The pantry- a place where some of our favorite goods live, but also, a place that can get messy very, very fast. We’ve all skimmed through magazines and sighed when coming across those dream pantries, the ones that look like you’ve stepped into some, magical store with perfect, identical mason jars sitting on rows of shelves and never stepping out of place. How do people do that?! The dream isn’t that far out of reach. With the extra time we have at home nowadays, and these smart organization tricks we’re going to hand you, your sleek, storage space in the kitchen is going to be really simple!
1. Start with a Clean Slate
This sounds a little cliché, especially when it comes to organizing things, but it really works. Empty everything out, and have all your products out in the open, where you can do a full inventory to start figuring things out. You’ll probably be surprised to find that old bag of sugar from 2018 that you never threw out, which definitely needs getting rid of. What about that random type of chickpea flour that you never used again? Now’s a good time to really decide which items you’re going to give a permanent home in your pantry and which ones it’s time to ditch. Give your empty pantry a scan and envision how you’d like it to look like.
2. Use Clear Containers
One word: clear, air-tight, stackable containers. Okay, that was more than one word, but the point is these bad-boys are a game-changer and potentially all you need when it comes to keeping your pantry looking pristine. You can find them at various different stores like Home Depot, at affordable prices and in a range of sizes and shapes to fit all your food storage needs. What’s even better is that the air-tight containers lock in the freshness of your food. Choose to store the things you use more in larger containers, and the ones you use less in smaller ones. Then it’s time to get stacking!
3. Eye-level Accessibility
It’s time to think strategically. The pantry is going to be our friend while cooking. That means the way we place things in it should enable us to find everything quickly and conveniently. It makes sense to put things we use most often and need to find quickly at eye-level. For things such as potato starch, that we’d use less frequently, they go in smaller containers on the top shelf.
Canned goods are trickier, since they all look identical when placed next to each other. To make sure they’re found most easily, organize them according to category, for example tuna/salmon, beans/legumes, tomatoes/vegetables.
4. Label it!
You’ll have bags of things in clear plastic with no name and you’ll have containers of items that look like flour, but aren’t flour! To save yourself the time (and trouble!), label it! Label everything that feels like it needs a label. Now we’re kinda feeling addicted to labelling, but it makes your pantry look even more trendy and organized. Who said you couldn’t have that dream pantry in the magazines?
We’ve found a convenient embossing label maker to make the job of labelling easy for you.
5. Turn the Tables
Want to seriously transform your pantry? Consider investing in a turntable (or two!) It’s a total game-changer! It makes finding things as easy as pie. You can use a turntable to store the baking essentials you might use every day such as cinnamon, pure maple syrup, baking soda and vanilla extract.
Other ideas are using a turntable for all your nut butters and one that could house oils, vinegars, and spices such as chili, oregano and rosemary.
6. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket!
Yup, you’ll need more than one basket to make sure your pantry stays neat. You can easily find these at dollar stores. Group like items together and store them in different baskets. Be aware of the shapes and sizes you’ll need for your own pantries. Don’t make the mistake of going for the cuter-looking basket that can’t store the potatoes you need a space for. Larger baskets can be used for things like chips and stored away neatly in the lower shelves.
7. Use the door!
If you have doors in your pantry, make the most of the space by hanging organizers over them to free up shelf space, giving it a cleaner appearance. You can store bottles and jars easily here making it a smart pantry trick!
Last tip of all: keep up the good work! Now that you’ve made all these smart moves and achieved ultimate pantry organization, it’s time to make sure it stays that way! Always make sure to put things back where you got them from to make the job easier and do a check-in twice a month to double check that everything is neat and place. This will make sure you don’t have to waste time organizing the whole pantry all over again.
