getting your pantry organzied for the holidays

Getting your pantry organized for the holidays

This is my second installment of getting organized for the holidays.  One of my favorite things to do is pantry organizing. I’m not sure why maybe its because you can go crazy with containers, or maybe its because it has to do with food (i love food)  Or maybe because growing up our pantry was always perfectly perfect! I’m not kidding just ask my sister.  Getting y our pantry organised for the holidays is very simple and if you have an extra hour or two it will be so worth your time.  So lets get started on getting your pantry organized for the holidays.

Things you need

• no kids or dogs around to help drag all the extra stuff around the kitchen
• label maker or tags
• any extra containers or bins
• garbage bags
• wash clothes

1. First step ever when your are organizing your pantry is  take everything out.  There is one exception  if you have had your pantry organized before and you know where everything lives and you have bins  then you can treat this like a clean up.  (that’s what i did)
2. Wash down everything, all that stuck on peanut butter and honey, all the crumbs in the back of the shelves, and all the walls. Get it clean people!!!
3. Decide what you want to put back.  My pantry is the only place I store food in my Kitchen and our pantry is SMALL!!! deep but very small.  I want only things I use weekly.  That means …Cereal, kids lunch things, my smoothie fixings, baking essentials, dinner side dishes, crackers, chips, drink mixes, pasta, granola bars, you get the idea
4. you need to put things you are always going to the pantry for right at eye level.  Things like the kids lunch fixings at their eye level.  Things that you don’t want the kids to get like your good chocolate hidden in an opaque bin with the label healthy snacks!  LOL ( can you see the cereal on the bottom shelf? and kids treats in the clear jar above?)  I also like to use the floor with rolling bins if you have a deep pantry or more stable ones if you have a walk in.  These are from the Container Store and they are filing cabinets with wheels perfect for moving in and out. 
5. I love putting like things together and getting rid of boxes.  Its so much easier to grab the bin and look through it than mess around with 10 boxes of mixes. Bins people its the most important thing! Spend as much as you can on the best quality you can find.  These will last a life time and look fabulous for years to come.  Just look at my Tupperware from my wedding 20 something years ago!  Prof
6. Don’t be afraid of double layering,  if you have deep pantry like mine you have to use every inch.  I have to put lots of things behind my pullout containers. (as you can see below this is what is behind the kids cereal,  its my crackers and protein bars, things like hot chocolate we don’t use these very often so you can move these things to the back.) You can do this if you have good pull out bins  they need to be easy to grab and move.
7.  Remember to have sections so if your flour is in front of your sugar that’s great but if it hiding the pasta then well that’s just trouble.  Another trick is to label the shelf and whats behind the boxes of cereal. You will be surprised how fast you will forget that you have almonds when they are behind the side dishes .  Just like a store keep like things together. 

See that was’t that hard.  It does take a little time but once you invest in the time and bins the maintenance should be fairly  quick and easy!  I do love the container store and I am an affilet of this company so if you click on the links you will be helping me to keep my blog up and running.  Thanks so much for wanting to make your life beautiful and organized and letting me be apart of that.  If you live in the Salt Lake area I would love to help you.  I’m booked out till Jan but what a great time to start getting organized for the new year.  Contact me at www.thegltizypear.com