The time I tamed my pantry.
Does this give you nightmares, everything all shoved together? It does me so I decided, one rainy day, it was time to clean up my pantry.
Now, this photo is just a small shot from my pantry, but the whole thing looked just like this. No rhyme or reason to it. I couldn’t find anything and nothing made sense.
I stood in front of my pantry and fantasized about my dream pantry.
My dream pantry resembles a walk in closet. Beautiful shelves would be lined with glass jars filled with ingredients all affixed with perfectly labels in gorgeous script. Spices would be arranged in alpha order, all in matching bottles, and can goods would be stacked, all facing forward like good little soldiers. There would be space for the pasta bowls, tapas plates, and holiday serving ware that I don’t currently own (this is a dream, so go with it). I would host parties in my pantry just to show off it's magnificence and whenever someone would say ‘this must be so hard to maintain,’ I would just laugh and laugh because something so wonderful is never work.
Right, well back to reality. I started by emptying the contents on to my dinning table. While pulling things out of the pantry, I made an effort to group items together as best I could.
I kept the spices together, made a baking section, Italian, Mexican, snack, and miscellaneous sections
Once the pantry was empty, I cleaned it with soapy water and a dish rag. While the pantry was air drying, I started going through each section of food on the table. I checked expiration dates, looked for duplicates, and set aside what we can donate to the local food pantry.
After I culled through all the items, I returned them by groups. One shelf was for Italian items. Another shelf had baking ingredients, while another had my spices.
It isn’t an exact science, but it works for us and I’m able to quickly see what I need to order from the grocery store.
Practical tips that helped me:
Items used less frequently go on the top shelf.
Group like items together.
Spices you use often should be kept upfront.
Use baskets / bins or boxes for loose items like onions, lunchbox snacks, or medication.
Anything you are not going to use (and has not expired) give away.
Where possible, remove items from their original box and put them in a clear jar / container (ex., I keep chicken stock cubes, flour, sugar, and rice in jars), you can see when to reorder those items and they stay fresh / pest free. This set from Amazon* is a favorite.
Stack / store duplicates one in front of the other with the newest item in the back / on the bottom. This forces you to use the oldest product first, which means less spoilage.
A well organized pantry, regardless if it looks ‘pretty’ will cut down on waste, save you from ordering items you don’t need, and helps with meal planning.
Let me know what your dream pantry looks like and if you use ant of the above mentioned tips to stay organized.
Wish you were here,
xoxo
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