Organizing Your Pantry

The pantry is one place in the house that is easily overlooked when it comes time to organize. Since the pantry is usually behind closed doors, the shelves of your pantry may quickly become disorganized and untidy. Things are often tossed inside or pushed to the back of the shelf, and eventually you may not even know where to find things. This means it might be harder to get a hold of something you need, or that the food in your pantry is not used in time and goes bad.

It is important to have an organized pantry. Having items in your pantry neat and organized ensures that they are easy to find and in a convenient place. Although it is easy to hide a messy pantry by just closing the doors, it will be a lot easier on you if you take the time to organize everything.

The task of organizing a messy pantry may seem overwhelming, but if you simply take the job one piece at a time it is manageable. You can work on this project a little at a time or all at once depending on your situation. Use these steps to help the process go smoothly:

• Remove Everything. Begin by removing all items from your pantry, leaving nothing on the shelves. Take this moment to do any cleaning that may need to be done by wiping dust out if the shelves or removing any spills.
• Get Rid of Items. The expired can of creamed corn, that flavor of seasoning you hate, the box of cereal that has been there for a year: all of these things have no place in your pantry. If you come across items that you don't expect to ever use, or that have expired, keep in mind that they are just taking up precious space. Throw them out and use the extra space for other things you'll actually use.
• Organize Items. Look at your shelf space and decide which items will go where. It is usually easiest to group items by type. For instance, you might want to place canned vegetables in one area and canned fruit in another. This will make it easy to find food items quickly, since you will know exactly where to look. Place older foods at the front of the shelf to make sure they are used first.
• Use Organization Tools. If you have a lot of items that needs to be organized, consider buying plastic bins or some other kind of dividers for your pantry. Organizers can help keep things looking neat and will also make it easy to access things. When using plastic bins with lids, you can label them so you'll know exactly what it being stored inside.

Organizing your pantry can be a time-consuming chore, but it is definitely well worth the effort.