Last updated : Wednesday, March 25, 2009

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7 Tips for Organizing your Pantry

Food items on pantry shelves

The arrival of spring is a great time to clean out and organize your pantry. Having an organized pantry not only feels good and makes grocery shopping and meal preparation easier; it also saves you money!

Let's look at seven tips for organizing your pantry to make it work for you:

1. Use lazy susans for your canned goods. Stack cans on lazy susans in your pantry to maximize your shelf space and still be able to easily see and access all of the cans.

2. Divide your pantry space into categories of food. You might separate cans, breakfast foods, baking ingredients and snacks. Or you might keep all of your prepared foods on one shelf where they're easy to get to and put canned foods and mixes on another.

3. Arrange food so that it's easy to see. Turn cans so that you can see their labels. If space requires you to keep boxes and other items in front of each other, put the larger ones in the back so you can see everything.

4. Keep the ingredients you use more frequently at eye level and easily accessible. You'll save yourself the hassle of digging for those things you use most often, and you'll be able to quickly see what you have and what you need as you write your grocery list.

5. Rotate and reorganize your pantry every four to six weeks. When creating a stockpile, it's easy to waste food if you're not organized. Rotating and reorganizing your stock ensures that you use any items that are close to expiring or that you may have forgotten about. To start, look at the food in the back or on the bottom shelf of your pantry, because this is where food usually goes bad. Pull anything that may be approaching its expiration date to the front.

6. Keep a pantry inventory. Most of us simply don't have enough time, or even the inclination, to keep a full pantry inventory. An easy alternative is to simply type a list of your most common ingredients and purchases. Print the list and keep it in or near your pantry so that you can make a note when those things start to run low.

7. As you restock your pantry shelves after grocery shopping, rearrange food to keep it organized.  Move anything that is on the "wrong" shelf back to its place. Make room for the new groceries by shifting things around rather than just shoving everything in haphazardly.

Staying organized is the key to getting the most out of your pantry. It also means you shouldn't have to do a complete pantry overhaul in six months when things have gotten out of hand. Again. 

But organizing systems only work if you use the ideas you like and toss the ones that don't appeal to you. Getting organized only lasts if you do it to fit your needs, your preferences and your lifestyle!

Mandi Ehman is a wife and mother of three (soon to be four). She believes that organizing only lasts if you do it your way - to fit your needs, your preferences and your lifestyle. You can find her organization and time management tips at her daily blog, Organizing Your Way: A Personalized Approach to Decluttering Your Life.

 

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