Do you often avoid baking and cooking for fear of adding to an already chaotic pantry? Do you find yourself saying, “Ahhh there it is!” when stumbling across ingredients you couldn’t find. Do you then you end up kicking yourself because the item has already expired before you could use it?
Is your pantry so chaotic that it takes you twice as long to perform any perfunctory cooking task? Do you wish someone would guide you in how to create a functional kitchen pantry? There are many components to a kitchen pantry. When not given a designated space or system, your items and the space itself, can often make you feel very overwhelmed.
Look No Further!
Here at An Organized Home OC, we have the remedy to your kitchen calamities. Let us guide you through the process! Just like any other room of the house, nothing is more beneficial…..than a SYSTEM. Specific to pantry projects, we find great satisfaction and immense joy in helping our clients find the mental clarity they need when opening the doors to their kitchen pantries. An organized pantry helps everyone effectively save time on their meal prepping, baking and cooking. So, let’s get to it! Let us guide you in how to create a functional kitchen pantry.
A quick guide on how to create a functional kitchen pantry
Similar to our closet organizing post (go check it out) we firstly suggest a good hard look at the items you own.
- Take it all out: Let’s take a look at what we’ve got! The key to a good pantry spruce up is to sort, sort, and sort. Place all of the baking ingredients in a section, all of the oils in a section, canned goods in a section, etc. This helps to see what you actually have, and is the first step in acquiring a functional system. Quick tip- sometimes we use post it notes to label each group of items!
- Getting rid of expired items: This undoubtedly happens to all of us, and is an easy fix. So grab those “Cheaters” or a magnifying glass, and let’s start scouring for those expiration dates. Then consider tossing or donating food items that have already expired.
- Put it all back in categories: Once you feel that your new inventory, post decluttering, is what you want going back into the pantry, decide on what shelves the items will go. Consider the people who live in your home, and make the shelves accessible based on their needs. For example, a child will need easy access to snacks and cereals, while special dietary foods may go on a higher shelf.
- Products to use: When putting the pantry back together, we at An Organized Home OC recommend using clear acrylic bins that fit onto the shelves of your pantry. These bins can hold “like” ingredients together. It’s essential to see what you are looking for through. These acrylic bins also provide a clean, sleek look when they are clear and similar in style.
- Label it: We also highly recommend labeling each bin such as: Granola Bars, Pasta, Rice, etc. And don’t forget a good acrylic spinner for oils, cooking sprays or condiments and even acrylic risers for canned goods. These risers make seeing your canned goods much easier. Then you won’t be running to the store thinking you need to buy more of what you already have!
- Go all out! Consider taking your pantry project to the next level by purchasing containers to decant your food in. We love streamlining spices by decanting them into identical glass jars and labeling them. We also recommend decanting flours, sugars, and cereals into containers that can be labeled, keep bugs out and extend the freshness of the items. And why shouldn’t you treat yourself to the extra pretty items? These simple items can bring you peace and joy to look at when you open your newly organized pantry.
You did it! And just like any room in your home that you tackle, it’s important to schedule one day a month for upkeep. This is essential in maintaining the new, beautiful, functional pantry that you just created.
Final Words of Advice
Don’t forget, if you are in our area, please reach out to us at An Organized Home OC (714) 618-3744 or fill out our contact form. Then we can promptly help in making your pantry dreams come true! Stay tuned for our next post where we will be taking a look at the rest of the kitchen and discussing the importance of decluttering this workspace. At An Organized Home OC, we leave no tool, pot or pan unturned!
