Pantry Reveal!

My most favorite organizing projects are those spent with my family. This past weekend I spent with my oldest daughter, Kelly, making over her kitchen pantry. I would be remiss if I didn't mention that my son-in-law, Brad, was in on the "fun" also.  (Thanks again Brad for all of your help and support!)

Kelly and I had many conversations about what she wanted her pantry to look like, and more importantly, how she wanted it to function.  She and Brad both work full time and have full plates outside of work, so she really wanted the pantry to be efficient to their lifestyle.

So, after a few purchases and a little bit of planning, I give you the reveal:

Now, I'll take you through how our time was spent.

The first step of the project was removing everything from the pantry, and purging the items that were either expired or could be donated to a food bank.  Following that, we did a run through of our layout just to make sure we figured right on where things were going to go.

Next, we cleaned the shelves and walls to remove any debris. And then the biggest challenge of the project began....the wallpaper!  Ohhhh, the wallpaper!  I'm just going to say, it was a challenge!  Considering the fact that neither I, nor she, had ever used wallpaper before, and we weren't working with a full blank wall, and the selected paper had a design in it...well, like I said, it was a challenge!

  

Once the biggest task of getting the wallpaper up was done, then we really got to the fun stuff.  Baskets were labeled with the letters "M", "T", and "W" for dinner meals.  They usually have three cooked meals and one leftover night during the work week, so she wanted to be able to grab a basket that had everything she needed for that night's preparation.  It's also a big help with putting away the groceries.  She wanted smaller baskets for pantry items that they purchase weekly for lunches and snacks.

We found these spice jars for $.99 each at World Market and the color on the lids matches nicely with the Martha Stewart containers.  Additional jars were purchased so she can always add to them as needed.

 She also wanted a place to show many of her beautiful serving plates that they received as wedding gifts just a short year ago.  We picked these racks up at Lowe's.  They are actually for pots and pans but work great for displaying the trays.

The bottom of the pantry holds four baskets that we broke into categories for "plastics and paper",  "grilling", " bar",  and "recycle and thermal bags".  Now everything is in a central location, which cuts down on time of searching for things.

For a final result of:

I'm pretty sure there was a much faster way, and no doubt a less stressful way, of this makeover (at least for the wallpaper),  but I would do it all over again if I knew I was going to have as many laughs and enjoyable  moments with Kelly and Brad as I did this past weekend.  Sometimes we get so caught up in the end result of things in life that we forget to enjoy the journey that got us there. 

I'm thankful for many people in my life but none more greater than my family.