How to Organize a Pantry

If you need to organize your pantry, chances are you don't know everything that is in there. The first step that you need to take to organizing is to remove anything that has spoiled, expired or has gone stale. Next everything that is still edible and you want to keep sort into categories, anything that is edible that you would like to part with can be donated to a food bank.

Once the pantry is empty you can assess what you need to do inside for storage. It is always a good idea before putting the food back in to clean shelves or install new ones if needed. This is also an excellent time to install any kitchen organizers inside the pantry.

With the shelves and wall kitchen organizers in place you can begin to put the food away. Use canisters to hold dry goods susceptible to weevils, like sugars, flours, oats and pasta. Group small items such as tea bags and dried fruit in containers. Label all of the canister and containers you use, and consider labeling the shelves that have the extra cereal boxes, snack items, etc. Keep all of the heavy items on the lower shelves if you can.

A great solution for storing things like extra spices, herbs and oils is on a lazy susan. A lazy susan is also good for storing canned goods, but it you put your canned goods on a deep shelf make sure that you keep like cans together, vegetables with vegetables, fruits with fruits, sauces with sauces, etc., and if you can help make sure that the can that you put in the back row are the same as the ones up front. There are a couple different can organizers that can help you keep all of your canned goods organized in both your pantry and kitchen.