I’ve been going through my house, room by room, closet by closet and organizing everything. I’ve realized that clutter and messes often trigger my anxiety. It’s that inner-clutter / outer-clutter thing (so says my therapist). Anywho, today was pantry day. I did it without the help of a professional organizer, and I am so dang proud of myself, and I feel so much lighter. She’s a real beaut.
Step 1:
Clear everything out of the pantry. This works with whatever area you’re working on. I learned this from the pros. You always want to clear everything out.
Separate, categorize and toss-it:
Especially in a pantry when you take everything out, you’ll see that you might be out of one item, but have 5 of another. You never knew because you’re just throwing things in the closet, so you can’t find anything or take into account what you do have.
I took this opportunity to donate what we had an extreme excess of (Go-Go-Squeeze Pouches).
Then I grouped “like items” together.
My categories:
- Baking items – chocolate chips, corn starch, marshmallows, baking powder, etc
- Pasta
- Crackers, rice cakes
- Bar snacks
- Pouch snacks
- Fruit leathers, fruit snacks, etc
- Cans
- Chips
- Flour
- Sugar
- Rice
- Salt
After I separated everything and decided what I was going to keep vs. toss, I started putting everything away by category. Not everything needs to be in an expensive, clear container and color coded like you see on The Home Edit. Bins work for certain items, you just have to do what makes sense for your family.
How to group:
I like to take the following items out of their original packaging and put them in the large OXO Clear Containers.
- flour
- sugar
- chips / veggie straws / Bamba / crackers / animal crackers / graham crackers
- cereal
- salt
- rice
I find it’s easier to see these items out of their packaging. My kids can see which carby snacks I’m offering, I can just grab the entire container of flour, and I don’t have to deal with the mess that comes with the bags of these items. These bags tend to take up a lot of space, and are just unnecessary. Then you also know when you’re getting to the end of the container, it might be time to buy more, or buy something else.
Obviously, I use the cereal containers for the cereal, I use the smaller rectangle and square bins for things like chocolate chips, coconut flakes, and marshmallows. I like the bigger square containers for things like animal crackers, almonds and crackers. And then I like the large and tall square containers for big bags of chips, big bags of flour, sugar, etc.
Then for the bins:
Then I use bins for pretty much everything else.
I like these items to group individually wrapped items that make it easy to grab for little hands. And then I like the bigger bins for all the pasta boxes, random packages of rice cakes, all the baking items, etc.
Let’s talk turn tables / the lazy susan:
Round things take up more space. That’s a fact. BUT when you find the right place for them, they’re really useful.
We have a mini pantry to the side of our refrigerator. I keep my oils, sauces, cooking sprays, etc there. The turn table is PERFECT for this space because I just turn it around until I find what I need so I don’t have to go digging through the cabinet.
This mini pantry is small, so I got the 9 inch turn tables, and they’re perfect.
Finally, the vegetable holder and door organizer:
I can’t find our exact holder, but here is a great one from iDesign. It’s important to store things like potatoes and onions where there can be airflow. They go bad much slower that way. And we all know what a rotten potato smells like. It’s DISGUSTING.
This is really similar to the organizer that’s on our pantry door. It was there when we moved in, but it helps free up some space on the shelves.
I can’t tell you how great it feels to be able to look in your pantry and actually see what you have and be able to find what you need.
I know these bins can be costly, and they add up quickly, but even if you are able to start with just a few of these, and build your collection slowly, you’ll definitely be off to a good start.
New Year, New Pantry. Cheers to a calm and relaxing 2021!
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