Organizing Odds and Ends: The Pantry

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There is something in my kitchen.  It’s angry and ugly and totally not something I want anyone who comes over to see.

The PANTRY

Ugh!  There is no reason to why anything is anywhere!  There are containers hiding behind containers, things dangling from shelves, piled on-top of each other.  It is NOT FUNCTIONAL!

So back to Real Simple Magazine’s organizer ideas.  I need to try organizing this differently.

I must organize my pantry in a way that makes sense to my brain so that it actually stays organized.

So here goes!

Step 1: Empty pantry onto kitchen table.

 

 

 

 

Step 2: Organize contents.  I decided to organize everything based on cuisine and the meals that I use it for.  One day, I’d like to organize more ingredients by type and cook more from scratch, but that doesn’t work for me now.  I’d also like to put everything in super cute clear containers with adorable lids and labels.  That’s not something I need to worry about right now either.

Step 3: Reload.

I filled my top shelf with baking goods.  I only use these on special occasions, but I know that everything I need to check to see if I have for baked goods will be on the top shelf.  

 

Next I put “meals in themselves” on a shelf.  Syrup is an additive to oatmeal that Doc uses, so it goes with oatmeal.  The peanut butter and unopened jelly go together and soups for sick days are stacked on top of each other for those days you are “too sick” to make “real” soup.

Now we are on to things I use all the time!  “Mexican food” staples are on one side, “Italian” on the other.  This is the only shelf with things hiding behind the front.  The reason is, I have several types of pasta and can sort through them when I need to, but I know where all the pasta is when I can see the Italian foods are all in the same place.

The final shelf is snack items.  They are all on the bottom to root through when hunger strikes.

The whole point to this organization overhaul is this: I had to group stuff by meals instead of by type of food.  This will actually serve me better right now.  I realized something while typing this.  I have been organizing all my stuff as if I was my mother.  I know how my mother organized things and how she wanted things when I was a kid.  I never thought there was another way. Now that I’m moving on to organizing my way…let’s hope it stays clean now!