Lets talk about pantries! With the gaining popularity of organized spaces, I’m pretty sure by now we’ve all seen Pinterest and Instagram worthy spaces and you deserve one of your own. Not only is an organized pantry easy on the , it can make shopping easier and save your family time searching the shelves. Whether you have a large walk in pantry or a pull out cabinet pantry, there are simple rules to follow to help you organize your space. One important thing to take note of if you are going to tackle this project on your own, MAKE SURE TO DO A FULL GROCERY RUN prior to starting this project! This is the first order of business when a client hires PNL to help them with a space in their home that gets depleted regularly, like a pantry. Do not forget this step as you will end up with items you didn’t account for in this project.
1. Purge and Clean
2. Categorize
3. Decant
4. Measure, Design and Contain, Place
Purge and Clean
The first place to start any organization project is to get everything out of the space and get rid of anything that isn’t serving you or your family anymore. This includes small appliances, 2 napkins left over from a party 5 years ago, expired food items. It all must go! It’s important to put thought into this part of the process as a simplified space is a clean space. And after you’ve completed the purge, don’t forget to clean! Wipe down shelving, sweep the floors, (you know the stuff you hate to do but know you should do it;) Recycle where possible, and if that is not possible, there are endless organizations where you can donate your gently used things, however I suggest some of the wonderful ministries at the Merciful Help Center locally. You can access those through our website here. Certainly if you were to hire PNL to organize your space, we would help you in that process and you can have peace of mind that your things are being repurposed for deserving families in the local area. Falling in love with space in your beautiful home again AND helping out the local community? I think we can all agree that is a WIN WIN!
Categorize
When looking to categorize your pantry items, consider putting like things together much like you see in a grocery store. Pasta, canned goods, snacks, baking mixes, spices, breads, you get the idea. We will review how to contain these categories in a bit.
Decant
You don’t have to decant EVERYTHING in a pantry to make it PRETTY! There are pantry items that make a lot of sense to decant. Most dry goods, pasta, cereal, flour, sugar, nuts, etc. are all great items to decant as you can see what you have and when its time to restock and add it to the grocery list. Many other items, like large chip bags, disposables serveware, backstock, etc. many times make more sense to store in a large bin and label for identifying its contents.
