I’m not sure about you, but one of the busiest spots in the house is the kitchen pantry. Whether it’s me who needs to access items while cooking dinner, or the kids wanting their snacks eight times a day, this spot is a high traffic area. After coming home from the beach with leftover snacks and condiments that needed to be incorporated into the madness of an already full cabinet, I felt the need to completely purge and reestablish a new place for everything.
I started by pulling everything out and looking at dates. All expired items went into the trash. Food that was soon-to-be expired went on the dining room table because my plan is to get creative and use all of them in upcoming dinners. Finally, the items that were going back into the cabinet were left on the island to sort and organize.
As I was looking at all of the food, jars and boxes that needed a spot in the drawers, I made notes on how to best organize them to be most efficient for every day use. I wanted to place things in bins to separate food staples and in containers to maximize freshness. To do this, I made a list of what I thought I needed in terms of plastic storage vessels, measured my shelves vertically for maximum height, and headed off to Home Goods to see what I could find.
My trip was definitley succesful. Not only did I run into a friend and help her choose new pillows and a lamp for her updated living room (BONUS!), I came home with a plethora of items to use for my little project. My thought is that I could always take back what I didn’t use.
After some time and thoughtfulness, the end game came together. Can goods and nut butters on the low top shelf, Whole30 staples and other necessity items in the middle, and kid snacks on the bottom tier. Now the kiddos have a specific spot to grab their snacks without the need to stand in front of an open cabinet for several minutes at a clip.
In addition, I placed our cashews, pecans and chocolate chips in handy, stay-fresh containers for easy access. J and I are constantly reaching for handfuls of raw cashews and now they are readily available.
Now that the pantry is picture perfect, the real challenge is going to be keeping it that way! 😉
