The Affordable Hack That Makes Food Storage Look Uniform—and Your Pantry Instantly Stylish

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Life is busy, and a pantry that is unorganized only feeds into the chaos. After all, who has time to rummage around looking for that lost packet of rice? Not only is it helpful to take advantage of tips for an organized pantry, but there's a budget-friendly hack to make your food storage space look extra pleasing to the eye. Time to break out the contact paper to create a consistent, updated look on your pantry shelves. Even if all of your containers are different, the paper background creates visual consistency. You might have used this type of self-adhesive paper before to line drawers or add style to a bland surface. Contact paper is fantastic for upgrading pantry shelves, too — especially ones that are wire, which can cause items to sit funny, slip through the cracks, or fall over.

You can purchase contact paper in a variety of designs, which allows you to customize the look. When it comes to pantry shelves, a classic wood pattern works great since it creates a stylish, rustic look. Amazon sells this roll of COSNIGHT Wood Grain Contact Paper for $5.99. Or, Dollar Tree has Con-Tact QC Shelf Liner paper for $1.25. Just make sure you measure your shelves first, so you know exactly how much you'll need. If you're covering the wire kind of shelving, foam board is the other secret weapon required for this pantry storage hack. It provides a smooth surface for applying the contact paper, while also helping keep food items standing nice and straight.

The first thing to do is clear off all your pantry shelves and set everything aside. You'll be addressing it soon! If you have smooth, solid shelves, you can begin covering them with the contact paper. But for wire shelves, you'll start with the foam board. Measure each shelf, and cut the foam board (or boards) into pieces that will fit on top of the shelves. To improve the look, you want the foam board to come out slightly further than the shelf, which will allow you to bend it down to create an edge that covers the front. This will make the shelves look thicker and more realistic, as if they're covered in wood.

You can now start covering the foam board pieces with contact paper. Use a credit card to smooth it down as you go to eliminate any bubbles. Once you're happy with the results, you can place the boards on top of the wire shelves, and they should now look like gorgeous wood ones. Now that they're free of ridges, you'll be able to set your containers, packages, and bottles on them without things being wobbly. However, before you do, go through all of your items, discarding expired food and making a pile of anything that can be donated.

Group your items together in categories to help make things easier on a hectic weeknight. Use containers to help with organization. Clear ones allow you to quickly see what's inside, but take advantage of lots of labels, too. You might even want to make a DIY lazy Susan for your spices. Place everything neatly on your new shelves and surely you'll fall in love with the look.