No Pantry, No Problem ~ Food Storage Ideas

We have a teeny, tiny pantry. Some people don't have a pantry at all. This can be a  huge problem when you have a family to feed, but nowhere to store the food. It's been a problem in our home for years, and a few days ago, I reached my breaking point.  That day, I decided that I had to do something about this problem. After a little epiphany, I decided...no pantry, no problem. Today, I'm going to show you how I created a pantry space of my own and share a few more food storage ideas!

I had gone to the grocery, had unloaded the groceries from my car, then unpacked all of the bags so I could put the groceries away. I put the refrigerated and frozen foods away, and it was time to put the rest of it somewhere, but there wasn't really anywhere to put them. This is what it looked like in my kitchen/breakfast nook.  Ermmmm...embarrasing! The pantry was already pretty full, bread smushed, cans stacked, pasta boxes lined up, and still a ton of food to put away. My foodsaver was sitting on a chair, and I had no idea what I was going to do with all of the stuff!

Then, the lightbulb went off. I already had these shelves in our breakfast nook that I used to keep some of my craft supplies organized.  I have moved most of those supplies to the garage where my workshop is, and had recently sewn a quick curtain to hang on the front so I could store a few things on the shelves that I didn't really want to have to look at all the time.  I decided to clean one side of the shelves off and try and use this space to store some of the things that wouldn't fit in my pantry, and now I can actually see what I have!

This space doubles as my office, so you will see my printer and our family command center in this space as well, which makes having the pantry and additional food storage there even better!  I can see when the kiddos need to pack lunches and easily access things all in one place...this is an organization dream come true for this mama!

I used some inexpensive stackable bins to store fruit snacks, cereal bars, sweets, chips and crackers and really took advantage of the space. The shelves are adjustable, so I made this top shelf a little taller than the others just so I could use the stackable containers. The kids can grab snacks (hopefully, they will be grabbing the healthier snacks from the fridge), and packing lunches is a cinch with everything visible in one place!

The second shelf is reserved for our canned goods. Being able to see them all spread out instead of stacked high will keep me from buying multiples of things that I cannot see, and it makes it so much easier to grab what I need for meal prep!

On the bottom shelf, I store extra boxes of cereal, my Foodsaver, Wet Ones and a basket of fun snack containers and straws.

That leaves plenty of room in my actual tiny pantry to store break, pasta and other items!  It's not all smushed and triple stacked!  It's so nice to actually see what I have and not be completely stressed out when I am trying to pack a lunch or prepare to cook a meal.

This is a great idea for anyone with a small pantry, no pantry, a rental or small space!  All I did was place two inexpensive 3 shelve units side by side, added a cup hook to both sides of each shelf, placed a long slim curtain rod on those hooks, and sewed a quick curtain to hide the shelves. You could do this with one shelf too!  The great thing is that everything has a place and nobody has to know...well, I guess they know now ;)

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