Organizing your pantry to save time and money

Organizing your pantry makes life easier for preparing meals, grabbing a quick snack, shopping for groceries and not wasting time and money.

My pantry was a jumbled, overwhelming mess for YEARS. Finding what I needed to prepare a meal became a scavenger hunt or a clean-up expedition. I knew I needed to have a system for organizing the pantry, but I had no clue how to make it happen.

The BEFORE photo. I had no clue what I had or what I needed because the shelves were an overflowing mess.

When I reached up to grab the taco shells, I knocked over a box and rice rained down on my head. Or I bought another package of gluten-free pancake mix because I didn’t see the unopened box hiding on a high shelf behind the jug of white vinegar and the peanut butter-filled pretzels. A dark corner hid a stash of KIND bars – once the staple of my young adult daughter’s high school lunches – that expired in 2015.

Bottles of cleaner, microfiber cloths, Swiffer refill pads and the box of kitchen garbage bags frequently fell off the bottom shelf, even spilling rug cleaning solution onto the 12-packs of soda stacked on the floor.

You get the idea.

Maybe three times in the 22 years we’ve lived in our house, I went through a major cleaning and organizing the pantry. I’d label shelves and for a while, it worked. Until it didn’t. My husband even paid one of our daughters to straighten it up a time or two.

I abandoned any organizational system I had because I ran out of room. But I felt powerless to make a significant change because the space overwhelmed me.

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A new solution to a long-standing problem

The other day, something my hubby, the Fix-it Farmer, suggested broke through the log jam in my mind about organizing the pantry. He encouraged me to get one of my daughters to help me clean out the closet under the stairs, put in a small shelf unit and move all the cleaning supplies out of the pantry and into the closet.

Genius. Now the closet was just as messy as the pantry (I have a whole category called organizationally challenged for a reason). But I knew I could get rid of many of the shoes and old soccer gear and relocate the sleeping bags to make room for the cleaning supplies. We paid my youngest daughter to help clear out the closet. She is better at decluttering than I am.

I use almost everything in my pantry on a regular basis, I was just trying to fit too much into the space. By pulling out a whole category of items, I could see what was there, what I needed to buy and not have messy accidents.

The best canisters EVER

I wanted to blog about a birthday gift, which provided another incentive to organize the pantry. My mom gave me a great set of storage containers for flour, sugar and other staples. They seal up air tight and come in four different sizes. Is it bad that I have types of sugar in four of the six canisters?

Pantry canisters with chalkboard labels help me find what I need fast. Thanks to my mom for a great gift!

This Prepworks by Progressive 6-Piece Prokeeper Set includes a flour container with a built-in bar for leveling a measuring cup, a sugar container with a spout for pouring, a brown sugar container with a disk to prevent clumping and two small containers with options for sprinkling or measuring.

My mom was a bit nervous about giving it to me for my birthday, but seriously, I LOVE this set. My old canisters were falling apart. One of the latches broke and another lost its plastic seal. They sat on my counter, collecting dust and splatters.

I went to Michaels and bought a few sets of chalkboard-style stickers and chalkboard erasable markers. When I removed the old flour and sugar canisters from my counter and put the new labeled containers in my pantry, that one little section looked GREAT. But 90 percent of the space was still a HOT MESS.

Making the switch

I could clean the pantry, but I doubted I could make the space work better. Then Shawn gave me the idea of relocating my cleaning supplies. Now the only cleaning items in the pantry are a broom and dustpan and the box of kitchen garbage bags because the garbage can also lives in the pantry. I keep a few cleaners under the kitchen sink that I use often in the kitchen.

All other cleaners, my portable carpet steamer,  cleaning rags, dusters, etc. went into the closet under the stairs. The Bissell Little Green Carpet and Upholstery Cleaner  is a must if you have pets or small children.

I relocated the vacuum from the closet at the top of the stairs to a spot under the stairs. I vacuum downstairs more often because the perpetually shedding Elektra lives downstairs. The slightly less furry Evie lives upstairs. The stairs are the DMZ or the Neutral Zone.

I don’t dread opening my pantry door anymore. I know what I have and what I need.

Seven steps to organizing the pantry

Here are the basic steps of making a lasting improvement on organizing the pantry.

1. Decide if you need to decrease the number of items stored in the space. Ask yourself if something could be stored elsewhere to free up much-needed room.
2. Make a general plan for where you’ll keep different categories of items. I separated canned goods, box mixes, baking products, drinks, etc. If you have high shelves, decide what items to keep out of easy reach. Maybe the jumbo packs of paper towels and storage bags you bought at Costco or Sam’s Club.
3. Go shelf by shelf and pull everything out. Toss anything expired. I put up my card table to have a nearby surface for goods.
4. Wipe down the shelf and, if needed, put down new shelf coverings. I took time to remove old sticky contact paper (using Goo Gone on the worst spots). I used EasyLiner brand.
5. Group like items together in an area or container. I’m using plastic boxes, baskets and bins for crackers, granola bars, pasta, rice, GF baking products, etc. Many of the containers were already in my pantry, and I didn’t want to buy too many new ones. Everything isn’t all cute and matchy, but it works.
6. If you have some hard-to-reach corners, get several lazy susan turntables to corral bottles and make life easier. I got these three lazy susans (one 12-inch and two 10-inch) at Walmart.
7. Label everything so you remember where stuff goes and so others can help you keep the pantry organized.

I’m not gonna lie. This project took many hours because I cleaned out two major hot spots in my home. I enlisted (paid) one of my daughters to help for a few hours. Both she and my husband don’t have as big of a problem organizing physical items as I do. Find a family member or a friend who can give advice and assistance. Even just a little help can get you out of the paralysis of overwhelm.

Do you need help organizing the pantry or is there another trouble spot in your home?

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