The pantry

I need some organization ideas for my pantry.
Here is the solution I came up with for the spice cabinet above my stove. 2 lazy susans. I love how this worked out!


Now this is my pantry: (I know it's empty, but I just finished a LONG pantry challenge)


and here are the issues I have with it:

Shelf #3- Canned goods. This shelf is the one that I dislike the most. I try and put similar items together (soups, veggies, fruit, tuna) but when it's full, it's hard to find what I need without having to take a lot of things out. I need a better solution. The shelf extends to the right of the door frame, just behind that wall, and that is where I put jars like peanut butter, spaghetti sauce etc.. I can never get to those without taking out a whole row if it isn't the item right in front.

Shelf #4- This shelf usually holds chips, crackers, pasta, rice, cereal, and the kids snacks because it's on their level (fruit roll ups, hostess cakes, pop tarts etc in that white basket) and I am trying to eliminate those types of unhealthy snacks. It's filling up my fridge pretty fast though with fruit, cheese sticks, veggie and dip, yogurt etc.. I need to figure out a few more unrefrigerated HEALTHY snacks for the kids and then what way to store them. I could probably put a small storage bin with drawers here if the snacks are small. So far I have raisins in mind. That's it. lol I'm trying! Give me some ideas.

The bottom- I know I have a lot of wasted space beside the trash can. That blue storage bin is full of the dog's food and treats. I know I could put shelving there, but it would have to be narrow enough for me to get the trash can in and out. Hmm..If nothing else maybe I could make a shelf for some of my appliances. The very top shelf of the pantry has my lesser used appliances like the icecream maker, juicer, and air popper.

Any ideas?

Here are a few things I found online that I liked:


I like the basket idea for my cans. It would be nice to have one for each group like a basket of soups, a basket of veggies etc.. but once they were in there, wouldn't they be hard to pull out through the door frame on mine? I want to pull out the entire basket. Otherwise it's more of a hassle to dig around blindly inside of a basket, than to pull out a row of cans to get what I need.


Here, I know they don't have food items in theirs, but I like the door storage, which would be perfect for the "sticky" items I have stored on the top shelf (syrup, chocolate mix, honey) so they would still be out of reach to the kids and I could get to my larger appliances easier. I also like the basket/drawers with the paper towels, which might be perfect for the area beside my trashcan. I just don't know where to get items like that. Do they have them at Wal-mart/ Target

These two pictures also make me want to paint mine. I think I'm heading to the Dollar tree today. I'm going to look at their plastic bins, and their contact paper. If I can't get some pretty color there, I might just paint the back walls with some green paint I have left over from the kitchen stripes.

I don't spend ALL my time cleaning and organizing. Today I went to a "muddy" playdate with the kids. It's raining all this week so we let them play in the rain, make mud pies, and use pudding paint to get as messy as they could. Believe it or not, the scientist avoided the mess and chased grasshoppers, but cutecumber loved every filthy second.