Alright, so here is a confession: I am a little bipolar in my cleaning personalities. I am either a complete slob or intolerably OCD in my level of organization.

Our pantry was in shambles. I thought about taking a ‘before’ picture but it was too mortifying. We had started with an organization plan. We bought baskets! That makes it look better, right? Only if you don’t throw things willy nilly into said baskets and then forget about them.

I realized that I had a dozen cans of diced tomatoes and countless types of whole grain pasta/noodles/side dishes, but I didn’t know I had these so I continued buying them.

Then I realized that something had to be done.

Things are about to get crazy for work and I knew I would be doing a lot of cooking in the next few months. I needed organization and I needed not to hate opening the pantry door or rummaging for a pan.

I offer this pictures mainly because I want to show it off. Yes, there is some ego in spending a day organizing your pantry, I am not going to lie. But I also want to offer some tips on organizing your pantry.

Work with what you have. We initially had dreams of installing a massive lazy susan but then decided to use the shelves we had and add baskets. Much less cool but much cheaper.

 

Make it user friendly. We put the appliances we use the most on the lower shelves so we can grab them easier.

 

And these gadgets on the top shelf are for special occasion only. Though I wish we had more special occasions for that waffle iron!

 

Group like items together: I put all the beans together, all the cans of diced tomatoes, tuna. etc. Makes it easier to find them and to discover when you are out of something.

 

Believe in the power of hooks. We hung up our pans so I wasn't always crashing through the cupboards every night.

 

Take inventory. This is a little extreme, but I wanted to make sure we were using what we had in the freezer and pantry. Now I can just grab the index cards when looking at recipes to make sure I have the ingredients.

 

This is really helpful with baking as I have a tendency to 'collect' certain baking ingredients.

Now back to you: What are your tips for staying organized in the kitchen?