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well-stocked pantry can make preparing meals easier--however, it can also become disorganized. If your pantry is over-filled with years-old brown sugar, canned vegetables or random seasonings you only needed for a specific recipe, take a look at these tips to organize your pantry. Pretty soon you'll be on your way to a fully-stocked and fully-organized kitchen.
Purge the pantry
The first thing to do before you organize your pantry is get rid of the things you don't need to increase space. With a trash bag in hand, get rid of anything that is expired. If there are questionable items, set them aside and decide on them once you've gotten rid of the definitely expired items.
Condense any open boxes of spaghetti, bags of chocolate chips or other dry ingredients that are sitting in open containers. Having all your elbow macaroni in one container will save you precious pantry space.
After you dispose of questionable and expired food, sort the remaining items into these categories:
- Items you use every day
- Items you use less frequently
- Unopened items that can be donated to a food bank
Clean the shelves
Once your pantry is empty, wipe down the shelves to eliminate any sticky spills, crumbs or other pantry debris before restocking. Now is also the perfect time to buy containers or organizers.
When buying organizers and containers, measure the depth and the height between each shelf to make sure your containers aren't too tall. Your best bet is to get containers of the same size for easier stacking and storage in your pantry.
Restock smartly
When restocking your pantry, don't put things back haphazardly. Take a few minutes to plan out your attack! Planning how you will restock your pantry will make both grocery shopping and cooking dinner easier and faster.
Decide how you'll organize your pantry zones. Whether it's by how often you use items, what kind of items they are (canned vs. jarred) or by seasonal items--the way you organize your pantry should make sense to you and your family. The best laid plans are easiest to follow.
If you plan on organizing your pantry by how often you use items, consider using these categories:
- Entertaining - Keep items that you'll need on hand for impromptu visitors like crackers, chips, dips, toothpicks and napkins. That way you can get to the party sooner instead of searching for those fancy napkins.
- Baking supplies - Keep your flours, sugars, chocolate chips and other baking essentials corralled together so you can mix up some cookies in no time.
- Weeknight dinners - Gather the ingredients for a recipe in a basket and store them together. You could easily make a basket for each night of the week.
- General food storage - Keep your canned veggies and soups together and easy to reach.
Storing other items
If you have the space, your pantry is also an easy place to
store those small appliances that are used less frequently, like your slow cooker and stand mixer. You could easily store your
seldom-used utensils on wall hooks if they're took bulky to fit in a drawer.
If you store any cleaning supplies in your pantry, be sure to keep them away from your food to prevent any spills from contaminating your food supply.