I love the house that we’re renting SO much, but it is a 90’s house and the builder’s made some questionable decisions when they planned the house. There are these random, crazy cutouts in the walls, we have two sets of stairs leading to the same landing, and the pantry is the size of a large cupboard. I actually don’t mind the double staircase thing because it’s convenient, but if they had omitted the extra stairs there would have been room for a huge walk in pantry and kitchen island. What were they thinking?!
I tried to make the cupboard pantry thing work, but since the shelves are SO deep I couldn’t find a way to make everything visible and accessible. I did a lot of organized stacking and compartmentalizing but it all ended up in a jumbled mess after a few days. I knew I wanted something that worked better for our family, so I started looking into DIY pantry options.
There are a lot of great ideas on Pinterest, but not many that worked for our kitchen layout or budget. A couple months ago Ameriwood Home reached out about working together, and I found this cabinet that I knew was going to be perfect for our DIY pantry! 
When the cabinet arrived, it came as a package of boards that collectively weighed 176lbs. I recruited my neighbor to help me haul it in the house, and Jared and I put it together later that night. Surprisingly it only took us about an hour and a half, and we didn’t even fight or argue through the process! #majorwin.
My favorite thing about this cupboard is that it looks much nicer than a utility cabinet, but it has so much storage capacity and is very functional! So it’s pretty and it works great lol.
I love all of the beautiful pantries on Pinterest, and in my dream world I would have matching canisters and perfect labels and a pretty wallpapered backsplash, but the truth is that I’ve been collecting food storage containers over the years, I used chalkboard tape (sooooo much cheaper and customizable!) and nothing really matches. It’s not the perfect organized pantry, but it works for me and I did it on a super budget! 
One big tip for finding cute containers–never ever ever ever ever go to Bed Bath and Beyond and pay full price for the OXO containers! They’re super overpriced, and you can almost always find the same exact ones at TJ Maxx or Home Goods for a fraction of the price. Ross usually has some too! Take your time and shop around and you’ll save SO much money!
When it comes to organizing a pantry, I put the things I use most at eye level, the things I don’t want the kids getting into on the top shelves, and kid friendly items on the bottom. My kids actually have their own snack cupboard in our kitchen where they can go and grab something when they’re hungry, so I keep non-appealing items on the bottom shelf where they can reach, but don’t necessarily want to.
I use baskets that I found at Goodwill to corral things like condiments, oils, baking powders, syrups, nut butters, and jam so they all stay together. I have a basket for oils, one for baking goods, and one for sandwich/breakfast things so it’s easy to organize and see what I have!
I try to take most things out of their boxes, but if we have doubles of something or I’m not ready to open a box, I’ll organize the boxes by color. Something about rainbow organization makes me happy, and it’s easier for me to find something based on what color it is than by looking for a label!
I love these baskets that add extra space underneath shelves! I found them at Ross for $4 each and they’re perfect for storing tortillas and bread. They add so much extra room and solve the unused space issue when you have really tall shelves!
I really like buying spices, seasonings, and nuts in bulk, we have a Winco here and I’m having so much fun trying different spices and nuts for cheap. I store them in these little glass mason jars I grabbed from the Target dollar spot, I thought the copper lids were so cute I’m hoping they still have them in stock so I can grab some more!
I put my appliances on the top of the cabinet because we don’t get them down super often, but they’re still very easily accessible. If you’re short this might not work for you, but I like having all the inside shelves for food storage! I really only use these three appliances, and I’m pretty proud of how minimalist we’ve become in our kitchen!
I hope this serves as some inspiration for anyone who finds themselves in a similar position as us! It’s tricky to not have enough pantry or cupboard space, but we had the perfect little nook for this cabinet and I am SOOOOOO happy with our new pantry! It looks great, it’s super functional, and we can take it with us whenever we move! I’ve linked it here to purchase from Walmart, they are offering free two day shipping this year for the holidays so it is a great opportunity to snag it for a discount! 
