10 Top Tips for How To Organize A Pantry

Need to know how to organize a pantry? Here are some of my best tips for organizing your pantry so you stop wasting food, money and time.

Tell me if this sounds familiar.

You rush home to make dinner for your family. Of course, you have no idea what you want to cook so you open your kitchen pantry hoping for inspiration.

There’s pasta. Great! Pasta it is. But, where’s the sauce?

You know you had a jar in here, didn’t you? So, where is it?

Oh, there it is! Hiding between a box of cereal and that pack of chips you bought but didn’t like. Why is that still there?

Anyway, doesn’t matter now… you’ll get to that later.

You grab the jar of sauce triumphantly and your eyes land on the expiration date.

That can’t be right. Has this really expired 5 months ago? (End of dramatic story.)

If your pantry is a disaster zone, you’re not alone. This area can quickly become a mess from the assortment of different food containers, packages falling off the shelves, expired foods and barely used but forgotten ingredients.

Organizing your pantry has many benefits. You’ll know exactly where everything is and what you have on hand at a glance. This will save you time and money.

If you’ve seen photos of pantries with neat rows of beautiful storage containers and pretty baskets full of food and think yours will never look like that, don’t despair. Here are my top pantry organization tips to conquer the clutter and keep it that way. These ideas work whether you have a small kitchen pantry, a deep pantry or a walk-in one (lucky you).

The first step is to purge all food past its due date and anything you know you won’t use again. Then, you can begin organizing.

How To Organize A Pantry Once and For All

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Use Clear Storage Containers

Clear storage containers are great for organizing especially when it comes to food. They allow you to see exactly what’s inside, and how much you have left, without much effort.

Use square or rectangular containers that can pack tightly together without wasting much space especially if you’re organizing a small pantry.

Group Similar Items

Group like items together. For example, place all your dry ingredients in one area and wet ingredients in another.

You can even create zones for categories of food. If you love to bake, group all of your baking ingredients e.g. sprinkles, icing sugar etc. in a basket or create a breakfast zone. Do what works best for you.

Think About Location

Place frequently used ingredients at eye level and rarely used items up high. Put heavy or bulky items on the floor or lowest shelf.

Baskets Corral Clutter

Pantry organization baskets are amazing for hiding ugly packaging and they corral clutter. If you have lots of small packages that don’t stand well on their own, put them in a basket. I use this trick for snacks, pastas, rice etc. You’ll save a lot of space by doing this too.

Simply arrange items in baskets according to broad categories.

Avoid Wasted Space

Install pantry door organizers, hooks or even peg board to eliminate wasted space on walls and the door. Take advantage of tight corners by using a Lazy Susan or tiered turntables.

Maximize the height of your shelves with pantry shelf organizers. These can double your shelf space for smaller items.

Make It Easy To See Everything

Store shorter packages in front and taller ones at the back of the pantry shelves. If they’re all the same size, use step risers to create tiers.

Not only does this help with visibility, it also helps with accessibility.

Make Things Easily Accessible

When you stock your pantry, place items on shelves so you only have to move one thing to reach another. This is key for keeping your pantry organized.

If you have too many items in front of one another, the thing at the back of the shelf tends to get lost. You won’t want to make the effort to access that item and you probably won’t put back the things you moved properly. You might think you will, but odds are, you won’t, especially if you’re in a rush.

If you have lots of little things to store, throw them in a basket. That way, you just need to pick the basket up to reach behind it.

Turntables make it easy to access things in corners and pull-out drawers mean you won’t lose stuff at the back of a shelf.

Label Everything

Grab your label maker and go crazy. Label food storage containers, shelves, baskets and even organizers. Labels will help you to keep everything organized. You and your family will know what’s inside containers and where to put stuff back after they’ve removed something.

If you prefer something less permanent, try chalk labels or dry erase ones. As your food changes, you can easily update the labels to match.

If you’ve taken food out of its original packaging, make sure to write down the expiration date on your labels.

Store Perishables Correctly

Take vegetables and fruit out of any plastic bags or packaging and store in lined baskets or boxes. Never store onions and potatoes together because they will spoil quickly.

Keep items like garlic and potatoes in dark, dry, well-ventilated areas.

Make Sure You Use Your Food

Don’t let your pantry become overrun with unused, expired food again. When you stock your shelves with new groceries, ensure the older ingredients are up front. This way, you’ll grab those first the next time you get something from the pantry.

You can use this pantry inventory printable to keep track of what you have. Simply print it and hang it on the pantry door. If you laminate the sheet and write on it with a dry erase marker, you can use it multiple times.

There you have it — my top tips for how to organize your pantry. Once you’ve used these tips, you’ll have an  organized kitchen pantry that saves you time and money because you’ll know just where to find everything and you won’t waste food or buy things you already have.