WFMW: Organizing my pantry
I’m not always an organized person, but when organization works the beauty of it makes my heart sing!
Here’s my most successful kitchen tip: label your shelves. This makes life easier on several levels:
- The kids know exactly where the food belongs when you tell them to get off their tails and help put away groceries. They might not do it right, but they can’t say they didn’t know.
- The kids know exactly where to look when you tell them to please bring you a can of cream-of-something soup. They still have to open their eyes and engage their brains, but once again the ball is in their court.
- The kids can help you compose a grocery list. It works like this: You recline on the sofa with a glass of [insert your favorite drink here] and a pen and paper. “Honey, go look on the overstock shelf and see how many bottles of salad dressing we have.” “Sweetie, look in the canned goods and see which rows are empty.” “Hey! You with the pigtails! Can I get a refill here?”
- And when the kids make a mess of your beautiful system, they can put it all back together. It can even count as homeschooling time. Sorting, counting, categorization, reading, logic. Spin it however you like. They are getting smarter while they clean up the mess they made, in more ways than one.
In the floor cabinet where I store canned goods, I have rows neatly labeled. Each row goes straight back, just one can wide. One shelf hold these categories:
- spag (spaghetti sauce, which we also use on pizza)
- cream soup (my old faithful cream of mushroom and cream of chicken soups)
- corn (includes hominy)
- tomato (anything else tomato based: plain tomato sauce, paste, diced, soup, etc.)
- gr. beans (these used to be our veggie whenever we had nothing else. very often.)
- beans (black beans, garbanzo beans, baked beans, pork ‘n beans, etc.)
The next shelf has:
- milk (evaporated and condensed)
- fruit (cranberry sauce, pumpkin, applesauce, etc.)
- meat (mackerel, tuna, corned beef, sardines…spam? spam Lite???)
- refried (in south Texas these deserve their own space, separate from all lesser forms of beans)
- veggies (nearly anything but corn, tomatoes or green beans)
- gallon (for truly family-sized cans of green beans, peaches, pickles, corn, and more)
The wall cabinet just above has 3 shelves, 2 of which are labeled for daily use. Areas include:
- sugar (not for white sugar, but brown sugar, powdered sugar, and splenda)
- teas/coffees (for specialty coffees and various teas; the big can of coffee is below)
- spices (all manner of seasonings, in containers large and small)
- coffee (big can of coffee plus grinder and bags of whole coffee beans)
- misc (for well, other stuff…)
My standing pantry has just one label for each shelf:
- party supplies - OK, this shelf isn’t labelled yet, but that’s what it should say. It holds fancy cake pans, cake decorating supplies, streamers, birthday candles, etc.
- sweets - anything related to desserts. Might include cake mix, jello or pudding mix, raisins, candy, and more.
- just add water - yes, that’s really what the label says. This shelf holds pasta, oats, grits, and possibly extra bags of rice and beans though those are currently stored under the sink. There’s even an old jar of instant iced tea and a mysterious bag of instant country-style gravy. Where did that come from?
- overstock/PB - for new inventory of staples. And…um…peanut butter. This is where everything goes before the old one runs out. This way we don’t find 4 opened bottles of Caesar salad dressing in the fridge.
- non-food - for paper plates and plastic holders, trash bags, etc.
- oversize - for items too big to be stored on normal shelves. My gallon bottles of honey, oil, and vinegar. Enormous bags of tortilla chips from Costco. Half gallons of Pace Picante salsa. You get the idea.
We also have ice cream buckets under the kitchen sink to hold white flour, wheat flour, sugar, corn meal and anything else purchased in bulk. That reminds me: our buckets are falling apart. I think it’s time to get some more. 
Visit Rocks in My Dryer today for more kitchen organization tips.
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Filed under: Huh? Category?, food, methods
Thanks so much for this post! I’ve been wanting to do this with our pantry and this is the kick in the pants I needed!
Off to organize and label …
Okay-this is GREAT but we need PICTURES!! Where’s your resident photographer???
looks like you will need to buy more icecream o get the free buckets that come with them. Or the iceceam is free and you purchase the buckets… its a win win either way!
I am all about being organized so I love your ideas! We don’t have a pantry, but I could definitely organize my cans according to your labels! I think I need a label maker
Rachel,
Mine are just handwritten on blank self-adhesive labels, cut to fit the thickness of the shelves.
We’re also working on organizing our children’s books this way.
I love the idea of labeling the pantry. Thanks for sharing this great tip!
Ooh, I like the suggestion of the ice cream buckets for storing dry goods….good one!
Wow! I thought my pantry was decently organized, but I’ve got nothing on you. I need labels!
Looks and sounds like you have 9 little “slaves” in your house that do all the work while you sit around telling them what to do.
No, Carrie. Children are expensive and messy, and they require extra space.
If they were slaves I would sell them to simplify my life.
Children are more like pets. We keep them because they’re cute and we like
them, in spite of the extra food and work.
Wow! They look terrific! I’m thinking it’s about time I worked on mine, too. Thanks for the inspiration!
Crystal
Yes! I love it! I labeled my pantry a couple of months ago, too! It has made a HUGE difference in keeping it neat. It is the ONLY way things in my house (we have six children) stand a chance of being put back where they belong. I even have labels in my refrigerator! (Raw meat on the bottom shelf, so if it drips, a minimum of other foods get contaminated. Egg cartons stacked all together, so it is easy to see when we are running low. You get the idea.)
I’ve labeled some of the shelves in my laundry room, and have plans to label inside the cabinet in there, then on to my bathroom cabinets…
Perhaps this seems extreme, but even I cannot remember how I organized an area unless the labels are there when it is time to restock. You should have seen my pantry before labels. It was a NIGHTMARE! Now it doesn’t get out of control as easily, and takes much less time to restore order if a few things are put away in the wrong place.
By the way, my children are a big help, too. You should hear the younger ones beg to help more! The little ones see how important a cheerful helper is around our house, and can’t wait till they are big enough to do more of the work. My five and seven year-old beg to help me cook, so they can someday be like their older siblings (who cook well without my help). My three year old actually gets angry with me if I limit how much I let him help with the dishes. He loves the bubbles in the dishpan. I love the opportunity to let my children make a real contribution to the well-being of our family. When I gush with genuine praise for the effort a child has made, the child knows that the praise was well-earned. Children see through much of the false praise that is common in our time from those with the “let kids be kids” and “build self-esteem even if you have to lie to do it” philosophies. There is a time for play, but also a time to put the following verse in to practice: “With love, serve one another.” I’m sure no matter how hard you try, or how well you manage your children, you don’t get to sit around very much, Kim!
Short on time here, but had to say I loved it. Coincidentally, I’ve spent the day sorting and labelling the games cupboard and the toy cupboard. This evening (if my back holds up), I plan to do the labels and then (my secret weapon) take a digital photo of each shelf for inside the cupboard door so the non-readers have a chance.
I still have 9 weeks until baby #7 is due. Is it too early to start nesting or am I just taking advantage of the school holidays?
Love reading here, Kim. (BTW, I am SHOCKED *wink* that you guys are post-mill. More in common than I realised).
In Him
Meredith
I don’t have a pantry, but I do label my shelves.