Our vegetable stand was sent free by Amara. I was not obligated
Since we’re a week into the new school year, this is the perfect time to share some pantry ideas and how I’ve been keeping the kids’ lunch items organized in the pantry and fridge. At the same time, I wanted to share my pantry organization. I found some super cute free printable labels online that really bring our whole pantry together. The set of free printable labels didn’t have all the categories I needed, so my friend made me vinyl stickers for the rest of the words I needed.
This is our walk in pantry. We have a motion light that turns on when you open the door. I love it, because it’s one less light we have to remind the kids to turn off. We wanted as much room as we could squeeze into our corner pantry. In fact, at the last minute before our closet guy was done, we added another shelf at the top of the pantry. I am so glad we did!
A few months ago, I was sent this gorgeous Nkuku Beri Vegetable Rack from Amara. It has been the perfect place to store our potatoes and onions. It’s usually a lot more full than this. I cook a lot on the weekends, and these pictures were taken at the end of a weekend. It can hold so many veggies! I love how rustic it is. It fits into my color scheme in the pantry. I’ve used mainly clear and white containers with touches of rustic metal.
Most of the food that the kids need to reach is on the left. Some of their food is also on the right, and it’s all on the first shelf. Since they make their own lunches (with a little help from us), I keep it simple.
When I come home from grocery shopping, all the drinks are popped off the plastic rings and put in the plastic tub for drinks. The chips, pretzels, and crackers are portioned in baggies for lunch boxes. All of the wrapped items are taken out of their boxes and put in the corresponding container (breakfast, sweet, or salty). I also have one big metal container for all our lunch boxes and a small metal container for extra hand towels.
The rest of the shelves are organized pretty much like a grocery store. I just kept like items together and very tidy. For items that could be stored in plastic containers, I ordered these small ones from Ikea. I really love them. The rest of the containers are OXO Pop Containers.
The shelf above the breakfast/snack shelf contains canned items, dry goods, peanut butters and jellies, and drinks. The next shelf up is the baking shelf. It’s a work in progress. Since I bake so much, there are a few items that aren’t in labeled clear containers yet. The very top shelf contains our liquor, canning jars and accessories, and a few large items like the ice cream maker and cotton candy machine.
This post is really all about pantry ideas, but we also have a couple drawers in the fridge that are organized to make lunch making a breeze. We have one large drawer that has snack and sandwich cheese, yogurt drinks, and applesauce pouches. (It has other food in it, too, but they don’t all pertain to lunch making).
Above the large drawer, there are two produce drawers. Of course, we have fruits and vegetables in those drawers. We help the kids cut up apples or carrots for their lunches. If I’m feeling super organized at the beginning of the week, I’ll cut up a bunch of fruit and veggies for the entire week.
I hope these pantry ideas helped you! Let me know how you keep your kids organized during the school year.
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Rebecca has been writing about style, beauty, and lifestyle topics since 2011. Thank you so much for reading this post! Feel free to leave any questions or comments below. I love hearing from you!
