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The pantry is an important room in your home for storing food supplies and perishables. Unfortunately, like the kitchen, the pantry can easily get cluttered. If you’ve been spending minutes searching for specific ingredients or can’t access items easily, you should think about organizing your pantry immediately.
However, as with any other room, you should declutter first. Remove items from all shelves, check expiry dates, and discard or recycle empty containers. You should then clean the pantry thoroughly before returning your items. While at it, focus on using the pantry as a store for your kitchen and not a dumping ground for small gadgets. That said, below are clever tips for organizing your pantry.
1. Divide the Pantry into Zones
Zoning is the first step to organizing your pantry. If you always rummage through various items to find what you are looking for, consider grouping or categorizing similar things together. Besides easing organization, zoning makes it easy to identify available supplies and what should be restocked. You should zone the pantry as follows:
Zone 1: Impromptu Entertaining
Unless you live alone and don’t like guests, you should always anticipate food-related emergencies. Your first zone should feature fast-fix appetizers, toothpicks, napkins, and trays. Keep them on the top shelf to preserve space for everyday products. You can easily retrieve the basket anytime your guests arrive.
Zone 2: Quick Breakfast
Your morning meals should be in an easily accessible spot. This ensures that you can find anything in the pre-coffee haze. Fortunately, organizing most breakfast items in boxes, like cereal and instant oatmeal, isn’t a challenge.
Zone 3: General Food Storage
The third zone, which shouldn’t be far from the door, should feature general food supplies. Here, group food items by type, such as veggies, fruits, or canned items.
Zone 4: Lunch on the Run
You should also have a zone for lunch on the run. This zone should feature non-edible products, such as lunch items, napkins, bags, and utensils, for outdoor lunch on the weekend. Place these items in a basket that you can easily grab when in a hurry.
Zone 5: Baking Supplies
Your next zone should be exclusively for baking supplies. Most baking ingredients should be stored in dry, airtight containers. You can use shelf risers to stack ingredient containers on top of each other to save on storage.
Zone 6: Tools and Appliances
The pantry is an excellent place to store your extra cookware. However, instead of using the precious shelf space to keep cookware, consider hanging them on wall-mounted hooks or at the back of the door.
2. Swap Out Ugly Packaging for Clear Containers
Swapping out ugly shopping packaging for clear containers is an excellent way of maximizing pantry storage space. Remove the bulky cardboard and plastic boxes that not only take up precious space, but are also unsightly. Use clear jars and airtight containers in place of these boxes.
Even without labeling, clear canisters make it easy to identify what you are looking for. They also keep your supplies fresh and can be stacked, taking up less space than original packaging. That said, to help you organize your pantry, invest in BPA-free containers and organization bins like these sets from Progressive International.
3. Maximize Pantry Storage
You should find ways of maximizing the available pantry storage space during this process. While using containers instead of packaging boxes can save on space, you should explore other options for expanding the available storage space.
One of the most convenient options is using vertical space. Leveraging vertical space is the easiest way to increase pantry storage. This essentially involves installing floating shelves on free walls to free up shelf and counter space. While at it, you can double the shelf space with shelf risers for more vertical space. Shelf risers are essentially racks that allow you to stack items without the risk of collapsing.
The second most convenient option, especially when storing kitchenware, is installing hooks under cabinets. The space under your pantry shelves and cabinets is mostly overlooked, yet they provide valuable storage space. Installing simple hooks can turn this space into a storage area for hanging rubber gloves, cleaning supplies, and other items.
If your pantry has large cabinets, consider installing drawer dividers to maximize storage space. You can use dividers to separate baking dishes, pots and pans, and cutting boards. This ensures that all items are neatly stacked and easy to find.
Lastly, if all the available storage spaces are full, consider using small baskets as drawers. Small mesh or woven baskets are excellent drawers for loose items like open chip bags. Most of these baskets have handles, making it easy to retrieve their contents without necessarily having to open a lid. However, you should label them so everybody in your house knows their contents.
4. Place New Items at the Back
Another useful organization tip is placing old items towards the front and new purchases at the back. Just like in supermarkets and grocery stores, doing this ensures that old items are used first as they near expiry dates, reducing wastage. Similarly, you should store daily items within reach and extra supplies or lesser-used items at the back.
5. Organize With Your Family in Mind
Pantry disasters, in most cases, are caused by family members. This could be your kids clawing through shelves looking for snacks or your partner putting away grocery shopping without paying attention to the organizational system in place. You can maintain an organized pantry if you restrict access.
Unfortunately, you can’t lock out your family members from accessing the pantry. You should consider organizing with family in mind. Store daily items in an easily accessible space so they don’t move other things around. Similarly, unbox wrapped items, like sunflower seeds and granola bars, and place them in a snack basket on the lower shelf or floor.
Endnote
Organizing your pantry isn’t a one-day task. You’ll need a lot of patience and a keen eye to sort through canned goods, cereals, snacks, and miscellaneous ingredients. Once organized, ensure that you maintain the organization and clean regularly to make your pantry an organized and cheerful space.
