‘Top tips for organising your pantry’ will get your cupboard in tip top shape! Many of us have pantries or food cupboards stacked full of food items that get lost at the back of shelves – long since forgotten. No matter how hard we try, we lose things and eventually forget them when they fall out of our radar. We buy more and soon our pantries are stuffed full of disorganised and unwanted items. This post will show you 6 top tips for organising your pantry and making the best of the space you have.
Top tips for organising your pantry
Zone your food items
We don’t use the same ingredients (spices, sauces, raw pasta) to cook pasta as we do to cook curry or stews. Zone your food items as far as possible (I know not this will not be possible with every item) on shelves, in baskets or clear plastic bins. This also makes it easier to see what you’re running out of before you actually do use them up. If you make it a point to put things back where you got them from – and ask all cooking family members to do the same – finding and replacing items in your pantry will be a whole lot easier. This will also enable you to find and throw out things that you no longer need or can use. See how to make the best of storage here.
As an extra precaution, you can label the jars/bins so that things go back where they belong.
Pack a basket
Storage baskets are great ideas when it comes to getting organised in your kitchen pantry. The last thing you want to do is mess around wasting time when your guests arrive or when people drop by unannounced. Pack a basket of things you use for guests like: napkins, trays, toothpicks, cans of peanuts, jars of olives etc, and you’re good to go. Store this in your pantry and replace the food items at intervals. You can use them up as healthy family treats.
Shelf your baking supplies
Baking can be very complicated and time consuming. You don’t want to waste even more time rummaging around to find your cake toppings or icing sugar when you’re in the middle of baking your cake. Pack your pantry in such a way that you have a shelf or two dedicated to your weighing scales, cup cake baking trays, frosting and other baking items stored in the same place. You can even use large plastic containers to store the little baking paraphernalia in. This will keep them fresh, make them easy to find and make baking less fumbly for you. And if you have a small kitchen, see how you can make the best of it at this article.
Stair steps
It’s a great idea to buy steps for your shelves so that items in the back can be seen easily. I’ve seen these at Ikea. Not only do these give you more space inside your cupboards or shelves, they enable you to store items in such a way that you don’t need to move too many things around to get to what you want.
Undershelf baskets also are great for extra storage space, and for storing small tinned items. You can make your urban kitchen feel enormous at this post.
Clear plastic
Clear plastic jars are great for storing things that need to be kept air tight. Not only will this prevent smells in your pantry (you won’t have half opened bags of stuff falling around on your shelves), you’ll also be able to see exactly what’s stored where. Sealed containers also keep food fresh for longer, they look neater and stack better where space is concerned. Best of all, they can be easily labelled. You can always write the expiry date on the jars with a dry-erase pen.
Introduce tools and appliances
Most of us have kitchen appliances and utensils that we rarely use (or use for speciality foods). Why not install a hanging rack or hooks at the back of your pantry door and use them for storing utensils you hardly use. Remember that appliances like the bread maker or grinder can also be stored on the top or bottom shelf in your pantry. This will give you more space on your counter top and keep them relatively dust free.
If you have any other great tips for organising your pantry please share them in the comment section below. Please also share ‘Top Tips For Organising Your Pantry’ on your social networking sites. I’d appreciate that very much.
plastic containers get wear out quickly. they turn pale. In order to keep them new looking, washing them occasionally with baking soda is good.
Organizing the pantry is usually not something that most people do until they have to move. But, simple organization using the tips you outlined above will ensure that you know what you have, but also save you money when you go grocery shopping.
Taking time to organise your pantry will definitely save you money. It will lessen on the amount you buy because you’re not buying duplicates of things you already have. It will also mean you’re using up food stuff before they go bad (because they’re hidden out of view). Thanks for stopping by.
hi anne, great tips! thanks for the article. i followed your tips and now i have a well organized pantry. thanks a lot.
This very nice. Nice useful tips. Female of age about 40+ have bad memory, when they put something somewhere they forget. So keeping everything managed will help them a lot. this is quite nice post.
This made me smile. 🙂
hahahaha This is reality Anne or may be in our area. hahaha
very good information for food store thanks for share….
I don’t have a pantry, and these are great ideas for those that have one..
Hi Icy, the same can be applied for food cupboards as well. Thanks for visiting.
This is a great article and it is imperative that you organise your pantry specially if you have a small one. I know I have a family of 5 and if my pantry was not organised, It would be a complete mess. I definately need more plastic containers to organise my baking ingredients, thank you for the tips.
Hi Chad. Plastic containers work very well in organising my kitchen. And when they get old or broken, are very easy (and cheap) to replace