Have you ever walked into your pantry and wondered “where are my ….?” while rearranging cans and jars to see if you can find what you want, meanwhile growing more and more frustrated with the clutter. The lack of a system in a pantry that is constantly being moved around is so frustrating and what many of my clients encounter all the time. Luckily, I made a list of what to keep in your pantry and included some tips for organizing these items for easy access.
Essential items to keep in an organized pantry
Canned food: Sort the cans and jarred food by type, veggies, pasta, legumes, and tomato sauce. Using an organizer like tier shelves works nicely. But you can also use a canned organizer like this one.
Pasta and Rice products: Group the pasta and rice products together. I find that boxes of post can easily fall over so placing them a a clear bin like this one works well too.
Paper products: like paper towels. Make a place on the shelf for paper towels to remove these items from the floor and, at a glance, to quickly determine if you need these items. Check out this handy paper towel holder for a pantry shelf.
Table clothes and cloth napkins: You can hang them on a towel rack on the door or place them on the shelf with the cloth napkins.
If you have enough room in your pantry to hold these items helps give you space back in your dining room or kitchen drawer. These hangers allows you to hang the table clothes in your pantry or hallway closet.
Platters and party supplies: paper napkins, paper plates, forks, knives, etc… Keep all the party supplies together for quick inventory for your next party. Using something like this to stand up the platters makes it easier to retrieve with less risk of injuring yourself when getting the platter from the bottom.
Small Appliances: These items are usually not used often. Place them in one location in your pantry. Not too high if they are heavy. If you have wire shelving in your pantry, using these plastic shelf liners will help keep your small appliances from falling into the openings.
Tips: Buy extra supplies: Buy extra supplies to save money and store these items in your pantry. Some items that last for weeks are cereal, snacks, herbs, spices, extra juice, water, soda, and condiments.
Now, where should you place these items?
The image below shows which shelf would be best used for which item. Role of thumb is heavy items and frequently used items should be closer to the floor. Lighter items and infrequently used items can be stored on the top shelf.
To help maintain the organized pantry, don’t forget to label the areas! Label each shelf section to describe the type of items that below there. This will make it easier for you to remember where each category is placed.
And, finally, remember that each pantry should be designed for each family. No one pantry will be the same. The goal is to make the pantry easy to get what you want and maintain the system. If your pantry isn’t easy to maintain, then it should be modified and simplified. Think simply and don’t worry about making it supper categorized. I hope this helps you get your pantry organized.
Let’s continue the conversation, please share your tips on organizing your pantry in the comments below. I would love to hear from you.
Please note these are affiliate links through Amazon and at no additional cost to you, I will earn affiliate fees if you decide to make a purchase.
I have bought a bunch of OXO POP Containers to organize my pantry. They keep food fresh and allow my kids to take their own snacks without needing assistance. It’s one of my favorite organizing products in my pantry. I also use magazine holders to contain my oils and vinegar–got them very inexpensively in IKEA!
Labelling the shelves is especially important if kids or other family members will be accessing the pantry. Even if the person who puts the groceries away knows where everything goes, it’s not always obvious to anyone else!
Great list of essentials and products. Pantry organization can impact a person and family in so many ways, so it’s critical to have the pantry stocked and accessible. Thanks for the ideas1
I’ve never seen that under the shelf paper towel holder before. What a terrific product and so easy to install! I love the under the shelf baskets that function similarly, but a paper towel holder…WOW! Pantries can easily get out of control. That includes housing food that’s long past its expiration date. Keeping the space organized, using the suggestions you gave, really helps. I also like the clear bin you showed to group like with like. Those types of bins also makes it easier to access what you need without creating more chaos.
The biggest challenge is when you don’t even have a pantry. I feel like we went through a season of home design where pantries were “out.” This was too bad, as they are such functional spaces. I love the 3-tier organizer you suggested at the bottom. That is useful in so many spaces where you want to store smaller things in a large space. I also often recommend the Closet maid organizer a lot. That is an incredible amount of storage, and if someone doesn’t have a pantry, it can hang on the back of the door to the basement.
Perfect timing. I’m planning on cleaning out reorganizing my pantry very soon. Love the tips and suggestions.
Awesome! Have fun. =)
I just did my winter clean out/organizing of the pantry, Sabrina. I kept your tips from the linen closet blog in mind. Things are in bin, and labeled with my new label maker! It’s so much easier now. Thanks.
So glad you cleared out your pantry sucessfully and that this helped.