Author: Brian January 19, 2017

Guest post by Hubert Dwight

An overflowing, clumsy looking and completely disorganised pantry is unfortunately a nightmare that many people have to deal with everyday.

Whether you have a big family and huge grocery hauls every week, or are simply a cooking aficionado who has every ingredient under the sun from Saffron to Squid Ink, a messy pantry can easily cause anxiety levels to soar.

Here are 7 ways in which you can regain control of your overflowing pantry, leaving your life running just that little bit smoother.

It’s Time To Totally Detox!

If your cupboards are exploding with packets that have merely a handful of rice or pasta left, it may be time to completely purge your shelves and do a complete overhaul.

Go through all the items you have in your cupboards, throw anything that is expired into the bins and any ingredient that you may no longer need or want to use.

If you have had an ingredient that you’ve only used once and has been sitting there for years, it’s time to get rid of it.

This is also the perfect time to purchase nifty storage solutions from stores that sell homewares online in Australia to help you organise what is left of your pantry.

Get In The Zone

Once you have all your ingredients, spices, oils and vinegars sorted out, it may be time to keep them all in separate zones to avoid clutter and confusion.

Keeping similar items together will help you locate them in times of rush such as when you’re rushing to prepare breakfast or are looking to cook up a quick dinner in the evening when you’re feeling ravenous.

Store bottled items such as sauces, oils and vinegars together; other items such as crackers and biscuits should be kept in the same storage container or box and spices should be neatly stored in a spice containers which you can purchase online.

Label All Your Items

Every wondered if a jar was full of sugar or salt?

Instead of wasting your time having to taste or smell every ingredient before using it, easily identify your ingredients by labelling all bottles and jars with label stickers.

Whether it is long grained rice, sushi rice or bomba rice, you’ll never be confused again!   

Height Matters

Due to the nature of hot air rising to the top of the room, always remember that the coolest part of your pantry will be on the bottom shelves or drawers.

Lower drawers and shelves are a good place to store items that need to be kept cooler, such as Chocolates, Apples and Spreads.

Other more robust items can be stored on higher shelves – this way, you prevent wastage by having to throw out food items that have gone off due to improper storage

Light It Up!

There is nothing worse than having to fumble around a dark pantry, looking for ingredients you need and not knowing where they are because of the dim conditions of cupboards.

A great idea would be to install some lighting into your pantry or close by to your cupboards and drawers to avoid the need of rummaging through items and picking up the wrong thing.

Keep Check Of What You Do & Do Not Have

One of the reasons many people end up with exploding pantries is because they do not know whether they are out of a certain ingredient or not – thus, when at the supermarket, people end up buying duplicates of items they already have at home.

A great way to avoid this twin-magic scenario is to always keep a grocery list stuck up on the pantry door.

Every time you are out of an item, write it down.

This way, when you do go shopping, you know exactly what you need instead of trying to recall if you still have that packet of crisps from last week in the cupboard or not.

All It Takes Is 10 Minutes A Day

To further prevent disorganisation in a pantry, all you have to do at the end of the day is take 10 minutes to ensure that everything has been put back in its proper place.

Ensuring this on a daily basis will also help you fight the battle against a messy pantry.

The term that many chefs use, “clean as you go”, can be used as inspiration when it comes to organising your pantry and making sure that everything is in its place at the end of everyday.

________________

With these 7 ways to regain control of your overflowing pantry, the chaos that is your overflowing cupboards and over stuffed drawers will be nothing but a nightmare of the past.