Achieving an Organized Pantry

Organized pantry; food sorting and categorizing; bins and containers to use for specific foods; labels; how you can save space.

It seems to be a popular trend lately where people are taking interest in having an organized pantry. I’m the kind of person that loves seeing organized pantries on Instagram and Pinterest! Just so you know, that type of organization project is not for the faint of heart, I can assure you.

If you would like to undertake this organization project, I have written a play-by-play of the steps you should follow to achieve your goal of a good-looking and organized pantry.

When we moved into our newly built house, I thought I had the perfect scenario to have an organized pantry: it was empty and all our food was packed in boxes. I figured I would unpack one box at a time and organize my pantry… Yeah, not so much…

I felt like my overall vision didn’t alligh with the space I was working with… I had never worked with this space before and I wasn’t familiar with what it could contain. At some point, I felt like I was running out of space which was absolutly ridiculous since this new pantry was 2-3 times bigger than what we had before! I ended up just shoving everything in and waiting until I felt ready to tackle that project.

Once I was ready, I followed the #1 golden rule of organization:

Get it all out!

This step of the process will probably surprise you as well as overwhelm you. We tend to think that we have less than what we actually have until we take it all out. The challenge will probably be to find a place to put everything you take out. Use all your counter space to lay everything out and don’t plan to cook until you are done ahah!

Always plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.

-Richard Cushing

When you plan to undertake this project to achieve an organized pantry, make sure you’ve given yourself plenty of time to do it. That way, if you have to run out to go get the kids, you won’t have to shove everything back in or worst, you won’t have to keep everything laying out for days. While you are taking everything out, try to group similar items together. This will make things easier in the long run, I can assure you.

Now that everything is out, you will need to go through each item and see if you still need it, use it or if it’s still good. We tend to overlook expiration dates on food which means we usually have expired items in our pantries. Most of us don’t rotate our food items when we get home from the grocery store. There is also the flip side of things where some grocery stores don’t rotate the food on their shelves which can be a problem for us as customers. Regardless of who does what, rotation is key to not wasting food so make sure to do it on your end.

Grouping your food

The key to an organized pantry is to have similar food items grouped together. By doing this, you will be better able to assess how much room you will need for your food categories. Here are some grouping ideas you can consider.

• kids snacks
• breakfast items (cereal, oatmeal, peanut butter, bread, etc.)
• cooking oils (olive oil, canola oil, etc.)
• baking supplies (flour, sugar, etc.)
• junk (chips, chocolate, cookies, etc.)
• pasta & rice
• spices
• canned goods
• broths
• sauces
• quick dinners (ei: kraft dinner)
• overstock

These are just ideas; there are no set rules. Do what works for you first and foremost. If your household’s needs change in the futur then you can adapt your organized pantry accordingly.

While you are regrouping everything, I strongly recommend to get everything that you can out of its packaging. You won’t believe how much space you will save by doing this! This step will also help you assess if you would would rather have your items in jars, baskets/bins, etc.

Do your best to use what you already have on hand before you go out splurging on cute bins and containers. For instance, you can use some of the boxes you have from emptying everything. I also have a blog post about household items you can reuse to organize that can help you out so make sure to check that out.

There no point in buying items before you try “using” your newly organized pantry. This will assure that what you have done works. If it doesn’t, you can change things around and then reassess what organizing tools would work best.

Organizing your food

Location

This part of the process all depends on the space you have allocated to food. Weather you have a walk-in pantry, a reach-in pantry (like we do) or your food is in your kitchen cupboards, I suggest for you to do your best to keep it all together.

When we have food spread out everywhere in our kitchen (or house) we forget what we have. Having everything close together makes it easier to see everything and better assess what you have and or need. Once the location for all your food is determined, then you have to play with the possible layouts.

Layout

Try to think function and what would make things easier for your family. After all, that’s what organization is for; to make things simpler.

• If you have kids, do you want them to access breakfast items or snacks? If yes, you may want to put those items at their level. If not, put it high enough so they can’t reach it.
• Are there certain food items you would like to have a eye level so that you can reach or access them easily?
• Are there items you don’t use very often that you can afford to have stacked higher or behind something else?

The layout of your food may also depend on the types of shelving you have.

• Can you move your shelves up or down? If not, that may limit you in a sense but not really because anything is figureoutable.
• Do you have deep shelves? If so, you may want to consider adding organization tools in them to help you access it all; shelf organizer or turntable.
• Do you have full shelves or wire shelving?
• Do your shelves go very high in height?
• Do you have a weight limit on your shelves? If so, consider this when you are trying to find a specific place for your canned goods for instance because they will weigh more than cereal boxes.
• Do you have drawer-shelves (shelved on tracks)? If so, remember that you will have easy access to the back of your shelf so you will be able to line things up.

These are all things you should consider while you shelves are all empty and that you have a clear view of your food storing space.

Quick Tip: If you have wire shelving, here is a great DIY project you can follow to refresh the look of your shelves for a reasonable price. I personally plan to try this in a couple of our closets in the house.

Organizing tools

If you know me, you know that I’m a die-hard fan of the Dollorama store and all that it can offer to better organize your home. The only down side is that sometimes, if you don’t get enough of the item you like, you may never see it there again… That’s why I suggest you try out your newly organized area and test it out with what you already have. Once you are sure that it works, for you, mesure and go shop for the supplies you need. Here are the organizing tools I’ve used in our pantry.

Large black plastic baskets

I use these to store loose items at the top of our pantry so I can easily pull them out when I need to. Being that they are higher (and that I’m not the tallest person) I like how these baskets have handles.

I also use them for overstock items in a couple of categories such as this one for all the extra pasta we have.

Clear containers

I use these to store smaller items and bottles. Since we have wire shelving in our pantry, it makes it easier to keep bottles up and contain small items from a specific category. These are great for snacks! Being that they are clear, you can easily see the quantity left in each container. I’ve also used these containers to organize our refrigerator which I wrote about in a previous blog post.

Turntable

I love a good turntable to store items I don’t want to have a hard time reaching for and that I can see at a glance. Bonus: It’s fun to spin it around when you “need” it.

Containers with lids

I use these types of containers for loose items like flour, sugar, chocolate chips, etc. By removing the boxes and bags for these, I’m saving space because I can line everything up neatly and consistently.

I also use a smaller version of containers with lids for other items like pasta and rice or baking supplies.

Crates

I use these sturdy crates for large items I have in overstock. I initially intended to have these crates on wheels (that I would have added underneath) but I would have lost a little bit of height so I decided to just put felts underneath to make them easier to slide in and out of the pantry when I need to go through them.

When I can’t find what I want at Dollorama, I look at other stores and lately my newest find has been Giant Tiger. I have noticed recently that Giant Tiger has a beautiful variety of storage containers and baskets for a reasonnable price. What is great about the store is that you can order online! I’ve ordered online from them before, and the service was great!

The brand OXO also has great quality containers perfect for organizing a pantry. They can be found on Amazon and in some stores like BedBath&Beyond and WalMart. You will notice that they are more expensive than the ones I’ve used so it’s all a matter of preference as to what look you are going for and the budget that you have.

Labels

Again, like I mentioned in my blog post on organizing your spices, you have unlimited options to label you bins, containers and sections for your pantry. Find a style you like and do your best to be consistent through out. It’s easier on the eye to find something when all the labels are consistently the same and bonus: it will look like a professional did it.

The whole view

Here is an overall view of our pantry. I rearrange and change things as I go if I feel like what we currently have no longer meets our needs as a family. I still have goals of better organizing our canned goods on pyramid shelves so that I can see everything at a glance but I try to do things at a slow pace to make sure that what I will do will benefit us for a long time. One thing at a time.

It took me a while to get to this point. I did one category at a time depending on its needs and bought the containers I wanted. I had to pace myself or else it would have cost me a lot to do it all at one. I’m not saying you “have to” pace yourself; I’m saying that it’s possible to do it slowly OR all at once. It all depends on you and what you choose to do.

A Friend’s Pantry

Here is a pantry I’ve organized without buying any organizational tools. I used what I had on hand (empty boxes and containers my friend already had). All I really did was take EVERYTHING out and then grouped similar items together to find a new location for them based on the quantity for each grouping.

Total disclaimer, it took me about 3-4 hours to do it because I took advantage of the fact that the shelves were empty to clean them. I also labelled everything I could while I was at it to make it easier for my friends to find everything (since I was doing this without them around).

My friend lived with her pantry this way for a while to test it out and see if it worked for her and her family. Once she knew she liked where everything was, she went to Dollorama to grab a few bins for some of the items I had grouped together. Adding containers gave these items a permanent place/home with a label and all.

I hope this post was informative and inspiring. If you have any questions, let me know in the comments below, send me an email or private message on social media 🙂 I love helping others with organization.