Hi friends – let’s welcome back the lovely Elise from Polka Dotted Blue Jay. She’s sharing a fantastic before-and-after project today featuring a fun little labelling DIY, because who loves labels?? WE DO!!

And there is nothing that gets me more excited than cluttered “before” pics that get turned into amazing, streamlined “afters”! Because we ALL have those “befores” that need a little help. So here’s your inspo to make something beautiful from the chaos.  Now you can come and do my pantry, Elise! Pretty please?? 😉

This year I have been spending a lot of time trying to organize our home and today I am sharing how I organized part of my kitchen with some DIY Pantry Labels.

With the addition of Jedidiah to our family, we have even more stuff to store, organize, and maintain; man, babies have a lot of stuff. We’re doing a pretty good job with only bringing things we NEED into our home and eliminating trendy or impulse purchases but we still have more stuff.

I have been tackling spaces that are easy to clean and that can be organized in less than an hour – if I try to do more than that, it is inevitable that I must stop in the middle while I have an epic mess on my hands. I can’t wait to implement Karen’s toy organization system when Jedidiah gets a little older; it is so nice to have that post as a resource for future help.

I love listening to interviews where people share their best organizing tips and my world was totally rocked when I heard Emily Ley and her mom, “Nana”, talking about storage containers for the fridge: no round containers, they cried, and a light bulb turned on for me. That makes sense, right? Just use square and rectangular containers to maximize space in the fridge and easily stack containers!

Well, if it is good enough for the fridge, why not my baking pantry? I am a little ashamed to share the “before” photo of my cabinet – I pride myself on being organized, but this cabinet just got away from me during the holidays and I never wrangled it. Baking supplies come in bags, boxes, round containers, and everything is different sizes. I can’t tell you how many times my powdered sugar bag has toppled over leaving a powdery mess on the counter. I have even had a round container full of flour fall down on my head – I ate extra cookies after that happened.

In a perfect world, I would have an organized pantry like the girls over on Classy Clutter; have you ever seen a more beautiful pantry? Until that happens, however, I am just working with what I have and keeping my small spaces organized.

Supplies Needed:

• Cutting Machine – I used my Silhouette Cameo
• Adhesive Vinyl in the color of your choice
• Transfer Tape
• Rectangular Containers
• Baking Ingredients
• Ruler

Step One: Creating Your Pantry Labels

1. I designed my container labels in Silhouette Studio®.
2. Select the Page Setup Window and adjust your cutting mat size to 12×12 (or the sized mat you are using).
3. Use the Text tool to type your ingredients in the font of your choice. I used “RR Kinder Font” for my pantry labels. Another option is to purchase and download a pre-made design, if you would like.
4. Measure your containers and size your pantry label to fit.

Step Two: Preparing Your Pantry Labels

1. Attach your Adhesive Vinyl to the cutting mat, color side up, and load into your machine.
2. Follow the prompts in the Design Studio to adjust your blade (if using a ratchet blade) for Adhesive Vinyl and double check to make sure your design has been selected to cut.
3. Select “Send” to start cutting.
4. Select “Unload” when your machine has finished cutting your design to remove the cutting mat from the machine.
5. Remove your sheet of Vinyl from the cutting mat
6. Use your fingers or a wedding tool to remove the excess vinyl. Be sure to leave your design on the backing sheet.
7. Carefully remove the centers of the letters. The letters can be delicate, so take your time.

Step Three: Creating Your Containers

1. Place a piece of transfer tape over your pantry labels.
2. Use the scraping tool to make sure the vinyl adheres to the transfer tape.
3. Gently pull transfer tape and make sure the entire pantry label lifts with it.
4. Place your label on the container.
5. Use the scraping tool to smooth the pantry label onto the container to make sure it sticks.
6. Remove the transfer tape.
7. Fill with ingredients and enjoy your organized pantry!

I love the way this simple project helped me organize my baking supplies. I was able to fit an entire bag of flour in one container and eliminate the overflow/extra supplies that I had taking up space in the cabinet. I re-arranged the shelves to maximize the space and I am so pleased with how it turned out.

Tell me your favorite pantry organization tip in the comments! Happy crafting, friends!

Thank you so much for sharing this fun project, Elise. I love how a little bit of time and effort can pay off for months or years to come! No more flour containers falling on your head now. But after all your hard work, you definitely deserve some cookies. 😉- Karen