I’ve been going through my house Konmari style the last many months purging anything that doesn’t “spark joy”. This book is amazing and life changing! If you’ve not yet checked it out, well you should of like yesterday. For me the kitchen cupboards, my pantry, kept haunting me and brought me zero “joy”. I’ve been baking a lot this past year and make most things from scratch especially having recently being diagnosed with celiacs. I’ve come to enjoy my kitchen time a lot. So even more so, I wanted an easy accessible, compact, durable, tight sealing, but yet eye appealing way to store both the spices and the typical pantry items.
Being green and keeping as many toxics out of my home, especially food, was a must when considering storage containers. Naturally (pun intended haha) I settled on using glass. You’d be surprised at how many glass canisters have horrible reviews on actually being air tight, the whole purpose of pantry storage. So after about a month of looking at different glass containers from Amazon, Crate And Barrel, World Market, and others, I decided to try the Hobby Lobby glass jars for the majority of my items.
I went with the square shaped, flipped lid, harness top jars found here. It’s a fantastic design for a good tight seal with the silicone ring. I’ve had zero problems so far with things going stale. Many other brands with similar designs felt cheaply made and the metal harness clamp felt weak. But these are a solid design. I would suggest when washing the jars you remove the metal harness and clamp to prevent rust. The 650ML (H: 5 1/4″) size is perfect for fitting two small cans of baking soda, baking powder, meringue powder and those other baking ingredients of smaller quantities. The 1200ML (H: 8″) works great for holding 24oz bag of Bob’s Red Mill corn flour, coconut flour, or oatmeal. I used this size for storing my sushi rice as well. The 1500ML (H: 9 1/2″) is what I used to store brown sugar. The 2100ML (H: 11 1/2″) is tall enough to store spaghetti or an entire 40oz bag of Bob’s Red Mill almond flour. For the spaghetti and penne noodles I decided on Hobby Lobby’s trendy looking glass jars with brushed metal screw on lid. These canisters add some variety yet still keep a clean look to the pantry. I got the 2100ML one for the tall spaghetti, and the 1600ML for storing the penne. I also used these for my tea and coffee that will be placed on the coffee bar (when that project is finished). For the bulk items I choose Hobby Lobby’s 1 Gallon jars with a screw on lid. The gallon jar size holds comfortably an entire 5lb bag of flour. Win!!! For the little spice jars, I ended up going with the most adorable 4 inch tall glass harness jars , also found at Hobby Lobby. They are my favorite just because of how cute and colorful the spices look being displayed in them! Who doesn’t love seeing the fun pop of color when opening the cupboard to cook dinner!
For the labels, I fell in love with the trendy chalkboard idea but wanted something chic, not too modern. Lord knows I was not about to pretend I had stellar artsy penmanship (forgive me as I lust over the penmanship of the women who have that cutesie style writing. You know, those added dots and swirls…*swoon*). I needed a template that I could edit to add in some of those less popular pantry items like corn flour, coconut sugar ect. I came across these adorable labels designed by Lia Griffith on her site here. I decided to use my own fonts instead of those from the font download she provides, though her fonts are adorable! It’s super easy, you download the file and then since these exact ones are an editable download, you type in your so desired pantry items. I printed mine out on Avery White Full-Sheet labels (8165), from amazon. Voila!!!! Cutting them all out is a bit tedious but so very worth it!
My pantry is well on its way to being complete. Next will be the oils and vinegars to be bottled and labeled. Still deciding on if I want a cork or harness top. I’ll post the update on those when I do decide. Happy Konmaring and decorating – Sarah
Natural Faith Filled Mama 