Happy Friday. If you're joining me from Crystal's (The Holliday Collective ) or Erin's (Live Pretty on a Penny ) posts, welcome to the next stop on our blog hop! I'm so thankful you stopped by. I am excited to be joining these amazingly talented bloggers to share tips on how we get organized. I'll be sharing with you how I've organized our small snack cabinet for under $15 and under 15 minutes. There are so many beautiful images on Pinterest and Instagram of gorgeous pantries and huge kitchens with adorable baskets and containers from amazing stores like Homegoods or Ikea. Ooohhh, how I wish I could do the same. The reality is, baskets and cute containers are just not in the budget right this second. If you are like me, you are purging ALL. THE. THINGS. after the holidays. Part of being successful with that task is making sure everything you want to keep has a place (I mean what good is organizing if you still can't easily find what you need).
(That tiny cabinet where the chalkboard is, that's the pantry!)
Our snack cabinet/Pantry area is pretty small. I mean, its almost non existent. This area of our kitchen is used for snacks as well as lunch packing items and our bread. See what I mean? Yikes. The biggest problem with this area is that it's pretty narrow but fairly deep. Making it hard to get to items in the back of the cabinet. In order to make it easier for little ones to grab snacks (and not spill everything while doing so) I needed to add containers to hold everything. My favorite place for such a thing? DOLLAR TREE!
If you don't shop at Dollar Tree then you my friend, are missing out. They have an entire wall dedicated to different size and color containers. All for... a DOLLAR. I know, craziness! At those prices I can get containers for my entire house... which I have haha. I have the smaller pencil/pen sized containers in the bathroom to hold toothbrushes and toothpaste. I have the medium bucket sized containers in my linen closet to hold medicine and other toiletry items. The small desk baskets I use for makeup and today I am going to show you how I used them in my kitchen.
I took most of these photos after a long (very long trip that it was dark out when I returned home hence the flash in most of these photos lol) grocery trip as I was putting items away. This is the best time to get everything organized and to toss any old food. The biggest way to get organized in the kitchen is to ditch the packaging for most pantry items. They are bulky and waste so much space (unless you have one of those dream kitchens I see on Pinterest, then you girl friend can keep alllll the packaging your little heart desires! HA!). No need to keep the big box that the fruit snacks came in, dump them all into a bucket with other smaller snacks like granola bars or individual packages of crackers. You'd be surprised at how much easier this makes it for little ones to pick out an after school snack without your help.
(Look at all these empty boxes!)
Another great reason to get your Pantry organized is to help teach your kids a little independence. Once I started doing this my son didn't need me to get things down for him as often. He also didn't have to ask what was and was not considered a snack (no you cannot eat all the semi sweet chocolate chips as a snack!). He knew that everything in the container with the fruit snacks or granola bars was considered fair game. You could go as far as to label these containers, but since our pantry area is so small that wasn't needed.
All together I probably spent ten dollars on all of these containers. Some even came two or three to a pack! The best past is if they break... they are cheap and easy to replace. To be honest I have yet to have any of my containers I've purchased from there break. If you don't have a Dollar Tree near you I have some news for you. You can order most of their items online.
(The fruit is in the basket in the cabinet for demonstration but could easily be placed in the fridge as well)
Just $15 and 15 minutes and you can get your kitchen cabinets in order too. One thing I learned since becoming a homeowner is that the items I need to get my house organized are usually pretty pricey. I was so excited to discover all of these containers at Dollar Tree and they have helped me tremendously around my home. I am pretty sure every room has a container in it that I have purchased from there. Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope you take the time to visit all the other amazing bloggers included in this project. Below is a list if you've missed any.
TUESDAY
Organizing a Shared Boys' Room
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Organizing a Craft Room
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WEDNESDAY
Organizing a Toddler Girl's Closet
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Organizing -----
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THURSDAY
Organizing the Laundry Room
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Organizing the Office
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FRIDAY
Organizing a Pantry
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Organizing a Pantry/Kitchen Cabinets
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