Puppy "Pantry"

I don't know about you, but our sweet pup Dixee is the love of our (read Hubby here) lives.

With all of our children grown and out on their own, having our lemon beagle adds so much joy to every day living.  She's very spoiled and thinks her "daddy" hung the proverbial moon.

Last week as I was cleaning out our pantry, I decided to also give her pantry a refresh and new organization.

Her pantry is an IKEA wall cabinet (above the frig sized), hung a bit higher than traditional countertop height; over her feeding area.  It's in our laundry room right across from the human pantry.  I hung this cabinet with extra storage in mind.  Because there is not adequate space to place a base cabinet, and the heating would have to be moved, we opted to hang wall cabinetry instead.

TIP:  Think about where you could utilize a wall cabinet in lieu of a base cabinet.  They are shallower and can be mounted like I've shown here.  The top of wall cabinets tend to have a shallow space, or in this case, they have a flat top.  I used a piece of cut glass as a topper with some decorative wallpaper underneath.

I pulled all of the stuff out and placed it on the washer and dryer to assess what we had.

There were expired medication bottles and heart medicine.  Old treats that she didn't like.  Uneaten food that she didn't like.  Smaller collars that didn't fit from puppyhood.

Time to purge.

Everything was removed and the cabinet got a good wipe down with our Young Living Thieves cleaner.

I buy the concentrate in bottle form and mix it with water to make my all-purpose cleaner.  This bottle has so many cleaning options in it.  We use Thieves cleaner for EVERYTHING in our home.  It's people AND pet safe, so I don't have to worry about her ingesting it.

Next, I measured the interior width and depth of the cabinet so I could cut my lining.

I am happy to say this refresh didn't cost me any money as I had all the needed supplies.  The liner was leftover as was all the storage bins and baskets.

Once the liner was in place, it was ready to be restaged for maximum use.

I put her dog food in the hard acrylic bins that were already in her pantry.  I used the same shelf riser to maximize the verticle space.

I foraged in my organization stash our basement and found this small set of three drawers.  I cleaned it up with the Thieves cleaner and organized specific items in each drawer.

Using my label maker, I marked drawers for her Teeth, Grooming, and Meds.

Before, these items were just willy-nilly in the cabinet and tended to get lost and forgotten about.

I wanted a way to store her little bandanas, collars, and extra "poo" bags and remembered that I had a large container left from the lemonade I emptied into a plastic container.

I cleaned it out and covered it with leftover contact paper (Dollar Tree) and put the labels on the outside.

They fit nicely into the container and the height gave me more room in the cabinet as opposed to something that would be wider and flatter.

It fit in perfectly and the puppy pantry was complete!

We keep her Vera treats (aka "Cookies") in the large black canister on top of the pantry and the bags of treats are stored here for future fill-ups.

Her Jif Natural Peanut Butter also fit in there - it's a daily treat that leaves her salivating while we scoop out a spoonful...

Of course, Dixee was thrilled with her pantry re-fresh.

Can't you tell?  She can barely hold the excitement in!

She's a bit of a rule-breaker as well.