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If it’s been awhile since you’ve cleaned out your pantry, it’s probably time to do so. Products contain expiration dates for a reason! While we cleaned this pantry for a client last week, we had several goals: Cull out the old things, make it so the homeowners and kids can find things and make the pantry visually appealing.
If you have deep pantry shelves you are most likely thankful for the space yet frustrated because things disappear to the back to be lost forever. The solution is to divide items into containers that can be pulled out. This allows you to really see how many boxes of pasta or bags of rice are at hand. Things don’t drift to the back too easily. We used these great seagrass baskets. The paper labels are in easily-cleaned plastic sleeves. If the contents of the basket changes, the label is easily changed with a new slip of paper.
If you are contemplating making your pantry work better for you, here are the basic steps.
Measure your pantry shelves – height, width and depth.
Make a list of the kinds of categories you’d like to divide things into. In this pantry, we had flours, sugars, baking items (such as nuts, chocolate chips, decorative sprinkles etc.), spice or seasoning packets, salad fixings, pastas, rice and beans, breakfast items, snacks (3), breads and another basket that held bread crumbs, cornstarch, tapioca and other such staples. We even had one for light bulbs! You may also want some turntables or shelf racks. They made accessing the upper cabinets so much easier.
Shop for organizing products.
Remove items from pantry. Clean shelves.
Examine items and remove expired ones. Make sure the other items don’t show signs of rust on cans or mold. Be sure to seal anything that doesn’t close tightly by placing it in a zippered plastic bag, jar or other container.
Sort items and store like kinds together.
Add labels. This helps items to be returned to their correct location so your organizing work will last.
If you’d like your pantry organized, we’d be happy to help. We provide hands-on help in the Florida panhandle and virtual help- via Skype, digital pictures, email and phone to the rest of the country. We really can help you no matter where you live.
Happy Organizing!
I’m having to re-think my entire pantry right now for very unpleasant reasons. We moved into an older fixer-upper and there are critters!! I’ve sealed my bread in a tub for now, but it’s inconvenient. I had the perfect little basket for bread on the counter, but they found it. I think I’m going to be saving a whole bunch of pickle jars, lol. I keep thinking all the pantry moths are gone and then they get into a container I thought was sealed. Part of the fun for me is figuring it all out, but did I really need that particular motivation? Urgh. And now–I find myself cloroxing the counters a little too often.
Don’t be too upset! Those moths came into the house in something you bought. They didn’t target you for being unclean or even disorganized! I once had wicked pantry moths. They were so persistant. I thought I’d thrown out or replaced everything and had it all sealed up tight. It turns out the culprit was a bag of dry puppy food. The puppy wouldn’t eat it and it got pushed to the back of the lower shelf of the cabinet. It was the old “out of sight- out of mind” story. I kept checking flour and similar products and couldn’t understand where they were coming from.
So, do check anything made with grain- crackers, dog food, pancake mix and so on.
Zippered gallon plastic bags can be a great help and not too costly- plus you can reuse them. Put open boxes (making sure you’ve checked them for bugs first) in the bag and seal it up.
You might keep the bread in the fridge if that is more convenient.
The other thing that is a good weapon in the war on critters is clear caulk. Use it to close up cracks and openings where you think critters are getting in. The other is to treat the outside of your house. I really like that the pest control company I use goes around and treats the outside of the house to keep them from coming in rather than putting any chemicals inside the house. (Of course, they will do that if I have a big problem.)
Thanks for all of your advice! I love ziplocks, lol. I think I buy them weekly. I found two culprits the other day–a bin that the previous owner had left because it might come in useful had some old bits of dog food in the bottom and an old box of wheat saltines had inched it’s way to the very far recesses of my extremely deep cabinets. My little helper (6 yr old son) was rewarded with a browny for crawling in and digging it out.
Oh, and a little advice on my side if it’s at all helpful. For people who have to have bug killer inside their homes, you can buy diotamacious earth at the local feed store. It’s dirt cheap, not poisonous at all, and kills fleas, roaches, ants, and on it goes up the ladder. Anything that breathes through it’s exoskeleton should be dead. (You still have to wear a mask, but that’s to prevent that very sharp stuff from getting into your lungs). It feels somewhat like flour and looks much like it too. If you want more detail, just let me know.
Very nice post.
Well said. You have shown new elements of this which I had overlooked before this and I am grateful for your fresh thinking!