The new year gets us thinking about fresh starts, and that usually includes a deep cleaning of our homes after the busy holidays.  A satisfying way to begin the cleaning process is with the kitchen pantry.  The pantry can easily become disorganized and cluttered, especially after a season filled with guests and parties.  The new year is also a good time to re-stock your baking essentials, snack items and dry goods.  Plus, cleaning your pantry may reveal some forgotten items that can inspire your next meal and save you money!  Here are our top tips for organizing the pantry.

Start with a full clean out by taking everything off the shelves and washing the walls, shelves and flooring. 

Organize Food Items into Zones

Bread & Cereal

Keep cereal and bread at eye level because they are used every day, and it allows children to easily help themselves.

Consider keeping breads, bagels, and tortillas together in a bin so they stay organized, but can easily be seen. 

Cereals can be stored and kept fresh in clear containers.  Clear containers not only look good, but it is easy to see when you need to re-stock. It’s helpful to choose a container with a pour feature for cereal.

Snacks:

A snack section in the pantry is essential in our house.  Crackers, nuts, granola bars, dried fruit and nut butters can be grouped together at eye level for easy access.  Consider decorative baskets or bins for the less nutritional snacks like chips and cookies, so they are not in plain sight. 

Dry & Canned Goods:

Higher up on your shelves can go dry goods, like pasta, rice and canned goods.

Stacking canned goods on a tiered riser makes it easier to see what you have in the back.  Clear containers with a wide lid for rice make it easy to measure out when making a meal, and you can see what you have on hand.  Boxes of pasta can be turned sideways (skinny side facing forward) to make more room on the shelf.

Baking Essentials:

A rolling cart with all your baking essentials is really helpful for access and clean up.  Store flour, sugars, baking powder, extracts, and cocoa on a cart so you can roll it all out to the baking area and have everything at your fingertips. Decant all the baking dry goods into clear containers with wide lids for freshness and easy measuring. Label the container with washi tape, noting the use by date.  Keep sugar fresh with clay sugar keepers.

Additional Tips

• Miscellaneous  Items such as serving pieces, paper towels, and rarely used appliances can be stored on higher shelves.
• Store onions and potatoes separately in wire baskets, these can also be hung on a wall. 
• Use the back of the pantry door to hang wire shelves for spices, oils, vinegar, foil or other items. 
• Stay on top of pantry organization by taking stock of items and tidying up before heading to the grocery store.

We carry a variety of kitchen organization tools and cleaning supplies at our brick and mortar store.  Visit our online collection here.

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