How to Organize a Pantry Cupboard

A well-organized pantry can cut down on your cooking time by helping you see what you have to plan meals, as well as find and access the ingredients you need. An organized pantry also helps you keep a running stock of what you have and what you need to buy from the grocery store. If you take the time to organize your pantry properly once, you can easily maintain the order and efficiency it provides.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Storage containers
• Pantry shelving
• Labels
• Rectangular storage containers

1. Take everything out of the pantry cupboard and put it on the counters and table.
2. Sort through all of the food for expired cans and boxes as well as almost empty containers. Throw away anything that has outlived its usefulness. You can donate food that is not expired, but that you don't plan to use, to charity.
3. Organize food into categories. Pasta, canned vegetables, cereal, crackers, baking ingredients, snacks, soups and other similar products should be grouped together. Keep identical brands together as well.
4. Clean off the pantry shelves or install new ones. Wire shelving systems can be custom cut to fit any size pantry.
5. Designate areas of the cupboard for each category you sorted. Remember to leave room for any non-foodstuffs you plan to store in the pantry, such as platters, small kitchen appliances and tools.
6. Purchase additional products to organize the pantry, such as lazy susans for the corners, stack shelves, can-holders and storage bins. Diagramming the cupboard before you go shopping will help you pick out what you need.
7. Restock the pantry with all of the food you are keeping according to the categories. Wherever possible, turn the labels on the cans and boxes outward for easy viewing.

Tips & Warnings

• Label the areas you designate for each category of foodstuffs so other people in the family know where things go. If the whole family participates in keeping the pantry clean, it will be less work for you.
• Buy rectangular storage containers instead of round containers for dry goods like flour, sugar and cereal, because they take up less shelf space. They also hold more than round containers.
• When you buy duplicate items, put them behind the older products. When you eat the oldest products first, you will avoid eating items that are too old or expired.
• When you have the option, pick wire shelving over solid shelving because it resists dust accumulation.
• Keep a shopping list and pen mounted in the pantry so you can mark down what you need as soon as you use it.
• Install a light into the cupboard to make it easier to see the back. Battery tap lights are easy to mount.
• Keep foods high in sugar or fat out of reach of young children. Childhood obesity is a growing problem.

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