How to Properly Organize Your Pantry
How to Properly Organize Your Pantry Tip #1: Use a List
The first thing you need to do, to organize your pantry, is pull everything from your pantry and make a list of all the items you have on hand. Throw out any ingredients that have expired and be thinking of ways to use up items that are about to expire. Anytime you use an item, remove it from your list. This helps you avoid starting a recipe only to discover you are missing one ingredient. When you bring items home from the store, be sure to add them to your list. It’s easier to use this list if you have separate shelves setup for different items. Then you have a list that might say, “Canned Items, Baking Goods, etc.”
How to Properly Organize Your Pantry Tip #2: Use Separate Shelves
When you organize your pantry it’s very important to use separate shelves. Separate shelves will allow you to not only find items more quickly, but it will also make it easier to keep up with how many items you have on hand. In my pantry, I have a shelf for canned goods, one for grains, one for baking goods, one for snacks, and one for miscellaneous items. This makes it so easy to find the ingredients that I need.
How to Properly Organize Your Pantry Tip #3: Use Canisters
A pantry that is filled with half eaten bags of potato chips and half empty bags of flour is not an organized pantry. To better organize your pantry, you should invest in canisters. These canisters do not have to be expensive. In fact, you can get sets of plastic canisters at your local dollar store for only around $5. These are wonderful for snacks, cereals, flour, sugar, and so much more. Your pantry will be organized in no time.
How to Properly Organize Your Pantry Tip #4: Use Labels
If you use canisters you must remember to use labels for certain items. Nothing is worse than making a recipe and discovering you used all purpose flour rather than self-rising. You can either use hand-written labels, printed labels, or labels from a label maker.
How to Properly Organize Your Pantry Tip #5: Keep Like Items Together
It’s frustrating to stand at your pantry and hunt for one item. This not only wastes time, but it will also result in a messy pantry. When you first organize your pantry, put all the like items together. For example, put all your canned goods together and make sure to put each different canned item together, such as beans with beans. When you bring more items home from the store, make sure to put them with the older like items.
How to Properly Organize Your Pantry Tip #6: Move Older Items Forward
When you get home from the grocery store, place your newly bought items behind any older items that are the same as what you just bought. This ensures that older items get used rather than going to waste. This is exactly what grocery stores do when they place new stock on their shelves.
