It’s no surprise, with my love of food, that the kitchen is my favorite room in any home. Even if the kitchen is not your favorite place, you can make it easier to get meals together with an organized pantry. Use a rainy fall afternoon or evening to get your pantry organized before the busy holiday and entertaining season starts.
Benefits of an organized pantry:
- Faster meal preparation when you can easily find and access what you need
- Meal / snack inspiration at a glance
- Inventory control – you know what and how much you have of each ingredient
How to organize your pantry: Think of creating “neighborhoods” in your pantry and arrange the food into like areas: breakfast foods, canned foods, rice and pastas, snacks, proteins, dried fruit, oils, spices, etc.
- Clear out pantry: Throw away anything expired; donate foods you haven’t used in over 3 months to a food pantry; move older foods to the front of the shelves.
- De-clutter: Your cupboard should only be 80% full — remove the crackers that you bought for entertaining, but never used; take out the partially used packages that you won’t finish.
- Label containers: Keep your label maker in the kitchen for storage containers (see our Pinterest site for creative ideas of how others organize their pantry). Use a black sharpie to write purchase dates on packages or use dates on containers to track expiration.
- Clean: Wipe down and line shelves with a ribbed liner to contain food and pests.
- Organize: See our Top Ten Pantry Basics below for grouping and organizing your pantry
The refrigerator and freezer can be organized in the same method.
Enjoy!
