Pantry Cupboards ... My Guilty Secret

I love being organised, but I have a few guilty secrets.  My secrets are those places in the house that are hideous, jumbled messes, that I desperately try to hide from everyone.  Except now I am going to share one of them with you.  Here it goes ...

Ghastly isn't it?  I don't have a lot of room in my kitchen cupboards and these two store the majority of my tins, jars, biscuits, and sauces.  It's pretty awful, but on the plus side, there are a few items stored in neat containers.

I started my organisation by pulling everything out and working out what really needed to stay in these two cupboards.  All the kids cups, bottles and plates were moved out.  Both my girls are older now, and we don't really use plastic cups and plates any more.  I also found a new home for a few of the larger items.

Once I'd worked out what really needed to be stored in the two cupboards, I went hunting for some neat storage containers.  I found these two handy items at Lakeland.

They're so neat and tidy, and were really well priced too.  I bought three of the clear baskets with the handle.  They fit perfectly on the top shelf.  I bought two of the faux rattan baskets (one for the girls snacks, and one for all the spreads).

The next step was to label all my containers and baskets.  I used PowerPoint to create a simple, colourful label.

I used two fonts to create these labels - Clipper Script Fat and Lithos Pro Regular.  I downloaded them both from a free font website.  I printed the finished labels, cut them out, laminated them and used double-sided tape to stick them in place.

Next up was tackling those ugly cupboards.  Since we live in a rented house, I can't go completely crazy.  I really like the idea of self-adhesive shelf liners, but nice ones are not readily available here in London.  There are two kinds of shelf liners available - hideously ugly ones, and REALLY expensive ones.  Taking ideas from Iris at The Colored Married Life, I decided to make my own shelf liners.

I hunted around the internet and found these very cool papers available for free download.  There was a great selection to choose from, they were easy to download, and printed very well on A4 paper.  The next step was the fiddly bit - I carefully trimmed the edges, and used double-sided tape to stick the sheets together.  Once I had a sheet the right size for the cupboard shelf, I carefully stuck a layer of clear adhesive film on top (just like covering a school book).  I then used more double-sided tape to stick the shelf liners into the cupboards.

Now that my shelves were lined, everything was labeled, and sorted into the correct storage containers, so I neatly put everything back into the cupboards.  Phew!  Here are the finished cupboards ...

And just incase you forgot how hideous those cupboards were, here are the before and after pictures.

It's an absolutely fantastic transformation.  Not only are the cupboards a pleasure to look at, I can now find everything I need.  I especially like those baskets on the top shelf.  I no longer have to get a chair to find a bottle of sauce from the back of the cupboard.  Now I just reach up, grab the basket, pull it down and pluck out the bottle I'm after.  It works so well - even for someone as short as me!

The next project is to finish the cupboard where all the containers of flour, sugar, and other baking supplies hide.  I think I need a cup of tea before I can even think about that.