The challenge
Catherine* had a beautiful newly built home in one of Canberra’s new established suburbs. She was house proud and very proficient at cleaning and keeping her home neat and tidy for her young family. However she found her large walk-in pantry to be a little bit overwhelming and difficult to keep organised in the way she needed, particularly as her children made a mess in the space when getting their own snacks. Despite repeated efforts on Catherine’s behalf, she wasn’t able to organise her pantry it in a way that worked for her that she was able to maintain.
The solution
Based on Catherine’s vision for her pantry and an understanding of how Catherine used the pantry, the eating habits of her family and the types of foods that she prepares most frequently for her family, I organised the walk-in pantry in a way which was both beautiful and functional. To help Catherine maintain the pantry, I created structure in the pantry through the categorisation of the food and other pantry items, identified a clear purpose and zoned each shelf and area within the walk-in pantry. Keeping in mind Catherine’s budget, colour preferences and style of her home, at Catherine’s request I purchased and installed new food storage containers and pantry organisers from a variety of home organisation stores. Each zone was clearly labelled to help Catherine and her family to find items within the pantry, as well as a tool to remember where each item in the pantry belonged.
The results
The result was a functional, polished looking pantry that has been very easy for Catherine to maintain. Catherine is loving her new neat, functional pantry and has stated that it makes it so much easier when writing a grocery list and to find items with her pantry. She is saving money on her grocery bills as she is no longer buying duplicates of food that she already has. Being able to see all the food stored in her pantry is also leading less food wastage. She is also finding that the amount of mess her children are making when getting snacks from the pantry has reduced.
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- After: entry into organised butlers pantry
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- After: coffee station, small appliance and Tupperware neatly zoned and functionally organised
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- After: defined clear zones and organised each shelf within the pantry
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- Before: little structure within the pantry causing difficulty for the client
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- After: containerising and organisation of opened cereal boxes to prolong shelf life
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- Before: client was finding the cereals were going stale before being eaten
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- After: organisation of food using stepping organisers and lazy susan
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- Before: client was having difficulty viewing and reaching all the items in her pantry
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- After: categorisation and organisation of tea towels, napery and reusable grocery bags
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- Before: client was having difficulty finding her tea towels and napery as they were mixed in with the reusable grocery bags
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- After: clear and distinct zones within each pantry shelf to ease long term maintenance
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- Before: little structure to the organisation of the pantry shelving causing problems for the client
* Permission has been granted by the client to share their story. Names have been changed to respect their privacy. The Organising Bee will never share photos or client information without permission from the client.
