Last week we got to work with a family that had the most ethnically diverse pantry we have ever seen. When a client knows what fish sauce is, we are impressed. When they have three different types, we are blown away! Needless to say, this pantry was an awesome project!
The biggest challenge for the client was that this pantry is in her laundry room. The kitchen was remodeled by the previous owners, and while it looks amazing, it has very little room for food storage. Therefore, most of the food has to be kept in the cabinets in the laundry room. There were four cabinets that had food in them. Here they are:
Cans, boxes, and a few random surprises
Ethnic foods, pantry staples, and more
Snacks, baking and cooking supplies, and more!
Snacks, snacks, and more snacks!
The first step? Tossing out all the expired food. In total, there were 11 kitchen-size garbage bags FULL of food that were expired. There could be more, but the crazy Asian food didn’t have expiration dates (or at least ones we could read!), so the client had to go off her memory.
The next step? Create a system for the cabinets. We kept the four cabinets furthest away from the kitty litter box as food storage. Instead of a little bit of everything in each one, they each got a theme:
Grown-up snacks and breakfast food
(and the Goldfish that wouldn’t fit with the kid snacks section)
The snack and breakfast cabinet
Keeping cooking staples, like pastas and beans in clear, labeled containers so the client can easily see what she is running low on when making her grocery list.
Cooking staples, all neat and organized!
Keep packets of seasoning and small packages contained in small boxes.
All the Asian food is now all together in one spot
Vegetables on the top shelf, soups and proteins on the next shelf, sauces on the bottom two shelves.
Canned and boxed goods are categorized and grouped together
We worked on the kitchen and the other laundry room cabinets too. More of those “after” pictures to come soon! :-)