Apartment Kitchen Pantry Organization

How to organize your kitchen pantry, even if you don't have one! Full of product recommendations, tips, and tricks!

Raise your hand if you get a little too excited when the kitchen sink is empty and everything in the dishwasher has been put away. How about when all your cups, plates, and bowls are in their place? Or when the cans in your pantry are all in perfectly organized rows? DID WE JUST BECOME BEST FRIENDS?! YEP! This post is all about how to organize your kitchen pantry, even if you don't have one.

Have you ever lived without a pantry?

I have and things got tricky. I couldn't stock up and was forced to take up precious cabinet space with seasonings, cans, pasta, and jars. When we moved into our new apartment, we had a few basic requirements, a major one for me is to please have a pantry! An apartment pantry usually isn't going to be anything grand, but it's a designated space you get without having to compromise on space for pots and pans or mixing bowls.

Our new apartments kitchen is set up differently than our previous space and has way more storage than most people would need. But since I have about 10 mixing bowls too many and more appliances than I know what to do with (just kidding, I need every single small appliance I own) we somehow ran out of kitchen storage space again.

For years on Pinterest, I would pin dream kitchen inspiration and one piece I have always loved is a kitchen rack. I love the look of showcasing your favorite small appliances and having your go-to ingredients easy to spot. After going back and forth on color choices and between wire or wood, we decided on a simple stainless steel shelving rack from Amazon.

We have only been using this additional pantry option for about a month, but it's already made cooking and baking so much easier. Plus, I really do love our stand mixer on display. While we're not finished organizing quite yet, and we're still figuring out the best setup, here's what we currently have that's working well for us.

I love to compartmentalize. I purchased a couple organizing bins so I could keep the baking supplies organized in their own bin, as well as our rice and our pasta. I dedicated the top of the rack to everything baking from sugar to sprinkles and salt! The row below the top is our "can row" and that's where we're beginning project stock up. I would love to get some of those can organizers or pedestals for them, but for now stacking them two high works. The row below our cans is carb city! Pasta, rice, tortillas, and more. That's also where we keep the quinoa, couscous, wild rice, and pretty much any other grain you can think of. Then lastly, the bottom two rows are dedicated to showcasing our small appliances. It's so much easier having them in plain sight, rather than thrown in pieces under a cabinet. The inside of our pantry has a lot more free space, so we're still working on that but we currently have the lazy susan in there with all our sauces and condiments.

What small kitchen hacks do you use? I'd love to hear all your ideas in the comments section!