Do you drool over the super-organized pantries you see on Instagram? You can create this look yourself in an afternoon! Here’s how to get that perfect pantry look:
Clean off your counters and table so you have room to sort your food.
Take everything out of the pantry and sort it into categories on your counters/table. If you don’t know how to categorize something, ask yourself, “what aisle would I find this in at the grocery store?” Be sure to check expiration dates and throw out expired food or food that might have bugs in it (pantry moths!) Unopened food that you will not eat but has not yet expired can be donated to your local food bank.
Categories you will need to sort food into:
- Breakfast
- Lunch
- Dessert
- Oils/Vinegars
- Sauces/Condiments
- Chips/Crackers (or just Snacks)
- Baking
- Canned Food
- Boxed Meals
- Rice/Pasta/Grain
Wipe down the shelves and sweep the floor.
Now it’s time to put things back. Put each category into its own white plastic bin or basket. You may need to use multiple bins/baskets if the category is large. Label each bin/basket with th name of the category.
You can choose to decant bulk food into jars, if you want. Or not. It looks nicer to have everything decanted into matching containers, but it is much more maintenance long-term and will make putting things away after your weekly grocery store trip take a long time. It’s smart to be realistic about how much time you are willing to invest into maintaining your pantry each week.
On the floor of the pantry under your bottom shelf, you could place 3 large square baskets:
- One for folded paper bags
- One for plastic bags
- One for Ziploc bags, garbage bags
Do you need to store potatoes, onions and garlic? You could get matching wire baskets to sit on a shelf for this category of food that needs good air circulation.
Finally, if you have a walk-in pantry big enough for a door, you might want to store your broom, mop and/or Swiffer on a back-of-the-door organizer.
And there you have it! A magazine-worthy pantry! To maintain this look, you will need to be mindful of the quantity of food you buy so you don’t end up with more food than will fit each plastic bin/basket. You may also want to leave some room on each shelf empty to store extra food around the holidays.
Happy Organizing, everyone!
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