Have you come across Kelsey Wells in your fitness journey? Kelsey is a local Utah mom and fitness expert. She created the PWR program inside the SWEAT app and is an amazing wife and mother. Her Instagram is always great motivation, and I loved seeing peeks inside her gorgeous home. When she asked our team to reset her pantry and kitchen, I was thrilled!
As a fitness influencer, Kelsey spends a lot of time in her kitchen. She is always sharing favorite recipes, snacks, and food, so we wanted to give her an easy place to do so. Her kitchen is modern and large and she already had some great systems set up, but we took her kitchen and pantry to the next level by creating zones and containing items.
Kitchen Organization Before + Afters
I'll walk you through the before and afters of Kelsey's kitchen, and explain each zone as I go. I think mapping your kitchen (more on that HERE) is so helpful, and that's exactly what we tried to do for Kelsey.
Food Prep
For her food preparation station, we wanted to include cutting boards, a food scale, and plastic bags for storage. Just a quick refresh with some labeled acrylic drawer bins made a big difference.
Before:
After:
Water Bottles and Mugs
Kelsey is always on the go, and she has a lot of water bottles, shaker bottles, and mugs. We took her drawer from a jumbled mess to organized sections. I used acrylic drawer dividers to create the drawer into three spaces: water bottles, shaker bottles, and mugs. I also added an acrylic bin for lids, blender balls, and straws.
Before:
After:
Silverware and Utensils:
This is one of the most used drawers in any home, and it can easily get messy and chaotic. Notice the systems Kelsey already had in place - a bamboo silverware divider with like pieces together. But, the right side of the drawer was a mix of tools, lighters, and utensils.
We upped the organization in the bamboo divider by adding measuring cups and spoons together. Then, we used acrylic drawer bins for other utensils and tools.
Before:
After:
Bags, Utensils, and Overstock
Don't we all have a cupboard like this in our kitchen for extra bags, soaps, etc.? This was simple to reset with just a view labeled bins. I used the tall multipurpose bins to categorize bags and then a short shimo bin for overstock. Labeling is important here so the whole family can get on board with what goes where.
Before:
After:
Here is everything we used in Kelsey's kitchen:
Pantry Organization
Like her kitchen, my team and I divided Kelsey's pantry into zones. There were a few things we made sure to do:
Group similar items like cereal, protein powder, condiments, and cans together.
Keep items near the tools that made the most sense - the bread and spreads were placed under the toaster and microwave.
Kept kid-friendly snacks on an easy-to-reach shelf for Kelsey's son.
For snacks and bulky items like chip bags, we kept those at an easy-to-reach level so Kelsey's son would be able to grab what he needed. Taking bulk items like bags of chips and snacks out of their cardboard boxes and into these black bins makes all the difference, and is a super simple step. You'll notice we tried to do this throughout the pantry - taking away bulky packaging and boxes adds to the aesthetic of the pantry and leaves more open space.
Kelsey and her husband have a lot of protein powders, supplements, and protein bars so we wanted to group these together in one area of the pantry.
For taller, bulkier protein tubs we left those as-is and grouped them together. For smaller supplement containers and protein bars, we placed those in clear acrylic bins with labels. Don't you love how clean and easy-to-navigate this corner of the pantry is?
Here are all the items we used in Kelsey's pantry:
Did you love seeing those before + afters? They were all such simple changes that made a huge difference!
Jen is the founder of Reset Your Nest, a Professional Home Organizing business in Utah (Salt Lake City, Park City, Ogden, Logan, Utah County, and St. George), California (Bay Area, Los Gatos, Hillsborough, Atherton, San Jose), Denver, CO, and Phoenix, AZ. She loves creating order and systems out of chaos. Her specialty is finding a way to continue the aesthetic of any home to every cupboard and drawer. She shares her tips and tricks on Instagram @reset_your_nest.