No matter how much we try, some of us can never get the pantry right. Now, with the holidays approaching, you’ll need to stock up on food and supplies, which means this is the perfect time to do your pantry.

If you find yourself looking for reasons not to do your pantry, we don’t blame you. It isn’t exactly an exuberating activity, actually quite the opposite. But there’s good news, we have this insanely easy guide to organizing your pantry, highly recommended for beginners or for people looking for ideas to improvise on their existing system.

Where to begin?

If you’ve been seeing beautiful pantries on Instagram or Pinterest, the ones that have matching storage boxes and color matched inventory in the pantry, and find yours not there (and not even getting there), don’t be disheartened. That makes for an impressive photograph but not exactly our idea of a pantry. To begin with, here’s what your pantry needs to look like:

·         A shelf, cupboard, storage or a pantry room where you store extra food and supplies, enough to last at least for a week, such that you can use the weekend to order supplies or go to the supermarket yourself.

·         Well stocked but not overstocked inventory.

·         Easy access to food you need often.

·         An easy system that lets you know when you are running out.

Start by writing down what you eat the most, or what consists of staple food for you, and the type of food that mostly relish. Then there needs to be a list of snacks and fillers. Once, you have listed the items that you must have in your inventory, you are good to go to the second step.

Now empty your pantry completely. Take out everything. Wipe the shelves clean and keep then open for ventilation. Meanwhile, sort out every item in three different stacks:

·         For keeps

·         For giving away

·         For tossing out

Now it’s sorting time. The items in your staple food list go in the ‘for keeps’ section. Check expiry date. Either put a label mention the expiry date or write on the pack with a marker. The expiry date should be visible in all the packs, it’ll help you arrange later.

All the expired and spoilt food items get tossed right away.

There’ll be stuff in your pantry that you would have bought because it’s healthy to eat, but remember if you haven’t had it in the past 6 months, it’s most likely that you won’t have it ever. All such items need to go in the ‘giving away’ stack. Think of it this way, it’s food and someone hungry could use it; this should help let go the guilt of throwing food.

Once all of the pantry is sorted, keep the box of donations away. You are going to work with the ‘for keeps’ stack. All of the food in this stack further needs to be sorted into different categories like:

·         Cereals

·         Snacks, granola bars, chocolates etc.

·         Grains, pasta and flours

·         Sauces, dips and spreads

·         Instant mixes

·         Spices and condiments

·         Tea, coffee

·         Juices and other beverages

·         Heat and eat food

·         Oil and butter

And if there is any other category you might have.

Once you have sorted food like this, you can then neatly arrange it in the pantry. Remember to keep it in the order of expiry.

While we are not huge fans of fancy organization boxes and baskets, some basic stuff helps keep things neatly together. To help it make easier, each category gets its own box. 

Here’s where you can find basic organization boxes and baskets on marked down prices.

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