Your pantry is a high use space meaning it probably looks a like a bomb site with half opened boxes of cereal, things hiding in the back that you have totally forgotten about, expired baking goods that you used for only one recipe….two years ago!
Ready? Let’s whip your pantry into shape.
The best advice I give my clients when we are tackling their pantry is to keep your prime real estate for the most used stuff. That’s normally your two middle shelves, the shelves that are within easy reach. Your family breakfast and lunch supplies should be in that space.
The second piece of advice I give is don’t pack every inch of the shelves full. You need to leave some shuffling space for mental clarity.
Not sure where to put things? Keep like with like and of course throw out food that you wouldn’t eat anymore. So put all your breakfast food together, all baking supplies in the same area.
Is your pantry overflowing? Put shopping off for a few days and Eat the Pantry! Every few months do an audit of the pantry and find things you need to use up. You’ll keep more money in your bank account instead of throwing it in the bin a few months or years from now.
Keep an eye on the usual stuff that gets left on the shelf opened and half eaten, like crackers and cereal. Make sure you have enough bag clips and keep some right beside the crackers if you must.
Oh, also, contributing weird food, (often close to expiry), to grocery hamper raffles, just cos you wouldn’t eat it yourself is all too common and really poor form. Don’t do this!!
Keep junk food up out of sight and healthier snack food front and centre
Keep an emergency packet dinner stashed away somewhere and you won’t have to run out to buy takeaways as much. Might be no better for your health, but it’ll be better for your wallet and probably faster than going out.
In summer, keep a last-minute BBQ stash with bags of potato chips and steaks in the freezer etc so when you get the invite you don’t blow $100 getting impulse supplies on the way there.
Pantry Storage
Having everything set out nicely so you can find it is important but takes up space. To grab some space back keep a large box to stores ‘Spares’ in and check it before you go shopping. Cos if you’re only using one bottle of soy sauce you don’t want three bottles out getting’ in your way and taking up shelf space.
Small Lazy Susans or turntables make bottles and jars really easy to use. Have 2 or 3… or 5.
In a section where there’s many small things you’ll find bins separating stuff is a godsend. Fixing the ‘fallen dominos’ in one bin takes seconds, but fixing the domino effect on a whole shelf? Ugh, it sometimes just gets left that way for years while new groceries are stacked up around it! How about a box for baking? A box for pasta and rice? A box for paper towels, serviettes, disposable plates and cutlery? An advantage with this is that it’s easy to move a whole box out of the way to grab something in an awkward corner, or wipe up spilled cocoa powder, than move each item one at a time.
Tupperware, Click Clack and Sistema introduced us to the prettiest, most inefficient way of storing 2 tbsp of leftover pine nuts. These fancy containers are so loved! Use a few but don’t fill your whole pantry with them.
Here’s why… Collecting them is expensive, they’re another plastic thing to throw out one day, they force us to double handle food and wipe up spills resulting from it, make us throw out the printed use-by date on the food packaging and take up Too Much Space when they’re getting empty and only storing air.
Sometimes it is better to keep it in a packet. I personally think it’s better to invest in good bag clips and nice-looking baskets to go on the shelves.
However, in saying all that, one my readers, Sofia, finds using Sistema works for her:
“Stuff that gets used a lot gets their own container labelled (I use Sistema) so it is easy to just pour in any top up – sugar, flour, cocoa, salt, oats. Cans and some boxes (cous cous) get stacked in deep rows so it is easy to see when the row has shrunk back and needs topping up. Low frequent food gets
sorted and categorized in boxes (or ice-cream containers) – baking, nuts and seeds, dried fruit, lunch items, treats. Top shelf is for foods waiting to make their replacement debut – i.e. the next bottle of olive oil, flour that didn’t fit in the flour container. It is when the top shelf is disorganized that I start buying double-ups. When that happens, I sometimes take unopened packets and leave at the community pantry by the community garden. It is usually not that much money and I am happy that it is not clogging up my pantry and feel good that someone who needs it gets a small contribution.”
Sofia A.
Have you got a lot of those small sachets that end up getting lost and hidden? Put these in a slim storage container or box with no lid, so you can flick through them like CDs at you fav’ record store back in the day.
Sick of your food colouring staining your shelves? Keep those little bottles in a container you can stain and throw out.
Can shelves (they look like steps) that display all the cans at once help you to check stock at a glance.
Appliances
Do you wanna shuffle appliances around or do you wanna eat? The fewer appliances you have the less expectation there is on you to make finicky meals.
Do yourself a favour: if there’s something that you cook REALLY WELL make it often and just buy the other foods as a treat. I’m talkin’ breadmaking, cake decorating, pasta/cheese making equipment and such. Every time you see the ‘jaffle pie maker’ your subconscious is scolding you for not fitting
pie-making into your schedule.
Top shelf ‘beverages’
For the love of all things tipsy, please regularly go through the drinks on the top shelf. Clinging onto crusty old bottles of disappointment does nothing to enhance your life going forward. Release that old version of you and be happy with your tastes as they are now.
If you have a few bottles in circulation, using a lazy susan/turntable is a great way to keep them bottles organised and easy to access.