3 Steps To A Perfectly Presentable Pantry
The kitchen. It’s the space where we cook, eat, and socialize with friends and family. Keeping your pantry in order allows you to see what items you have and in turn, helps eliminate excessive spending on foods you didn’t think you had. A pantry transformation may take a bit of patience, but is absolutely worth the time! Do you want a dream pantry? Here are my top 3 tips!
1. USE CONTAINERS
We strongly recommend storing all dry goods in containers. The choice of container is personal preference; however, we do recommend OXO Good Grips POP Containers. These are clear, plastic (so if dropped by child, no big deal) and have a pop lid that will seal your food and is easy to use. Whatever storage you end up using, keep it consistent throughout so your pantry looks neat and tidy. Containers allow you to see what food you have and how much you have left and believe it or not it saves a TON of space! How does it work? EVERY dry good item should be emptied out of its original packaging and be put in a container– baking items, breakfast cereals, snacks, you name it! If you are concerned about not knowing the date of expiration of your food, since you are disposing the packaging, use a removable maker to jot down the expiration date on the bottom of the container.
2. USE LABELS
Labeling your containers is a MUST! How do you know if you’re drinking regular or decaf? The style of label you chose is truly dependant on your style of container and kitchen space. We love using white vinyl labels as they attach well to container, and are simply beautiful – who knew a jar of almonds could look so pretty?! The labels on your containers serve as the avocado to your toast – you just have to use labels if you are going to organize your space with containers. Again, consistency is key – use the same style of labels for all containers, same font, and same placement on the container.
3. FIND A SPACE FOR THE ‘EXTRAS’
This tip is quite important, otherwise your pantry organization will be unsuccessful, in no time! You need to find a space, whether it be a cupboard, drawer or shelf to store the extra packages that are not yet empty. What do we mean? Often times your pretzel container will be filled to the brim, but there are still pretzels left in the bag. We can’t be throwing out perfectly good pretzels now! This package needs a separate home with the rest of the packages. I suggest buying wired baskets to put all of the extra packages in and then storing these baskets in a separate cupboard, this will avoid a mess and disarray of packages. The place where you store your ‘extras’ CANNOT be the same space where you house your containers. It will take up way too much real-estate in the pantry and it will look extremely messy and truly defeats the purpose of using containers in the first place!
4. BONUS TIP
To keep the consistency of your pantry, re-organize and freshen up your pantry every 6 months!
-Megan Arthurs H:OM Organizing
Does your space need to be decluttered? Looking to organize your home? Visit Megan at the 2019 Fall Home Show. Tickets are available now.
