The pantry is a very important space in the kitchen. However, everyone can admit that the pantry is often left neglected. This article aims to help readers avoid making such a mistake and use their pantry to its full potential.
An organized pantry should not only be nice to look at but should also be purposeful. It should also be helpful in maximizing a home owner’s resources and help avoid food waste. In fact, an organized pantry can mean less kitchen work for homeowners and more quality time with the family. Here are some tips to help save your kitchen worries and all your snacks.
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Group “Like Items”
The main goal of having a pantry is storage. This is where you will store all your kitchen needs. Homeowners need to keep in mind that items will eventually pile up in the pantry. Always keep in mind to group items that are alike in order to find things easily. This is the basic rule in organizing anything.
You don’t need to be too meticulous and check all brand names of all items. For a start, group everything according to purposes like baking, condiments, pots, pans, and toiletries. Of course, categories will depend on homeowners. This simple tip can help anyone be more organized and avoid the constant search for groceries in the pantry.
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Use Your Vertical Space
One can never have too much storage space. In fact, the pantry will more likely be the most packed space in a home. So, it is very important to use any vertical space to its fullest potential. The top shelf should never be empty. You can always store your seasonal equipment on the top shelf to avoid the hassle of getting things from it. Some things you can put on the top shelf include any seasonal mouldings you use in baking, decorative dining sets or anything you barely use but still need to have available in your pantry for special occasions. The shelves on your eye level are for perishable items that you have to be conscious about. Lastly, the lowest part of your storage may be for supplies like toiletries, sandwich bags and the like.
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First In First Out
Your pantry may have a number of cans way over their expiration date. That’s a given in most households. In order to avoid this, you have to be systematic in stacking your goods. This process involves stacking the newest inventory at the back of the shelf and bringing older items to the front. Today, there are a number of products that can help you do that without any hassle. There are can dispensers that allow users to just put items on top and the older ones will roll down for easy access.
If you don’t have the budget for dispensers, you can use any inexpensive metal basket. One basket can fit at least three kinds of cans, you can just stack the cans sideways and make sure to put the newest cans at the back and roll the older ones out front. It’s that easy!
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Use Your Door
There is plenty of real estate on your door! You can put up different hangers on the backside of your door for more storage space. Here, you can hang your plastic wrappers, aluminium foils, sandwich bags, cling wraps, fresh produce, your favourite spices and condiments, or your aprons and mittens. To make it look presentable, you can even just make use of the hanging shoe organizer for all of this stuff. It doesn’t take up much space and everything will have a specific spot on the organizer.
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Mind Your Food Neighbor
Some perishable items are not meant to be good neighbours. So, if you are storing tomatoes, onion, garlic and other herbs, make sure to put them in separate containers. If you are using a shoe organizer at the back of your door, make sure that fresh produce is not mingling. Onion and garlic may be stored together but make sure to keep tomatoes away from these in order to avoid spoilage. Also, it is important to take note that condiments like curry powder and cumin powder should never be stored with flours used for baking.
Organizing may be hard at first, but doing this early on will save you from any future headaches. Keep in mind to focus on your daily activities in the kitchen, have what you constantly need nearby and make sure to put seasonal items on upper shelves and in kitchen cabinets.
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