Grandparents.com: How To Organize a Pantry
Maeve shares tips with Grandparents.com on how to organize a pantry.
As originally featured on grandparents.com
Introduce Trays or Baskets
We recommend using trays or baskets to make the most of your pantry space/shelving. Trays or baskets are ideal for keeping like things together. For example, store all baking supplies together on one shelf grouped by a tray that lives underneath, or inside a basket. Not only will all your baking supplies be together but you can also remove them all at once for quick and easy baking. Trays quickly slide off the shelf, and baskets are easy to carry to other parts of the home! #baskets #welovetrays
Use Plate Dividers
Plate dividers are ideal for both storing and stacking small items, like cans or spices. Introduce one - no installation required! - and they quickly and easily double shelf space, also allowing you to comfortably stack items more than “two cans tall”.
Keep Clean Floors
We recommend keeping all items, except perhaps for a trash can, off the floor. It’s easy for loose bags and pantry overflow to end up lining the floor and moving into the kitchen. But doing so contributes to a cluttered space, and can make this important area of the house feel busy and ignored. Cozy things up by keeping everything at eye level. If your pantry items are part of the kitchen, this will also improve communication around the kitchen table as well.
Maximize Shelving
Make sure you've maximized your shelving from ceiling to floor. Many pantries have unused space both above and below the top and bottom shelves. Introduce extra shelves to areas taller than a cereal box. You can do this by installing a new wooden, plastic or wire-mesh shelf, easy and inexpensive to both purchase and install (try the Home Depot or Lowes).
Tip! Do a quick sort of what you own by height then place everything back on the shelves without stacking. If there's 6-8 inches of wasted space above your stuff, it’s time to introduce an added shelf.
Mistake items
No need to store items that you didn’t even need in the first place. Sometimes we buy things for a recipe that we don’t use. Instead of letting it goes, it takes up permanent residence in our pantries, and then becomes #clutter. Unless it’s an item that you feel you can use, let mistake items go. One idea is to donate mistake items to your grandchild’s school can drive!
Expired items
If you’ve lived in your home for a long time you may have expired items on your shelves. It’s time to let these go. Free up valuable real estate by clearing old, stale, and otherwise unsafe expired items from your pantry shelves.
Dietary No-Nos
Health issues often come up suddenly, someone is told not to eat a certain something from one day to the next. Usually what happens is new foods are brought in, but no one takes the time to get rid of the old. They may save it for guests, or wait for a time when they can resume eating that food. What tends to happen is that no-no foods get pushed to the back, waiting for the day they can re-emerge. We find ourselves using only a layer of space in the front of the shelf, instead of the whole thing. Remove these dietary no-nos and free up valuable real estate. #wellness
Gifted Food
It’s a common courtesy to arrive at someone’s home with a small gift, and very often it’s food. These are always well intended, but not always well thought out. Over time you may find yourself with a whole collection of foods that you don’t enjoy, don’t match your diet, or are for fancy occasions only, and you simply have too much. It’s OK to let this go and keep only what makes sense in your life. #releaseandletgo
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