Come inside the deep, dark corners of my pantry for the great pantry clean out as I sort, toss, and organize what’s inside!
Our pantry = where my stress hangs out
Our pantry seriously stresses me out all the time! It’s probably the area of my house that is the least organized at any given minute. I’ve written about it many times, including the pantry clean-out challenge and a post about pantry hacks. Check out our top 10 pantry staples here! The pantry is where food and organization co-mingle.
Our pantry has evolved over time. When I first bought this house it had swing-out doors that looked cool but were a pain to open and close. We took them off = so much better! I also used to have a ton of dried goods in mason jars. But I have mostly gone back to not decanting things for simplicity’s sake.
I blame the entropy of the pantry on a few things:
- There are now 4 of us digging through there on a daily basis.
- I get free samples more than the average person, and sometimes they hang out for a while.
- When you’re hangry, you grab what you grab and run! There’s no time to tidy up.
If and when we renovate this house (or move), a walk-in pantry is high on the wish list! I’ve never had one and have always used a cabinet of some kind. In my first house I stored things in the garage and ended up with bugs in the food – yikes! But when space is limited, you have to think creatively.
So on my latest clean-out day, I thought I’d take you along for the ride!
The Great Pantry Clean Out
Here are the before shots. Duplicates, expired items, things in the wrong place – the works! There is also just TOO MUCH STUFFED IN.
My Pantry Clean-Out Strategy
1. Remove most of the foods to the counters
2. Sort through and toss anything expired or that we will never eat
3. Put everything back in areas that make sense
The Tidy Pantry After
You can see that I had already labeled the shelves, so I put those categories back as they were. The biggest change wasn’t a total organization overhaul, but just decluttering the bulk of the categories.
Koozies now have their own shelf! They were a big trouble zone before. I also did the hard task of eating the remains of 3 different nut butter jars that were taking up space but never used.
Extra sauces live on the top shelf, and oils and vinegars are on the turntables.
The baskets house most of our kid and adult snack foods:
- Fruit bars and dried fruit (raisins, mangos)
- Baby pouches and dry snacks like pea pods and goldfish bags
- Adult snacks (Gratisfied bars and trail mix bags)
- Kid bars (Z bars, granola bars, etc.)
I had not one but TWO bags of expired flour. Eeek! And I was able to consolidate some of the oats into a new container and recycle the old.
Again, while Pinterest would love for me to buy 100 clear containers, I think the time it takes on a regular basis to decant everything (and briefly oxidize) isn’t really worth the visual gain you get. But I never say never!
The spice and herb cabinet is much happier!!
So there you have it!
Nothing dramatic, but a huge improvement when you open the pantry doors.
Please share your best pantry organizing tips!
Shana says
There is nothing more satisfying than organizing a space! I don’t love the clear bin trend because 1) They get dirty and require periodic cleaning and 2) The size doesn’t always match the size of the item. So I’d end up pouring cereal into a container, having cereal leftover in the box and then needing to store two of the same thing. I now leave things in their original container and just try to tidy and condense items every so often.
Kath Younger says
TOTALLY agree with you on containers and having extra. I don’t want to waste it, but I also don’t want to save the box just to use half a cup!
Jackie says
I like decanting when it makes using the item easier. Flour is a good example- it always causes a mess to open/close those bags and they are not easy to get measuring cups in/out of. So I keep my flour in a large OXO pop container. But things like snacks, cereals in resealable bags/boxes I keep in original packaging.
Kath Younger says
Great point on flour!
Kelly says
I literally printed this out to go home and tackle my pantry with your tips in hand! Currently we are using a closet under the stairs AND a cabinet in the kitchen so I never know where anything is. This was such a great and helpful post and made me feel better about not being on the clear container trend. Thank you!
Kath Younger says
Glad it was helpful!!
Jeanie says
I have flour, bread flour, rice and sugar in big jars with scoops but the rest I just mainly leave in boxes. I love looking at carefully curated pantries but agree with the comments regarding size of container and having a little left that then leaves me with two of something. I also don’t want the busy work of maintaining the container with labels, directions for cooking, etc. I figure my grandmother and mother didn’t decant their dry goods….why should I fall into that trap? Plus the containers are expensive!
I’d rather spend the money on a splurge dinner out or something.
Kath Younger says
That’s another good point about the directions/nutrition label getting tossed out with the packaging. I think instead of focusing on clear containers to decant, we should focus on baskets and bins to corral the original containers.
Alexandria says
I LOVE your pantry! I live in a small, old (much beloved!) home with a makeshift “cupboard pantry” in a tiny kitchen. We are also a family of four and it’s usually a me sifting through a cornucopia of bags/boxes/containers. The things that save me are stacking and zoning – and using the last week of the month to clean out the random small quantities of grains, odd canned food, etc before cleaning out for a full load in the new month.
Kath Younger says
I’ve had a few houses like that too – great tips!
Liz says
My pantry has a kid/lunch making zone that has snacks for the kids as well as things to grab for anyone making lunch for school/work. It gives the kids access to snacks without me having to help them and makes it easy to see when we need to restock on family favorites.
Jeannie says
Can you explain what you meant when you said your pantry used to have swing doors? It looks like it still does?
Kath Younger says
You can see the swing-out doos in this older post. There were inner shelves that swung out to show the back shelves.
JIll D says
If you have an extra freezer ( I live in the midwest we all have extra freezers) keep your flour(s) in the freezer which extends their longevity. I keep a small mason jar of flour in my kitchen for thickening sauces or dusting for pizza crust. During the holidays/winter aka baking season I may go through enough to warrant the bag in the pantry otherwise it is in cold storage.
While I too love the look of all glass jars the point of my pantry is that I can close the doors and no one needs to see my unruly bags and boxes.
Kath Younger says
Good tip! We don’t use our flour fast enough…