Kitchen Organization Day 4: The Pantry
We are on day 4 and we are so close to finishing kitchen organization week.
I am getting so excited.
I hope you guys are taking time to step back and take in the progress you have made so far. You are doing fantastic!
Now, let’s brew our coffee and get to work on the next step.
Organizing your pantry!
You might not be thrilled about the idea of organizing your food but I promise, it will be so much nicer to be able to find things when you are done!
Hopefully, at this point, you have already gone through and gotten rid of all those expired things, but if not, now is the time to do it!
Pull everything out of your pantry and put it on the counter. If you have too much to pull out at once, just start with one shelf at a time but keep in mind anything that is a “like item” on another shelf.
Wipe off the shelf/shelves and get ready to start organizing!
1. Start by organizing your dry goods
Grab your pasta, rice, beans, and oats.
I prefer to leave my pasta in the boxes they come in but you can put them in a clear, airtight container if you wish!
Rice and beans both I prefer to pour into mason jars. Mason jars are airtight and I can choose jars that are sized to our serving size needed at meal time.
Oats just depend and sometimes I will do either.
Decide what your preferred containers are and get them sorted into those. Once you have them done, place them on the shelf together.
2. Condiments
Grab all those bottles of ketchup, mustard, ranch, or whatever else you have, and get them all on the shelf together.
These things you won’t need to pull out as often so put them towards the back or off to the side when placing them on the shelf.
3. Canned goods
There are a couple of options here depending on what storage solution you decide to use.
If you went with a can rack, make sure you check the dates on your cans and put the oldest in first. Fill up your rack by grouping like items together and boom. Easy.
If you are kicking it old school and just setting them on the shelf, that is okay too. That is how I do it!
You still want to make sure you check dates and put the oldest in the front. Stack all like items together in a row making sure the labels are facing out so you can see them.
4. Baking goods
Sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar, and flour I prefer to put in airtight containers. All of them have a glass container that I pour them into.
If you have containers for these, do this now. If not, use whatever storage solution you have to get those on the shelf!
Next, gather all of your other baking supplies like baking powder, baking soda, yeast, cornstarch, oils, and chocolate chips. Put all of these together with the bulk items you put on the shelf earlier.
5. Breakfast items
Granola bars, pre-packaged oatmeal, cereal, and pop tarts all should be put together on the shelf for easy grabbing in the mornings.
Who wants to hunt down the breakfast items at 6 a.m.? Not me. That is for sure.
By keeping these all together you can simplify your morning routine. Win-Win.
6. Snacks
Gather any snack items you may have. Chips, pretzels, cookies, candy.
For these, I like to have bins that are labeled with what type of item is in them.
It is so much easier for you when you can just pull the bin out for candy and grab what you want instead of hunting through the whole pantry.
Decide how you want these to be organized and get them all set up together. Viola!
The Wrap Up
There. I think we have conquered the pantry and can now close up day 4. If you have any other random items that are not discussed here, I think you have the means now to get them organized for yourself.
I am very happy we have made it this far and we only have one more day left in the kitchen!
Tomorrow we will organize the refrigerator!
As always, I can’t wait to hear any comments, questions, or concerns.
