Pantry Floor Reveal

Has your kid ever screamed from the pantry looking for their favorite snack? A snack you could have sworn you bought another box of just yesterday? But then you can’t find it either, so you add it back to your shopping list and buy another box. That’s what was happening to this family. During the project, I was able to fill 2 entire baskets with their kids’ favorite snack bars to the utter delight of their mom who had apparently just kept buying more boxes.

After the project was done, I checked back in a month later and asked if she’d had to buy any more bars. Not only was she still fully stocked up, but her days had gotten a bit more peaceful as her kids found some small bit of independence. Check out the photos below to see that even their lab puppy could nose around for some snacks. :)

 
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This was a large pantry project and while we did recommend some necessary baskets and products on the more expensive side, we also made use of some Dollar Tree bins as well. When you’re needing 20+ of something, spending upwards of $15 per item can get pricey fast. And it’s not necessary. You can still get a beautiful, clean and well designed aesthetic without breaking the bank!

 
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Another tip is not to decant absolutely everything. If you cook with the same shapes of pasta, other grains, nuts, baking supplies, etc. then by all means take them out of their packaging and into smaller, more eye-pleasing and fresher pop-top containers. But for things you may crave variety in and go through quickly like chips or cereal, there’s no need to take the time and expense of decanting. For this family, keeping those items together in a basket was much more convenient while still keeping their pantry looking beautiful.

Take a look at the before and after photos below to see the transformation their 8-year-old couldn’t believe!

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THE Buckeye Pantry

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This family lives for The Ohio State. Football season, basketball season and even academics! The mom works for the University and their oldest soon is a senior this year. So when they asked me to tackle organizing their pantry, we all decided that Scarlet and Gray would make them happy every day when they walk in to grab a snack.

As with most organizing projects, the first task was to sort and purge. For this family, they’re the designated house in their extended family for hosting large parties so lots of party supplies were taking up valuable space. While they do host 3-4 gatherings a year, it’s definitely not often enough to waste shelf space in your every day pantry. So we installed a second shelving system with labeled baskets in their basement to hold those items making room for the day to day.

They also use their pantry to house cleaning supplies. While we kept the sprays and rags in their own baskets in the pantry, we did move the mops and brooms whose handles were always getting in the way. Those were installed at the top of the basement stairs. Out of the eyesight, but easily accessible on cleaning day.

Shelf helpers, turn tables and labels rounded out the project. I heard back from them after their first grocery trip and the baskets made putting away groceries so much easier. Plus now they can all find what items they need much faster!

Go Buckeyes!

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Fridge/Freezer Bins to the Rescue

Bins solve everything don’t they? This refrigerator and freezer were transformed with just a few acrylic containers. Not only are they aesthetically pleasing, but they work so well to keep items grouped together. In this case, freezer bins were used to group meat in one, fish in another and vegetables in the third. Then once you’ve planned out dinner, you know exactly which bin to pull out!

For the refrigerator, there was a lot of un-used space on the left side. Two deep, stackable bins fit perfectly to keep greens crisp and berries fresh with room on top for leftover tomato or smaller bins. Can organizers also make a huge difference in keeping all those drinks corralled into a smaller space.

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Tiny Pantry Launches Business

While I’ve always been someone who loves staying organized, it took a global pandemic trapping me inside my small apartment for that lightbulb moment to go off that this isn’t just a hobby, but a real passion that could be a business.

Profitt Organizing began like most small businesses, at home. But more specifically in this case, it started in my pantry. Because of COVID-19, I was cooking all meals at home for the first time in my life (I previously frequented restaurants both for my job and just for fun). Additionally, there was a directive from the CDC to limit trips outside the home. This meant I needed to stock up and buy many items in larger quantities that I had ever needed previously.

At first (after painstakingly cleaning and wiping down all groceries), I was admittedly just throwing them in the pantry, hoping the door would close. After a month or two of this, I realized enough was enough, ordered some organizing supplies and got to work.

I added helper shelves, turn tables and bins with labels. I’m happy to say that many months later, I’m still cooking 99% of our meals at home and it’s so much nicer to go to the pantry and see exactly what I need to make dinner with or exactly what I’m running low on and should add to the grocery list.

Working in small spaces is definitely a challenge, but it’s one of the more rewarding things about this business. I was able to make my small pantry work for our new pandemic-adjusted lifestyle and I’d love to do the same for you!

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Cabinet De-Cluttering

If you’re fortunate enough to have a kitchen with numerous, well-designed cabinets, you may be tempted to fill all the nooks and crannies with every kitchen gadget, utensil and cookware that your heart desires. There’s nothing wrong with having a fully stocked kitchen, both in terms of food and utility, but at the start of every organizing project, we go through the cabinets and drawers with our clients to see if there’s anything they don’t use.

Whether it’s Tupperwares without matching lids, an extra set of pots and pans past their prime or a mandoline slicer you never understood. If it’s not in your regular routine, it’s probably best to pass it on and create some space.

The kitchen is also a great place to store things like allergy medicines or vitamins that are taken daily. Adding containers with labels makes it that much faster for each person to grab what they need as they rush out the door!

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Retro Cabinet Revival

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I’m not sure what builders were thinking back in the 1960s. Did people have less stuff back then? Was what they had bigger, or taller and therefore made to fit in tall, deep shelves? Maybe there was just more time in the day to stack smaller items and precariously balance them on top of each other like tetris.

I’ve encountered older, not practically, designed cabinets more times than I should have. It seems top cabinets were all built for tall pitchers and bottom cabinets were all built with the assumption that people like crawling around on the floor reaching way back into dark depths to find what they needed.

Luckily, these days there are lots of solutions to help remedy this exact problem without requiring power tools. For this project, we used over a dozen helper shelves and sliding containers with handles that made a world of difference. She no longer has to take everything out of the cabinets just to get one thing! We also used can organizers, turn tables and stick on press lighting to help her see what’s in the bottom cabinets without requiring knee pads and a flashlight.

After this kitchen revival full of modern organizing systems, putting away groceries and finding ingredients for meals is seamless!

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Drawer Order

Everyone has those drawers where everything gets thrown in and mixed together. And while it might be possible to still find what you need when you need it, life gets a lot easier when things are grouped and stored together. All it takes is a few drawer dividing baskets (I like Dollar Tree for this b/c junk drawers don’t need to be pretty) and time to group like with like.

 
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This family’s kitchen was built smart and has several drawers with built in dividers, but over time, and especially with kids, things tend to get all mixed together again. Periodically it’s necessary to go back through and separate out what you’re using the most that deserves it’s own space. For them it was baking into one drawer, kitchen gadgets into another and misc items in a third (batteries, pens, markers, chargers).

Their kitchen also has deep, pull out drawers that are wonderful for storing things like Tupperware, but this can be one of the more challenging things to keep organized as well. Drawer dividers can be helpful in this space too because once your small bowls have their own dedicated space that’s separate from the larger ones, it’s easier to keep them organized. For this we also used the small fabric bins from Dollar Tree to save on costs, but handle the job perfectly.

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I hope this kitchen drawer project helped bring some peace and order back to their kitchen drawers!

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