Org This: Tackling Your Pantry

Community Manager — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 14:24:00 GMT

If dialing for delivery is far preferable to facing your disorganized pantry come dinnertime, it's time to organize for a culinary reboot. With just a few simple steps, you will be back to dishing up home cooked meals.

Clean Slate: Pull all your boxes, cans and spices off the shelves. Dust and scrub until your space is clean and appealing. Toss all items with expired dates and that you just don't use.

See Clearly: Face all your labels out so you can easily see what's on the shelves. This helps prevent the all too common phenomenon of buying groceries you already have. It also makes it easier and less frustrating to find needed ingredients.

Group Think: Savvy chefs group like items together, either by categories, such as pastas, soups, dried beans, or by cuisines, such as Asian or Latin American ingredients. Think about what system makes the most sense given your own needs and explain it to your family so you can work together to keep order in the pantry.

Pare Down: Consider paring your pantry down to the bare essentials. Do you really need 40 spices? You may only use a dozen or so regularly. Consider storing less frequently used items elsewhere so that your pantry just houses items you cook with daily. Keep a typed list of stored items inside your pantry door so you know what (and where!) less frequently used items are stored.

Buy Smarter: You know the drill, buy better quality items, but fewer of each. Use this same approach in your pantry. Do you really need five mustards, nine different shapes of pasta? Identify what you love and buy it in the best quality you can afford. And while you're at it: invest in top quality clear containers so you can decant pastas, spices, flours, and dried beans. When you can find it, you can cook it!

Beyond Folders : organization tips, kitchen organization

Org This: Tackling Your Pantry