Have you ever…
- visited the grocery store only to come home and find a jar of the item you just purchased?
- reached for a box to find it ripped and the contents stale?
- grown frustrated with the piles of provisions tumbling from your pantry and decided that it is just easier to order takeout?
Yes? Then you and I would get along fabulously. I would much rather just toss everything into the pantry and pray to God that it sticks, closing the door quickly to avoid spills across the floor. However, my lack of organizational fortitude has consequences.
An unorganized, dirty pantry can cause a chain reaction of problems which could end in a fatal situation… the death of my grocery budget.
So, every six months… whether I want to or not… I take 90 minutes to clean, organize, and restock my pantry. My reward? These eight simple steps save our family a mound of money.
First, clean out the pantry.
1. Take every single, tiny thing out of the pantry. Stack the food on counters or a table. Get it out of the way.
2. Wipe down the walls and shelves of the pantry, removing any torn or stained shelf liner (if you use it).
3. Vacuum and disinfect the floor to deter bugs and/or rodents from being attracted to the food storage.
4. Fill any holes with caulk or dry wall putty to be certain that pests cannot gain easy access to the pantry.
5. Replace the shelf liner to help avoid permanent stains. (If you do not want to splurge for shelf paper, newspaper or gift wrap can work just as well.)
Then, organize the stockpile.
6. Look for stains on items, removing any sticky residue to avoid ants.
7. Check the expiration dates as foods are placed back into the pantry, discarding any expired items and making a note of items which are approaching their peak.
8. Sort the food by categories as they go back to the shelf: breakfast items, beverage mixes, canned fruit/vegetables/meat, spices, baking goods, etc.
More pantry organizing tips:
- Turn items so that the labels can be seen easily.
- Place foods that might create a sticky mess on a cookie sheet or plastic lid for easy clean up.
- Put heavier items on the bottom to avoid a potential injury.
- Place small mixes in a container to avoid losing items behind a shelf or box. (I like to use empty baby wipes containers.)
- Place any foods packaged in paper bags or cardboard boxes into clear, air-tight storage containers to avoid contamination by pests.
- Keep a sharpie handy for marking the date of purchase or to circle the expiration date making it easier to spot.
Finally, find savings in the grocery budget.
When my pantry is clean and organized, I can see what I have and what I need, avoiding unnecessary trips to the grocery store. My frustration level is lower and we eat out less. I also tend to use up items before they expire, avoiding food waste.
But, the most important feature of a tidy, well-stocked pantry is…
By putting my pantry in order, I create more space to stockpile the items my family uses the most. I can easily determine which items are running low and watch the sales to buy those necessities when they reach a rock-bottom price instead of paying the full value.
Tabitha Philen, known as “Penny” to her readers at www.MeetPenny.com, is a saved by grace wife to one terrific husband and homeschooling mother to 4 amazing children, ages 8 years old and under with the oldest having an Autism Spectrum Disorder. Tabitha recently released her first ebook, Advanced Penny Pinching, in which she shares very practical tips for cutting your grocery expenses with or without coupons.
two other thoughts:
1. if you have multiples of a product, put the one that expires FIRST at the front where you will use it first.
2. if you have more of something than you can use, take it to a food pantry BEFORE it expires. many food pantries will not accept expired items.
Great points, Susan. Thanks so much!
Thanks for allowing me to guest post, Nony. I am truly honored.
Thank you, Tabitha!
Oh, the dreaded pantry. It’s amazing what one can find lurking in the back corners of this staple closet. I have found that a cheap lazy susan (like from IKEA) makes a perfect home for bottles that would otherwise fall over on the shelves or get lost behind boxes of rice (like the 100 bottles of Italian salad dressing I have because I can’t remember if I actually have it at home). It spins so one can easily see what you have and reach it. Also saves space, because you can actually store quite a few bottles/cans on one of those things.
Ugh, pantry organization day is one of my least favorite days of the year! Somehow, despite having cute little labels on the shelves and having issued all sorts of dire warnings to family members about putting things in the wrong place, I wind up discovering a can of salsa behind the jars of jam… right after I bought more salsa. (And, inevitably, it’s expired, too.)
We’ve started using those beverage dispensers in our pantry to hold cans of veggies. The older cans roll down and are easily accessible, while newer ones go on top. I can see in one glance whether we’re running low, which is helpful.
Now if I could just find a good way to store cereal, because when we stock up we stock up BIG TIME.
I would put the cereal boxes in a plastic bin with a tight fitting lid. I had an extra box of small Milk Bones for my dogs, and by the time I got to it, it had been infested with bugs. Ick!
Where you put the bin is totally up to you. But at least your cereal stash will stay fresh.
Great idea, Elaine. Thank you!
Great timing. I’m getting ready to clean out and organize my pantry and freezer as part of a project to slash my grocery budget. I have a small pantry and have been debating about labeling shelves for specific products. I’m not sure that would be necessary, though, since the shelves are very narrow and I can see everything easily. I will probably try to group like items although I doubt they’ll stay that way.
It’s funny, but I have the opposite problem – the shelves in my pantry are too deep. It’s super easy for things to get lost in the back. Generally, I have items in the back on risers or rack with nothing underneath them (big waste of space, though), and then smaller items in the front.
No system is perfect, I guess.
Regular organizing also helps to get rid of things you’re not actually using. It’s fine to have 17 cans of beets on the shelf, if you eat a couple cans a week. But when all 17 cans have been there for 4 months, it’s time to donate them and relieve some space for more important things.
I have three pantry areas I’m in charge of in this house (one for the ‘Rents, one for me and my Mr. with our food divided inside, and one that we all share but is divided). I’m seriously thinking that I need to get them on a monthly rotation, at least with the re-stacking and organizing part!