{pantry organization}

I've seen so many gorgeous painted and organized pantries on Pinterest and I'm pretty sure I'll be doing something to jazz ours up eventually, but for now, I wanted to get all the boxes under control! Between the snack bars, granola bars, protein bars, popcorn, oatmeal, grits, etc. the boxes took up almost an entire shelf. I wish I had taken a before picture, but just go look in your pantry. That unorganized pile of boxes? Yeah, that was ours.

So I decided to do something about it. I bought three clear plastic bins at Big Lots thinking that would be enough. Nope. Not if I wanted to get rid of the various drink packets we had and get specific about each containers contents. So I bought three more at Wally World thinking they were the same brand. They weren't but they were close enough when I put them next to each other.

It looked better, that was a fact. We had an entire row with pretty much nothing on it. I loved it. But as we started using them more and more, I realized that it would be cool to have labels on them. Enter the Cricut.

 

I have a program called Sure Cuts a Lot that allows me to download any TrueType font and the Cricut will cut it. Yay for not buying all those crazy expensive cartridges! Though there are some that would be handy to have. Basically, all you do is lay the 6x12 vinyl onto the cutting mat {it's slightly tacky so it'll hold on} and feed it into the Cricut. 

 

 Then you type your words {or pictures using Wing Dings} on your computer. It doesn't matter about placement since it'll all get cut out anyway. I wanted to use the least amount of vinyl so I put them as close to each other but still have room to cut between. And so what if it's vertical or horizontal, it all cuts the same.

Connect your computer to the Cricut with a USB cord and hit cut! It doesn't take very long at all. 

This is after I cut and weeded them.

I ran out of transfer tape but since it was a small project, I just used some scotch tape. Worked like a charm in picking the letters up and laying them down in a straight line. 

The final product! 

I have some red paint from another project {that I have yet to show} and I'm thinking about painting the backs of the pantry with. I'm not sure if I want to do that though. That's commitment. I might find some wall paper or wrapping paper and hang that to see if I like it. Or I may go green apple green. I'm loving that color right now and am introducing it into our color scheme to brighten things up for Spring. 

These bins are SO functional for us. And like I said, has given us so much space on the shelves. I've even gone further and bought a handful of the OXO airtight containers {at Ross, never pay full price!} for some things. We go through a lot of Wheat Thins and Ritz crackers so it's awesome to have them ready to grab in a container rather than a non-airtight bag/sleeve. And they're great for sugar and flour! Once I'm happy with my collection, I'll share a full view of the pantry.

I love an organized life! Don't you?