at a moment's notice. We don't have a lot of cabinet space in the kitchen, so keeping them up here works well for us.

Store Appliances on the Pantry Floor:

We don't have a ton of kitchen appliances, but our pancake griddle and our fondue pot are housed on the floor of the pantry out of the way. We reach for these items regularly enough that it makes sense for them to be in the kitchen, but they're out of the way and utilizing what would otherwise be unused space.

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