The pantry can often be the target of pests, especially when it isn’t properly organized and food crumbs are left lying around that corner. Lack of storage space can be a deterrent at times since you don’t have a place to put the necessary items in the pantry. Organizing the pantry isn’t rocket science, but you do need to figure out how you’ll put together everything in a fitting manner. To help you with that, here are smart storage ideas to organize your pantry:
1. Start With a Clean-Up
Like any other area in the house, organizing your pantry means you have to start with a clean-up. This includes emptying your pantry and wiping the shelves clean to ensure that no dust or food crumbs are left behind. Starting with a clean up before you organize and store items in your pantry helps you free up some space and make room for more essential items to be stored.
You can also read: Storage Tips and Tricks to Organize Your Kitchen Cabinets
2. Check for Any Duplicate Items
The clean-up will give you the chance to check for any duplicate items in your pantry. Duplicate items often come when we think that we’ve already run out of that certain ingredient or food item, but in truth, it was just there and was only pushed to the back. Checking for duplicates also helps you avoid wasting food and ingredients. Do make it a habit to regularly look into your pantry and create an inventory of what you have, need to buy, and throw out because this keeps it organized.
3. Do Away With Expired Goods
If you have limited pantry space, it’s best that you take out unnecessary items that only take up space such as expired goods. In addition, pay attention to pantry items that you may be keeping for too long and do away with them as well.
4. Classify Pantry Items
Whether you like to cook or not, the pantry is still one of the most accessed areas in every home, that’s why it easily gets messy and disorganized. To avoid this, classify your pantry items such as condiments, canned goods, cooking and baking essentials, snacks, and more. You can use clear plastic/acrylic stackable storage bins to help you classify all the items and keep them organized. Using a lazy susan turntable is also a good option to organize and store all your condiments and make them accessible whenever you need them.
5. Store Food and Dry Ingredients in Clear Plastic Containers
Instead of storing food items and dry ingredients in the box they came in, remove them from the box or plastic and place them in clear containers. Doing this helps not only to prevent pests from easily penetrating and consuming your stored food items, but it also maintains a neat and organized-looking pantry for your home. What’s more is that it won’t be hard to find what you need because you can easily see what’s inside the containers.
6. Consider Glass Jars
Glass jars are ideal for storing food and ingredients because they preserve the freshness for a longer period of time, and you don’t have to worry about the taste of the food being affected. Using glass jars for your pantry also gives it a clean and elegant look, not to mention, easy access to various food items and dry ingredients.
7. Utilize Your Wall Space
If you have limited space at home, you may not have enough space to store all your food items in the pantry, which means you’ve got to find a way to organize them so that they can fit into the available storage space. Utilizing your wall space is a great way to organize your pantry and create space for non-food items such as paper towels, aprons, and eco bags for groceries. You can simply install hooks to hang your apron, eco-bags, and broom. For paper towels, you can wall-mount a dispenser.
8. Install Extra Shelves
You can do so much with your kitchen wall, especially if it’s not completely utilized. Installing extra shelves provides not only storage space for food items, but also non-food items such as kitchen appliances (coffee maker, mixer, rice cooker, etc). Extra shelves also serve as a way to avoid clutter on the kitchen counter since each item has a clear designation of where it should be placed.
9. Employ Basket Organizers
Basket organizers come in handy if you’re looking for additional storage and at the same time aesthetics for your pantry, or even the whole kitchen itself. These basket organizers come in different sizes and designs that you can use to store snacks and baking goods.
10. Don’t Forget to Label!
Labeling always does the job when you want to keep your things organized in any household because everyone will know where to get what they need without having to rummage through every container. This is especially helpful in the pantry because some dry ingredients can almost look the same. So having your organizers, containers, and shelves labeled is a practical tactic that you can use to avoid mistakes or hazards in the kitchen. You can be crafty and have your storage bin labels printed or hand-written — whichever you prefer and what will best work for you.
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