How to organize a kitchen pantry
Organizing a pantry is the best way to help keep your pantry tidy and make the most of your food. There’s nothing more annoying than finding an expensive ingredient gone stale at the back of a shelf, or discovering you’ve bought more of something than you know how to use. With these Pro tips, your pantry will be organized in no time!
- Position food based on how you use it
Keep the items you use the most on the most accessible shelves. That way you won’t be constantly moving things out of the way to get to what you want.
- Keep similar foods together
Put all your breakfast cereals on the same shelf. Do the same with tinned fruit and vegetables, different types of flour, snacks, spices, and any other similar foods. That way even if you don’t know exactly where something is, you know where to look for it.
- Use transparent canisters for open foods
Keep anything you’ve opened fresh with air-tight canisters. Using transparent storage containers makes it easier to identify the contents, and lets you see if something’s running out. Keeping your food in canisters can also keep bugs at bay.
- Add door shelves to maximize space
Purchase a cheap wire rack to hang over your pantry door, and use it to store condiments, spices, and other small jars.
- Add a hamper with grabbable snacks
If you’ve got kids, you know the devastation they can wreak on even the neatest pantry! Place a hamper or box with grabbable snacks at eye height to keep things tidy.
- Keep fresher food at the back
When rotating and refilling your pantry, put the food with the longest expiration date at the back of the shelf. That way when you’re in a hurry, you’ll grab the oldest food first.
- Rethink how you label foods
We’ve all seen those Pinterest-perfect or Instagram-incredible pantries with neat labels on every canister. But do you really need to tell yourself where the pasta is when you can see it? Instead, use labels to note the expiration date of your products. And no need to buy a fancy label maker, washi tape looks just as cute, and won’t leave annoying sticker residue behind.
- Consider how you’ll use your food
Those cute mason jars are useless if you want to scoop food with a measuring cup that won’t fit inside the mouth. Before you spend a fortune on your pantry accessories, think about how you’ll use them to access your food. And don’t be afraid to change something if it isn’t working for you.
Pro Tip: Keep organizing! Learn how to declutter your house now.