A well-organized kitchen pantry is achievable, but requires some work. If you are like others, it can be hard to know… or reach what is your pantry. This guide walks you through the common kitchen pantry challenges and ideas… such as using Command hooks to hang up kitchen utensils.
Once you have mastered this space, tackle other small spaces such as your hallway closet or home office. With you confidence established, you will be able to head room by room, maximizing the storage opportunities.
Kitchen Pantry Organization Challenges
Having a well-organized kitchen means that you can quickly and easily grab the items you need to prepare a meal. In a perfect world, everyone would have the kitchen they’ve always dreamed of. They would be able to find their supplies quickly and easily. Unfortunately, you don’t live in a perfect world, and you have pantry and kitchen challenges that you have to overcome. Every kitchen will have their unique issues. Below are some of the more common ones you might experience in your home.
Your Stuff Doesn’t Fit
One of the biggest challenges when it comes to organizing your kitchen pantry is getting all of the stuff to fit. There could be many reasons for this problem, including the fact that you have a lot of items that you are trying to store. It’s also possible that the stuff you have is too large for specific shelves. Overcoming these issues doesn’t have to be hard, and a little creative organization can help.
It’s Hard to Reach Your Items
Some kitchens come with a lot of pantry space and other cupboards for storage. A large pantry can alleviate the issue of not having enough room for all of your kitchen supplies. However, it can create another issue: being unable to reach all of your items. If you can’t get to the items you need, this can be just as frustrating as not having a place to store them.
You Don’t Know What’s in Your Pantry
If you don’t know what’s in your food pantry, you won’t know if you have the ingredients you need to make your favorite dish. There’s nothing more frustrating than thinking you have everything you need, and then realizing you are missing a key ingredient.
You’re Making Too Many Trips to the Pantry
Unless you are trying to get a certain number of steps in every day, walking back and forth to the food pantry while you are fixing dinner can be exhausting. This problem could be caused by a number of things. Maybe you are using a new recipe and don’t know exactly what you need. Or maybe you have a disorganized pantry that makes it hard to find exactly what you’re looking for. Thankfully, there’s a way to overcome both of these problems and make your cooking efforts less exercise intense.
  |   |
Kitchen Pantry Organization Ideas
Now that the common pantry organization challenges have been highlighted, let’s look at some ways to overcome these problems.
Making Your Stuff Fit
Making sure all of your items fit into your kitchen pantry may require getting a little creative. You already have shelves included in the space, but it’s possible to add some more. You might also consider adding clear containers to hold smaller or odd-shaped items. This will ensure that they don’t take up a lot of room on the shelves.
Wire shelves can add more storage space to your pantry. They are a great way to stack cans and smaller boxes of food or other kitchen supplies. They can also be useful for keeping spices organized and easy to find.
Wire Baskets and Containers
Wire baskets or clear containers work well for items that don’t come in packages. This includes things such as fruits and veggies or items that are in bags. Placing these items into containers will prevent them from rolling around the pantry and taking up more space than necessary. Wire baskets or clear containers can also help you keep all of your baking supplies together.
When it comes to organizing your pantry, wire baskets and clear containers work best because they allow you to see exactly what is inside of them. You also have the option of adding regular baskets to the space. If you decide to use these, you’ll want to make sure you add labels to the outside. This will ensure that you know exactly what is inside of them.
Keep Space for Cooking Supplies
If you happen to store cooking supplies in your pantry, including pots and pans, baking sheets or cookbooks, they should have their own space within the pantry. For tall, thin items such as baking sheets and cookbooks, put those in spaces that are tall and narrow. When it comes to pots and pans, these should be put on shelves that are wider and deeper. This will keep them organized and easy to grab when you need to use them.
Knowing What’s In Your Kitchen Pantry
It’s important to know what’s in your pantry. This allows you to create a shopping list to get supplies that are running low. This also ensures that you have all of the necessary ingredients to make a healthy and delicious meal. One of the best ways to organize your pantry is to create zones.
This means that you will dedicate part of your pantry space to holding specific items. You can create zones for canned items, cereal, pasta, drinks, snacks, cleaning supplies and whatever other products you keep in your pantry. Stacking like items next to each other will let you know if you are running low on certain things. It will also make the space work for you.
Group Similar Items and Use Zones
For example, if you always like to have numerous cans of cream of mushroom soup in your cupboard, then put all of these together. You can even stack them on top of one another to save even more space. These can be placed next to any other canned goods you have, including soup, vegetables or chicken broth.
When it comes to cereal, put all of the boxes together in the same area. With a glance, you can see if you are running low on this particular breakfast food. Other breakfast items can be kept in the same area, including oatmeal, breakfast bars or even breakfast shakes.
Every pantry will be as unique as you are. Organizing it by zones will ensure that you always know where your stuff is. This method is by far the best way to determine if you are running low on any supplies. It’s also a good idea to make sure you rotate your items when you get back from the grocery store. This means putting the newest items in the back, with the older ones in the front so you use these first.
Keep a List
In addition to organizing your pantry into zones, you might also consider keeping a list of the supplies that are running low. This can be accomplished by keeping a pad of paper on the inside of the pantry door. When you notice you only have a few items left, you can write them down. You might also consider putting a dry erase or chalkboard on the inside of your pantry door. This is the best way to know exactly what you need to get from the store so that you don’t run out.
Being Able to Reach Your Items
Pantries come in all shapes and sizes. If you have one that is incredibly tall with shelves that go above your head, you probably aren’t storing a lot of items on these higher shelves. That makes sense because it can be hard to reach these areas. However, that could be making it so that the rest of your pantry is cluttered. You might also be storing too many items in one area.
Easy Access for Pantry Items
Thus, to ensure that you can reach all of your items, you might want to consider putting the items that you use more often on the shelves that are easy for you to reach. The items you don’t need as often can be placed on the higher shelves. You might also consider putting a step stool in your pantry. This will give you easy access to the stuff that’s above your head.
If you happen to have really deep shelves in your pantry and items get shoved far back, then you might think about adding pull-out shelves. This will ensure that you can reach stuff all the way in the back with little effort. This can also be a great way to organize your spices. It will ensure that you can access all of them when you need them. You might also consider adding a turntable to your pantry shelves. This is another helpful way to be able to reach your items.
Reduce Your Trips to the Pantry
One of the best ways to reduce the number of trips you take to your pantry for supplies is to create a list of what you need for the particular recipe you are preparing. It’s beneficial to have a tray or other container handy in the pantry so that you can carry multiple items. This is another way to reduce the number of trips you make to the pantry. The tray or container will also come in handy when it’s time to put these items back where they belong.
Other Kitchen Pantry Organization Ideas
When it comes to keeping your pantry organized and things easy to find, make sure you are utilizing every square inch of space available. Thus, if you have some open wall space inside your pantry, you might consider adding some wire baskets or clear shelves. These can be used to hold smaller items such as gravy, seasoning or juice packets.
You can also add some hooks to hang kitchen utensils from. You can create a chip clip so that it is easy for your family to access their favorite snack-sized chips or other bagged treats. If you have a lot of open wall space in your pantry, then you can create a pegboard to hold the pots and pans that get stored in this area. This is a great way to free up shelf space but keep these items easy to access and find.
Using Command hooks are one such method for hanging these items.
Should you decide that you aren’t going to use the back of the pantry door for the dry erase or chalkboard, then you can add shelves for extra storage space. To save yourself some time and money, you can even hang a closet organizer over the back of the door. This will add extra pockets to keep your pantry organized and supplies easy to find.
  |   |
Conclusion
With these ideas, your kitchen pantry will be transformed from a corner monster to organized as a supermarket shelf. Don’t forget about using Command hooks to hang up items such as utensils and pots/pans. Once you have your “organization confidence” up, head over to the home office or hallway closet and show these small… but critical spaces whose boss.