My mom could make almost anything you want without ever going to the store at all times! Seriously. You could walk into her house without her expecting you and request steak, potatoes, green beans and blackberry cobbler and it would be on the table in no time! No trips to the grocery. It’s amazing.

She also has a pantry about the same square footage as my entire kitchen!

Not to mention, she is a real life pioneer woman who cans and freezes all of the food she grows herself every single year.

Canned homemade pasta sauce made from the tomatoes you grew in your backyard? Why yes, she does have that!

Dried apples from the tree down the road? Yep! Ready for baking!

Corn in the freezer cut off the cob from the field you can see out of the kitchen window? Sure!

Basically, she has the homemaking thing down.

I have to remember she’s been doing this for a lot longer than I have, so that’s why she makes it look so easy!

Also, I don’t live on a farm! I live on a quarter acre in town.

And I don’t have a pantry!

So, until I can become a homemaking super hero like my mom, I make due with what I have!

Four upper cabinets make up my “pantry” in my kitchen.

That being said, I don’t have a ton of space to buy the HUGE containers of anything. We basically only have enough storage to keep the food we eat in about 10-15 days.

There are a few reasons I have decided to count having a small pantry area as a blessing!

First, we eat the food we buy. We don’t waste food! Nothing gets hidden or pushed to the back where we can’t see it. We buy it, we see it, we eat it! Of course, meal planning helps with this too!
Next, it’s easy to keep clean and organized. If things get out of hand, it only takes a couple of minutes to tidy up our food storing area.
It helps me stay on budget! We don’t have space to store extra food, so I’m really not tempted to buy it at the store.

While there will be a ton of perks to having a larger pantry someday, I am perfectly content with mine right now!

Since space is always an issue, I’m always looking for ways to keep what we have in our cabinets at a minimum.

If I have a product that sits for too long, I know not to repurchase it in the future. I only want what we truly use taking up valuable real estate in my kitchen!

We have to be super selective when it comes to what we store and keep on hand.

This means that a few things happen.

First, our meals are super simple.

If a recipe calls for an ingredient that would be kept in a pantry but I won’t ever use again, I don’t make it. I only keep what we use on a daily and weekly basis.

Second, it’s so easy to keep things clean and organized.

You know those YouTube pantry makeovers where they have a ridiculous before and a pristine after? I really can’t relate. I do not have the space to afford to have a giant mess. My small space has to be used multiple times a day, it has to be clean!

You can only make so big of a mess in a small space!

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Now that I’ve convinced you that you don’t need a huge pantry, you’re probably wondering what we keep in ours.

Let me first tell you what I don’t keep in our pantry.

We don’t keep canned goods as pantry items.

I just do not have the real estate for it! I buy what we need for our meal plan the next 10 days. That’s it.

We do have some canned goods for emergencies that we store in the garage. Occasionally, I’ll cycle a couple of those out so that we don’t have expired canned goods in the case of an ice storm!

Pasta is not something I keep a lot of on hand.

I will buy enough gluten free pasta for the meals that we need. I really don’t see the need in having a ton of extra pasta boxes taking up space.

Extra condiments aren’t in my pantry.

Ketchup, ranch, vinegar, barbecue sauce. These are all things that we definitely use in our kitchen, but it’s pretty obvious when they’re running low and we need to buy another container.

The only thing that buying condiments in large quantities does to me is make me check expiration dates. Things like salad dressings go out of date faster than you would think!

We buy them on an as needed basis, and they stay in the refrigerator until they’re gone.

Here is what we keep in our small pantry.

All Purpose Flour and Gluten Free Flour

I eat gluten free, my family does not. I keep both versions of flour in our pantry at all times.

Sugar

We don’t eat a ton of sugar, but I do use it occasionally in a baked good. I keep it in a container in the pantry.

Oats

We eat oats every single day for breakfast! I bake with oats. Oats are used in our smoothies. We always buy the big tub and keep it at all times.

Rice

You can always find extra long grain rice in our pantry. Since I eat gluten free, I make a ton of rice dishes! It’s also an easy way to make a meal a little bit heavier if you end up having more people to feed than expected.

Coffee

I don’t buy coffee every 10 days. I buy the large container of decaf and then replenish only when it’s empty.

Honey

We use honey in tea, baked goods, pancakes, peanut butter balls and so much more. It’s a great natural sweetener and something we always have on hand.

Peanut Butter

We go through seasons of using a ton of peanut butter and just some peanut butter, but we always have it. It goes in smoothies, on crackers, into baked goods, on apple slices. The opportunities are endless and it’s a healthy protein!

Coconut Oil

A small container of coconut oil lasts a LONG time and doesn’t take up a ton of space!

Olive Oil

I buy the medium sized containers of extra light olive oil. It fits perfectly in our cabinet and lasts a few months.

Baking Soda

For baking and cleaning.

Baking Powder

I use a lot of baking powder in muffins, and breads!

Corn Starch

We use it in soups as a thickener, it’s a huge help in a mostly gluten free kitchen!

Spices

I have a small cabinet beside the stove where I keep all of our spices. I never buy huge containers of spices or of oil. Just enough for a little while!

That’s it!

Seriously.

That is all that we keep in our pantry.

I do not buy the supersized bulk containers of any of these ingredients.

There is not enough space for that, and it really doesn’t save enough money for me to justify having to deal with it all.

In rice, I usually buy the 5 pound bag. That lasts us for a few grocery cycles. Coffee, I don’t have to buy it more than once a month. Oats, every 2 cycles is when it most likely will have to be replaced.

The purpose of having pantry items to me is that at the end of the meal planning cycle (I do 10 days), almost all of the other food is gone, but we still have these foods remaining.

Our kitchen is never unable to feed us a meal, but we don’t waste food by keeping a constant surplus.

Having a small pantry is great!

It allows us to learn how to be good stewards of the food we have, and get creative with meal planning!

If you’re wondering how I meal plan and save a ton of money, check this out!

Click through here to download my free meal planning printable bundle!

Here is my free pantry checklist printable!

What We Consistently Keep in Our Super Small Pantry