Simplicity In Organizing Pantry Cabinets

Even the neatest houses can be plagued with messy pantry cabinets. After time, things just get out of place and buried behind other, newer items. Getting your pantries organized is simple and can even be fun.

Set aside a day when you have a few hours to designate. It is best if you can be alone to avoid getting distracted.

Start by removing everything from the pantry. Stack things on the floor or countertops. Throw out anything that is outdated or has become stale. If you come across things that you really don’t use, ditch those too.

Once your pantry cabinet is empty, give it a good cleaning. Spilt food and splattered oils are full of germs. If you keep your garbage pail in there, you have probably had misses and the floor can also be kind of gross. Use an anti-bacterial kitchen cleaning spray and a rag to clean the entire inside.

Now comes the fun part. Start putting things in. Choose where to put everything carefully, in a way that will keep like items together. Put water jugs, soda bottles and other heavy things on the floor. At eye level, you want to put the things you use most often. Tall things, like cereal should go on the top shelf. Arrange your canned goods so that they are all in like rows. For example: Make rows of soups, rows of sauces and rows of vegetables. Select a taller shelf for cans so they can be double-stacked.

A good addition is a small plastic storage bin in which to keep all little stuff, like packets of gravy and soup mixes. If your shelves are racks, this will keep them from slipping through the slots and from getting lost behind other things.

Organizing kitchen pantry cabinets often gets put off because we think we don’t have the time to do it. But it really is not so bad. It can actually be fun and is quite simple.  Stand alone pantry cabinets make the process even simpler than built in pantry cabinets, since you have easier access to the whole thing.