7 Tips to (Finally!) Organize Your Kitchen Pantry

Okay, so I haven't blogged much about topics unrelated to my Digital Writing class, which is because blogging personally takes a huge amount of time! And because I'm busy! And because I enjoy naps over pouring out my thoughts into the endless, eternal void that we call the Internet!

That aside, this semester is nearly over, and I've been sitting on finally writing about my experiences with organizing my kitchen pantry/cupboard/cabinet/whatever you want to call it since it's makeover on November 11th. Today is December 9th. That's how amazing I am at procrastinating. Or maybe, if you want to think of me as a good student, it's a testament to my ability to prioritize tasks and class assignments that are due sooner. It's your call.

However, the time that's passed also enables me to give you an update on whether these tips worked out in the long-term ("long-term" here meaning about a month, but just go with it). So, without further ado, let's get on with it!

Here are a few before pictures of what I was working with. Heads up to people who don't handle disorganization well because you're going to want to sit down for this.

Horrifying, right?

To give you some background info, these photos are taken from a wonky angle because this pantry is located directly across from the basement door in a very short and narrow hallway that leads from the kitchen to the foyer. There was no room for me to back up more and get the whole pantry in one shot, so you're stuck with these pictures.

The pantry has four levels of shelving (the bottom one is almost empty because I had started cleaning before realizing this could be a helpful process to document), and all of them were stuffed with food and miscellaneous items that were half-consumed, unopened, expired, on the verge of expiring, never got to see the light of day, or I didn't even know we had. It was impossible to access anything without fearing that something else would come falling down on you, so things were typically plucked out and then haphazardly shoved back into the cabinet without a second thought towards placement before quickly shutting the doors on the next unsuspecting victim. I'm slightly exaggerating, but you get my point. It was an inefficient, unorganized, sad waste of space, and it needed some serious TLC.

Now, without further ado (for real this time), here are my tips.

1. Things Have to Get Worse Before They Get Better

Mentally prepare yourself for a task of this size. I set aside my whole afternoon (partially because I was delaying writing a paper), put on some groovy music, threw my hair up in a messy bun, and got to work emptying the shelves of their contents, one by one. This process overtook my entire kitchen, giving my parents a bit of a heart attack when they couldn't see any more counter or stovetop. As you can see from the photos below, there was no going back now.

This actually isn't even all of the food because of Tip #2, which is to...

2. Throw Out Anything Expired Or Inedible

This step really pained me because it showed just how much food and money my family wastes while people all over the world are starving or living in poverty. Lately, I've seen some depressing images of extremely malnourished humans who are currently suffering to an incomprehensible degree due to droughts in East Africa, so it made me feel ashamed that we weren't more conscientious about using or eating what we buy.

However, there were things that I just had to toss, like this peanut butter that expired in May of 2014. This is ancient in peanut butter years. I mean, the kids I babysit are younger than this spread.

So, this, amongst other items like stale crackers and a bottle of funky oil we once used as a kitchen decoration for ten years but never consumed or discarded, went into the trash. They didn't even get a chance to perch on the counter because as I took items off the shelf, they went straight into the garbage if it was something I feared would give me food poisoning if I consumed.

Thus, if you aren't willing to eat it, chuck it. Unless of course you can...

3. Donate to a Local Shelter or Food Bank

If your food is unopened and still marked as fresh, but not something you would consume (because maybe you just don't like Cheerios anymore or your obsession with tomato soup is over), consider donating it! I know it's an extra step to have to find a donation site, but at least your food would be going towards someone who needs it. Plus, it frees up precious shelf space, so it's a win-win for all!

4. Be Kind to the Environment and Recycle

If you've donated extra food and still want to do more good, recycle any boxes or containers that would've otherwise been dumped into a landfill. Once again, it's an extra step to empty the crackers out of their cardboard boxes or shake coffee out of its plastic container, but we only have one planet and it's not doing so hot. Or should I say cold? #ClimateChangeIsReal

5. Deep Clean Your Empty Shelves

Be honest: how often do you wipe down your shelves? Since our shelves were never empty, I don't think they'd been cleaned since we moved into this house six years ago. Take this time to give them a good, thorough scrubbing with some Clorox wipes. It'll probably be the only cleaning they'll get until 2027.

6. Organize your remaining food

I did my best to group the remaining foods into their own little sections of the counter, so pastas, sauces, condiments, cereals, teas/coffees/hot chocolate mixes, canned food, etc. were all segregated. This helps you visualize what amount of pantry space you'll need to reserve for certain foods.

If I had multiples of the same foods, I would add them to my "Seriously Guys Please Do Not Buy More of This" list to remind my parents, the primary grocery shoppers, that we, for example, do not need a twelfth (!!!) bottle of Cormier's Gold Garlic & Jalapeño All Natural Cooking Sauce.

I wish I was joking about this. (I also realize that I could've potentially donated some of these, but having my parents see just how many bottles of this stuff we have when they open the newly organized pantry really hammers home the fact that we do not need to buy any more of this cooking sauce for at least the next five years.)

Another tip for organizing your food before putting it back on the shelves is to number the same foods in order of oldest to newest. I don't have a close up picture of this, but essentially I put "Use me 1st" signs on the box of breadcrumbs/Shake 'n' Bake/salad dressing that is due to expire first, a "Use me 2nd" sign on the box that is due to expire second, and so on. In the month since this pantry transformation, prioritizing which item needs to be eaten first has helped my family fully use foods before opening another box/can/carton. Thus, less food and your hard-earned money go to waste!

7. reAssemble Your Pantry

Now here's the part we've all been waiting for: putting everything back! You're almost at the finish line! You just have to carefully put everything into places that maximize your shelves' space and efficiency. It seems like it'd be a simple task, but a lot of brain power goes into this process. Pretend you're a middle school teacher making a seating chart -- you can't have the daydreamers by the window or all the class clowns together in the back! This is serious business.

Also, keep in mind that a location that works for my foods may not work for your situation, but I'll still share my thought process while organizing permanent homes for everything in my pantry.

For example, we're big pasta eaters, so the pasta has to be at an accessible height, and our family's most-used pasta shapes have to be easy to grab (so Elbows and Penne up front and Spaghetti in the back). We are also fans of bread crumbs and Shake 'n' Bake to prep meats for dinner, peanut butter (but not expired kinds), and Clif Bars, so I kept those on the same middle level as the pastas.

On the bottom, I put my brother's two cereal containers where they were before because he doesn't do well with change. I tucked my teas and hot beverages in the back left-hand corner because I don't mind reaching for them if it means saving some prime real estate for something my mom would prefer to access easily.

Canned foods, salad dressings, those Cormier's cooking sauces that seem to multiply, and gravy ingredients were up higher because they're used less frequently. I kept the Quaker oatmeals that my dad likes in addition to the dry rubs he uses for making ribs up higher, too, because he's pretty tall, so those are at his eye level.

Lastly, I did not touch the top level of the pantry because I am quite fearful of heights. Kneeling on a stool was already nerve-wracking enough to even consider standing on it, so I left the coffee pitchers, Brita water systems, and Soda Stream containers where they were. We don't use them often enough for me to risk falling and breaking my neck trying to clean up there. Especially not when I'm this close to finishing the semester. This. Close.

And now, what you all have been waiting for: THE REVEAL!

It's certainly not perfect or professional, but I'm proud of how it turned out and how it's been maintained over the past few weeks. I think my stern lecture about checking what we have before buying more really resonated with my parents, and now they have no excuses about not knowing that we did not need another bottle of that darn Cormier's cooking sauce.

I also think that having an organized pantry encourages people to keep it that way. No one wants to be the one to mess this up (for fear of my wrath), so they're being a little more careful with putting things back where they were found.

Anyway, this post is obnoxiously long, so I'll end it here. If any of these tips written by a 20-year-old who has never organized a pantry before help you, let me know! And if they don't, well . . . go read a better blog from someone who is actually qualified to give advice?

Until next time,

Jackie