A Handy Pantry
Your kitchen is where you lovingly prepare healthy and delicious food for your family. It should be a peaceful and efficient place where you can easily find what you need when you need it. Since the pantry is one of your main kitchen storage areas, let’s focus on making the items in your pantry easily identifiable, easily accessible, and easily managed. It doesn’t matter if you have a spacious walk-in pantry or just a few cabinets, a little organization and imagination will make the most of what you have.
To be able to focus on your project, select a time period when you will not have interruptions. To put you in a happy frame of mind, put on some lively music and have your favorite beverage nearby. Before you begin the work, define the goals for your pantry project. Some ideas might be to
- Find food easily
- Eliminate out of date food
- Keep the pantry orderly
I suspect that one of your problems with the pantry is that there are things in the pantry that don’t belong there – cat litter, mittens, mail, art supplies, or a box of photos. Declutter the pantry and remove all non-pantry items. If you have glassware that you never use, stacks of newspapers, or odd metal bake ware, take those things to the recycle bin. Next, remove food that is out of date and put it in the trash. I’ll bet you also have some food in the back corners that you will never eat, like that canned spinach or (unopened) bran cereal. Donate those items to a food drive or to your local food bank so someone else can enjoy them and they won’t go to waste. Also donate some of your duplicates – you do not need 14 boxes of cornbread mix that will expire before you can eat it. As you sort through your pantry, remove the items from the shelves so you can give the shelves a good cleaning.
Now you are ready to re-assemble your pantry. First, identify and label zones in your pantry – beans, vegetables, soup, cereal, drinks, condiments, etc. Use the prime real estate (shelves between your head and knees) for things you use most frequently. Keep heavier items toward the bottom of the pantry. Now think about how space could be used more efficiently in each of your zones. Here are some ideas -
- Use an over the door wire rack or an over-the-door shoe bag to add storage
- Add a Lazy Susan or stacked turntable to more easily reach back corners
- Use freestanding, hanging or stackable wire, plastic, or wooden shelves to make better use of large cabinets
- Add roll-out baskets for hard-to-reach areas
- Use plastic containers or stacked chip containers to corral loose spaghetti
- Store gravy, sauce, and salad dressing packets together in a small boxes so they are easy to find
- Use sealed canisters for flour and sugar to avoid bugs
- Create a bottle organizer with 6 x 14 inch PVC pipes placed in a box or crate turned on its side
You don’t have to spend a fortune on organizing containers - just look around your house for things you already have - tissue boxes, checkbook boxes, and shoe boxes. You may want to repackage some items if they don’t fit where you want them to.
Replace your pantry items in the designated zones, using your new, more efficient storage systems. If your pantry is dim, add some bright lighting. Wow, what a beautifully organized pantry! Now you can easily see what you have and find what you need. Take a bow and go make your favorite dessert to reward yourself for a job well done.
One more thing…… Now that your pantry is in great shape, it will be easy to keep that way. Put only pantry items in the pantry and take time to put your purchases in the correct zone after shopping. With a little thought, you will be able to easily maintain an orderly and efficient pantry.
