With the holidays just around the corner, I wanted to be a little more organized this year and get a head start on all my festive planning. To start, I always like to spend a day cleaning out my pantry, checking expiry dates and re-organizing. Our pantry always seems to go off the expected course by this time of year and ends up embarrassingly messy (see proof below). And so a cozy festive pantry makeover was definitely in order.
It’s a challenge to get things right in any pantry, and ours, being very small and rather crowded, demands even more precision. Since shelving is limited, I switched a few things around to try to accommodate everything inside and in a certain order, to avoid any new clutter. My other obstacle is there is no door to hide the chaos, and inevitably, the temporary curtain I made (till I found a suitable one I loved), is always left open, exposing our true pantry colours
How I Created A Cozy Festive Pantry
To start with our cozy festive pantry makeover, I emptied all the pantry contents and set everything out on our kitchen table and cupboards. I then organized everything into different categories and checked expiry dates. With the goal of creating a more festive, cozy and seasonal pantry, here’s the categories that I think will work out for us in our small space.
1. Dry goods
2. Special baking ingredients
3. Spices and sprinkles
4. Oils and Vinegars
5. Cookbooks
6. Festive touches
A Little Paint and Paper
Since our pantry gets a lot of use and was looking a little scuffed, I added a simple wallpaper background and touched up the paint a bit on the shelves first. I then decided to remove two of the bottom shelves to make room for an old vintage dresser I had in the entryway to house things like our teas, vitamins, candles and napkins. The drawers also make way to hide all our incoming paper like mail, receipts, etc
Contain the Drygoods
I transferred all the drygoods into some extra large canning jars I had picked up at my local grocer Fun fact: Fall is a good time to find them there with all the canning happening after harvest. In order to keep track of all the drygood’s expiry dates once they are out of their original packaging and in containers, a pro-tip I heard recently was to place a small piece of masking tape underneath each jar (or their lids) with the dates.
Corral the Chaos
I always like to include versatile baking staples like peanut butter, hazelnut spread, baking chocolate and baking powder, so for items that cannot be placed into containers I like to corrall them together, each in their more broad categories in hopes of keeping them more contained and easier to access.
Curate the Cookbooks
I then edit down my cookbooks and all the loose recipe cuttings/notes, appliance manuals, etc., I’ve collected over the year; keeping my favourites and adding in a few new ones. Check out a few of my newest go-to’s for the holidays here.
Add Some Labels
I labeled just a few things in our pantry. I don’t believe in labeling everything, only the obvious. So just the items that might be mistaken for others (e.g. corn starch vs icing sugar). Download printable labels by clicking here: PDF Drygood LABELS and PDF (Cursive) Drygood LABELS.
A Festive Glow
To top things off and add a little festive glow, I added in a few battery-operated fairy and tea lights.
The result is what I think as a cozy festive pantry, perfect for launching the holiday season ahead.
This post is in partnership with Kraft Heinz. Stay tuned for a collection of delicious recipes and festive-inspired tablescape ideas in the coming weeks.
For a chance to win $50 toward holiday shopping, go to addjoy.ca . You’ll also find delicious recipes and tasty tips to help make your festive entertaining fabulous.
