I’m definitely no Mary Berry, but I think I do alright in the kitchen. As much as I try to enjoy cooking (or as much as I enjoy eating what I cook, I should say), there are definitely some days where the last thing I want to do is get the pots and pans out.
I also have a teeny little kitchen which makes cooking even less fun and more challenging, so when I moved into my apartment I had to be quite creative with my space. I thought it might be helpful to show you how I have created my own makeshift pantry, and how I organise it in a way which is easy for me to use and more importantly in a way which makes me want to cook.
Makeshift Pantry
So, my mini kitchen basically consists of one worktop with a sink and a few pretty pathetic cupboards that are either stuck in a corner or not wide enough to put anything in. In order to add a little extension to my kitchen, I wanted to find something that I could put it in my utility room to use as cupboard space. My utility room is even smaller than my kitchen so I didn’t have a lot of space to play with, as you can see. I didn’t want anything that had doors on it as that requires more space for opening etc…… so, I ended up buying the Galant Open Storage Unit from Ikea. It kind of looks like a book shelf, but it works really well! It has two deep shelves on the top and two even deeper shelves on the bottom. Because it has no doors, it doesn’t require additional space for opening and it fits quite snugly into my utility room.
I use the top two shelves for food storage and the bottom two for other bits and pieces like storage tins and cake stands etc.
[easy-image-collage id=1657]Storage
Now, I don’t know about you, but personally I like to be able see all of the contents of my panty very clearly, without having to rummage through packaging and moving things around. In order to make it as organised and visually appealing as possible, where I can, I decant dry ingredients into glass airtight jars. You can get these jars pretty much everywhere. Most supermarkets will have them. I got some of mine in the Japanese equivalent of a pound shop here in Abu Dhabi (Daiso) and in Ikea.
I use lots of different shapes and sizes of jars, depending on what type of food I will be storing in it.
Making it Pretty
Another thing which I like to do is make the glass jars look a bit prettier. I do this by adding some cute ribbon or lace around the lid of each jar. I will pretty much use anything that looks nice here. Again, I got most of my ribbon and lace supplies in Daiso and other little arts and craft shops. They are super cheap but add such a nice little touch to a boring pantry.
Labelling
Once I am done making my jars look pretty, I like to label them. I know it’s pretty self-explanatory what is inside each one, but I like to label them because it makes everything look nice and organised, which is especially helpful when you have thrown out all the packaging after decanting. To label the jars I use my DYMO Omega label maker. I got mine from Amazon and it was really inexpensive. I am a little bit obsessed with it tbh lol (sad but true!). I use it for lots of different things now. I actually saw this label maker first being used by Lilly Pebbles (she is one of my favourite YouTubers and bloggers).
Funny side note about my Eiffel Tower scissors…….. I found these in a cute little stationary shop when we were in Kuala Lumpur on honeymoon. Given my obsession with stationary (and all things gold), I just had to get them. I bought them and dropped them into the bottom of my bag and carried on with my day. On the last day of our holiday we arrived at the airport and sure enough my bag was pulled over and searched. I had completely forgotten that I had put the scissors in there! The security lady took them out and give them a funny look and glanced at me and said ……. ‘ehhhhh ornament?’ with a confused face. Just as I was about to answer she pulled the hands of the scissors apart ….clearly revealing that they were not an ornament and she took them off me 🙁 I was so sad! Would you believe that a few moths later I found the EXACT scissors in a stationary shop here in Abu Dhabi called Typo lol. I bought them immediately as you can imagine! So happy!
Arranging
I like to arrange all of my pantry jars in order of size, placing the tallest and largest at the back, scaling down to the shortest at the front. This just makes it nice and easy to see everything.
I know these tips might sound very obvious (or a bit OTT for some) but having my food stored like this and being able to see it all so clearly really encourages me make better use of what I have in the pantry. I find that I waste less ingredients when they are stored in this way, as I know exactly what I have and what I need to buy. I also find that it makes deciding what to cook for dinner a little bit more fun. Lastly, it’s true what they say…….. pretty food really does tastes better!
I hope this has given you some inspiration to spruce up your pantry if it needs it. Please let me know if you have any tips for me in this department. I’d love to hear them!
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