And the winner is.....

First off, thank you so much to everyone who made suggestions for my out of control pantry! If I had an unlimited budget, I would love to take advantage of all of them, but I had less than $50 to spend, and I managed to do it for about $35 so far by repurposing some items from throughout the house. I am so excited about the way it is coming together! I will be posting pictures at the end of this weekend, so come back and check it out!

I will also be planning coupon giveaways for the next several weeks, so check out my blog on Monday nights to find out the new contest!

I had so many options to choose from that I couldn't pick just one. So, the winner of Help Me Organize My Pantry is ... well, I should say the winners are....

Wendy at The Quirky Scribe and Rhonda (but she didn't leave me her address and her blog isn't public!) Rhonda, if you are out there, please email me or leave me a comment with your email. I want to send your coupons!

Here are their suggestions...
Wendy - Pull everything out of the pantry. Discard anything that is expired or donate food you know that you will never eat to a foodbank. Then group foods by like items. Get small plastic bins that will fit on your shelf. At Walmat, I got something similar to this: http://www.containerstore.com/browse/Product.jhtml?CATID=71223&PRODID=69607
Label each bin for a particular type of item (ex. canned tomato products, baking supplies, snacks, etc.). Then place the items in the appropriate containers. The containers have several advantages. They provide a more uniform appearance--I actually like looking in my pantry. Also, I can't overbuy --I have just enough room in each bin to hold what I can use in a reasonable amount of time. I also put all of my flour and sugar into plastic jars. For my cereal boxes, I got large white baskets (almost laundry baskets) and put them on the floor of my pantry. I labeled my bins with a label maker and packing tape (the labels weren't sticky enough on their own so I put the tape over them). It took me a couple of months to get all the categories worked out. For example, I originally had a general category for canned veggies but I realized that i need more space; so I broke it into several smaller categories.


Rhonda - I see you have several snack sized items & boxed foods. They take up less space if you take them out of the boxes. You can buy plastic drawers at Walmart or similar store. Put snacks in a drawer, packets of Koolaid, taco season, hot choc mix, etc in a drawer also. You will be amazed how much space it clears up. Also, how about containers for pasta? I have some old tupperwear I've had for years (earned free for having a party). I can fit 3 lbs of angel hair in the spaghetti keeper & I have containers for elbow mac, wide egg noodles, etc. You're stockpile looks awesome (I'm soooo jealous).