Many women may dream of beautiful pantries on the magazines. Other women make resolutions for organizing the pantry which always fail. Here are the few pantry organization ideas that inspire you to start and arrange your things in the good looking and well organized manner.
If the holidays are approaching you may spend most of your time in the kitchen preparing your kid’s favourite snacks. Improper organization of pantry shelves makes your meal preparation time consuming and messy activity which further impacts the taste of the food that you cook out of anger and frustration.
This article discusses the benefits of organizing pantry shelves. At the end of the article you will find the simple tricks and effective ideas to organize your pantry shelves.
How To organize pantry Shelves:
You don’t need any expensive any expensive pantry organizing accessories. Here are the few DIY pantry organization ideas.
1. Start With Clean Floor:
The first step to start with organization process is to empty and clean the entire pantry. Starting with fresh pantry will help to sustain your organization longer. Take out the empty containers and packets to free up the space.
2. Create a Mail Station:
Plan and organize the ways to main the mails. Maintain a folder for managing incoming and outgoing mails. Maintain a separate folder for maintaining the bills. Keep a space for the warranty cards of your kitchen and home appliances in that folder.
3. Use Command Hooks:
Command hooks are the great way to hang the reusable plastic bags. It saves your time running in a hurry in search of bags while going out for shopping.
4. Divide Your Kitchen into Zones:
Categorize the things in your kitchen and divide it into zones. It helps in reducing the cooking time by maintaining your kitchen clean. Segregate the entire pantry into zones depending on the cooking categories that match your lifestyle. Maintain the frequently used zone in easy reach. You can also label each zone for easy identification. This is one of the best ways to organize pantry items.
Zone 1 : Party Goods Together
Organize all stock that you use for the parties like straws, napkins, tooth picks, trays, glasses in a basket and place it on the top of the pantry shelf so that it does not mix with the everyday products. Whenever the guests arrive you can easily pick the basket and serve them.
Zone 2: Dry Ingredients
Store all the dry ingredients like flour in a clean and dry glass jars. This makes you to easily notice the quantity of the stock.
Zone 3: Meal Plan
After your grocery shopping plan ahead the recipes schedule for the entire week. Sort out the ingredients for each recipe and store them in the labeled basket. This saves your time of running all around the kitchen while preparing a recipe.
Zone 4: Spices and Soups:
Arrange your spice jars and sauce bottle in rows one over the other. Arrange the back row cans in easy view.
Zone 5: Quick Breakfast
Keep the morning breakfast and snacks in easy access spot reachable to children. So that they can make their own snack box for school when you are in other work. Fit the bread in under the shelf baskets.
Zone 6: Tools and Appliances
Don’t waste the shelf space for placing the bulky mugs, rarely used saucepans, Cutting board, blenders etc. Simply hang them from a command hook.
Zone 7: Home remedies:
Avoid roaming all over the kitchen when cold or flu strikes. Store the proven remedies like chicken soup packets, green tea bags, and ginger tea in one basket.
5. Manage Metal Spice Racks:
Spice racks can accommodate more number of jars in a little space. They prevent the jars from breaking by reducing the risk of staking the jars one over the other. Metal racks are the smarter way to deal with the low storage pantries.
You can also place the metal spice racks on your cooking tab
6. Stackable and collapsible Silicone Containers:
Plastic containers are coming in various shapes and sizes. Silicone containers are a great way to store both dry and wet foods.
These containers best fit for your kids meals. Once they are washed you need not to place them one over the other wasting the entire shelf. They can be stacked one into the other when not in use. They save a lot of space.
7. Stackable Storage Bins:
Stackable storage bins are a great way to store vegetables and fruits in a less space. You can also use these bins for various purposes like storing the detergents, floor cleaners, dish soaps etc
8. Under sink Storage:
Nail a plastic tray under the sink or top the cabinet door below the sink to store extra dish soaps , sponges, trash bag rolls, tissue rolls etc.
9. Utilize space above the stove:
If you have enough space, install a small cabinet above the stove and store cooking essentials like oils, spices, cooking sprays in them.
10. Wall Pocket Storage Bags:
Wall pocket storage bags are the best choice to save the space and to store the tiny packets in an organized way. You can hang this bag on the wall or on the inside of the pantry door. You can store everything from power bars, tea packets, toothpaste to Ziploc bags and tin foils.
11. Rack for Water Bottles:
Though the water bottles are lightweight objects they occupy more space. Sometimes they slip over the things and create mess. You can organize them well in a metal water bottle holder. You can also make use of wine rack for storing the water bottles.
12. Drawer Dividers to sort out your Cooking tools:
Searching for a fork in a drawer full of bloating spoons and knives is the time wasting activity. You can customize the dividers for the pantry drawer yourself by using the craft boards , wood, or plastic trays.
Once you have the dividers, it is very easy to organize cutting tools, coffee filters, blenders, serving utensils etc.
13. Use Towel Rods:
Use the towel racks for holding lids. This is the smart way to organize the lids. You can pin the towel rod either on your pantry door or on the wall.
14. Mount Magazine Rack:
Mount the magazine rack inside the cabinet door. It can be used as a holder for cutting boards, muffin trays, chocolate and cookie molds.
15. Use Tension Rods:
Use the sidewalls of the cabinet under the sink to by nailing the tension rod to create the hanging space. You can hang the cleansers that comes in a spray bottles. This saves a lot of floor space in the cabinet which can be used for placing the baskets with brushes, sponges and other cleansing staples.
16. Lazy Susans:
Lazy susans are a good choice to utilize the corners more effectively. These spinning carousels provide you a lot of extra room in your pantry. They spin smoothly and silently irrespective of the weight.
17. Cardboard Can Rack:
You can make your own rack for canned storage with card stock. This can rack can save a lot of space and avoid the risk of stacking cans one over the other in a less space.
You can also use the magazine holder for the canned food storage.
18. Plan for Pull Out Drawers:
Plan for the pull out drawers while you are planning for the renovation of your kitchen. You can organize cans, jars, and short containers deep into the cabinet.
19. Reuse the old Soda Boxes:
You can reuse the old soda boxes as the cabinet for the canned food. Use marker to label the content or you can also make use of washi tape for the pleasant appearance.
20. Organize Deep Pantry Shelves:
Most of the women struggle with the deep pantries. The troublesome fact about the deep shelves is that you have to take out everything in order to start with. Lazy susans works well to tackle this situation.
Put the frequently used things in the front row. Use shelf risers and dividers to deal with the deep shelves.
21. Use Labels:
Even the well organized pantry is not complete without labels. Label the baskets, jars with the contents inside. Use the chalkboard label so that you can easily erase and change it.
Tips for the Organized Pantry:
Some women may fail to manage the organized pantry. Hurry cooking can collapse any organization in just a few minutes. Here are a few tips to keep your pantry well organized all the time.
- Assess your pantry shelves on a weekly basis.
- Spend 10 minutes daily to check whether everything is in order.
- Make use of every inch effectively.
- In order to find things easily. Place the like items at one place.
- Have a regular look at your pantry staples and update them regularly.
- Finding the right containers to store the goods is the key to maintain organized kitchen.
- Baskets work well to store the goods that can not stand on their own like snack packets,
- boxes of cereals, bread, small sachets of spices, sauces etc.
- Use drawers for storing small items like sprinklers, nuts and snack packets.
- Utilize the inner part of your pantry doors.
- Use floating shelves on your kitchen table.
- Clear the grab in your kitchen from time to time.
- Take out the old cans and expired food items.
Benefits of Pantry Organization:
Having the organized pantry keeps you well prepared all the time. Here are the few benefits of pantry organization:
1. You can make use of valuable space in the kitchen effectively.
2. Organized pantry makes you to easily notice what is required and what is not. It will help you in saving money by avoiding buying unnecessary things.
3. Using glass jars and plastic containers instead of half used packets help you to get rid of pantry bugs.
4. If everything is well organized, it is very easy to clean pantry walls, floors, and doors.
5. Organized pantry can ease the process of cooking.
6. Organized pantry encourages you to try new tasty recipes that your family will enjoy.
It’s much easier to stay organized once you have organized kitchen. Follow 21 simple DIY pantry organization ideas for a hassle free cooking.