A quick guide to an organized pantry
Organizing your kitchen (or any part of the house for that matter) can be a daunting task… I recently tackled our disaster of a pantry and wanted to share a few tips to help make your kitchen cleaner and less stressful.
Take EVERYTHING out and clean. Whether you have a large walk in pantry or just a few cabinets like ours, it’s always best to start from scratch. Vacuum the shelves and wipe down any surfaces so when you start organizing you know there won’t be crumbs hiding anywhere.
Place your food items on the counter and group them by category: grains/pastas, baking, canned goods, spices, snacks, sweets, etc. This will help you decide what shelves to use for each and where you’d like each category to go.
Decide which storage solutions are best for you!
For baking I used the Progressive Prokeeper Set that was gifted to us from our wedding registry last year. It’s a little pricier but well worth it.
I wanted all of our crackers, nuts, cookies, etc. to be in airtight containers so I used a mix of the following: IKEA Dry Food Jar, IKEA Food Container with Lid (these come in all shapes and sizes to fit your needs), OXO Good Grips POP Containers (some of which I had and then found more at Goodwill).
To keep oils, peaunut butter, honey and pasta sauce visible and easily accessible I purchased this Lazy Susan Turntable 2-Pack from Amazon. We have a deep pantry so this also works great for canned goods and spices if needed!
Lastly, there are just some things that don’t fit in small stackable containers. For bagels, bread, and chip bags I used these Plastic Storage Bins from the Container Store.
It may seem counterintuitive to take things out of containers and put them in other containers… but I promise it makes all the difference. Every snack, cookie and baking mix come in different boxes and bags and it just makes for a cluttered pantry. By finding stackable storage solutions to fit each shelf or drawer you will not only maximize your space but find it’s so much easier to access food items when you need them!
