IKEA Hemnes Pantry Cabinet Organization

It’s only taken me a solid 2 months after building, painting, and antique-mirroring this IKEA Hemnes cabinet into a pantry for our limited storage kitchen…

…but the pantry is finally ORGANIZED! No one is more surprised than I am. Believe me.

Remember this?

Truth be told, the inside wasn’t as pretty as the outside for quite a while.

But now everything has a “home”, and I can’t tell you what a relief it is to have order in our kitchen thanks to this cute pair of jazzed up cabinets.

So if you’ve ever thought about rigging an IKEA Hemnes cabinet into a pantry for yourself, I thought I could give you a quick tour of our setup.

(Some affiliate links are provided below. Full disclosure here.)

Wire Baskets

Here’s the thing we’ve learned about solid woven baskets in pantries. If it’s out of sight, it’s out of mind. And that’s actually a bad thing.

Once we cleaned out our wall cabinet from our old pantry setup, I can’t tell you how many food items we threw away that were expired because we completely forgot about them. And that’s because we couldn’t see them!

So rule #1 of pantry baskets: Go for wire or clear bins so you can see at a glance what you own.

It’s not as “pretty”, but it’s functional. And that’s what is more important.

These wire baskets are the perfect size.

P.S. Those stacks of hot dog buns are for our July 4th party tomorrow. Just in case you wondered if we regularly eat 4 bags of bread a week. Ha! #CarbsAreLife

Lanyard Tag Labels

Each basket has its own label (which I made using these cheap lanyard tags) for canned goods, paper goods, condiments, breakfast items, meal makers, savory snacks, and sweet snacks.

I use these little label tags on everything, even on our stockings with our names at Christmas

And anything that is too big to fit in those 8 baskets goes on the tall lowest shelf like protein powder canisters and cereal boxes.

Turntable Organizers

I’m ready to spring for even more of these little lazy susans for our spice cabinet because they are perfect for organizing a bunch of small items in tight spaces.

The bins lift right out of their turntable tray and are a great size for holding baby food pouches, supplement/medicine bottles, and small snack items.

Airtight Food Storage Containers

I’m not always a fan of having so many of these containers but these little guys are the PERFECT SIZE for these drawers and are so incredibly functional for quick grab-and-go snacks and ingredients.

Honestly, they’ve made snacking way too easy because we just open a drawer as we walk by, pop off a lid, grab a cookie, and slide outta the kitchen all ninja-like.

They almost do too good of a job. This size container fits the middle drawers and this size container fits the bottom drawers.

Embossing Label Maker

I never thought I’d be the kind of girl to say this but… I freaking love my label maker.

Good gosh, what am I becoming?

I want to LABEL ALL THE THINGS NOW! This embossing label maker is so inexpensive and simple to use. I like that the labels look “old school” too.

Potato Bin

Nothing to see here except an old baking pan I decided to repurpose for storing our potatoes and onions. It does the job though!

Table Linen Storage

I know not everyone is as much of a table linen hoarder as I am, but for special occasions, I like setting the table with pretty cloth napkins and table runners.

These are all of my sets that I pull out for special holidays.

So that’s the grand tour of my Type A-ness with a slightly Type B-leaning tendency. I love order, but my need to create also causes messy chaos around here regularly, so I hope this pair of cabinets will help our family stay on track.

Do you have any pantry organization methods/tools that work for you? With our limited storage, we can always use more help for great storage ideas around here.

If you want more organization ideas, you can see all of my past organizing projects here.