Keeping an organized pantry in your Baltimore City rental home can be exhausting. It’s key for you to determine where things should go so that you will know how to keep things fresh and neat, too. To guarantee that your food supply is fresh and easy to access, pay attention to these simple pantry organization tips.
1. Create a System
Most people approach pantry organization with a relatively simple system: grouping similar items together. There are, however, multiple ways to organize a pantry. Group together items that you often use, such as pasta noodles and sauce or baking essentials. Keep in mind, there are several other methods to pantry grouping.
You could also group all of your frequently used items in an easy-to-reach spot! Another way of doing it is to set up zone or stations inside your pantry, stashing food items according to function or time of day when they’re usually used. Examples of this might be a coffee station, a bin with after-school snacks, or a shelf for breakfast. While these are good suggestions, you are free to choose and use any system, so long as it aligns with your routines in your pantry.
2. Rotate Your Storage
An overlooked approach to pantry organization is a regular rotation of food items. It’s a common scenario for food items to be forgotten or remain unnoticed for months. So that you don’t have to throw out expired food, come up with a first-in, first-out system for your pantry items. When restocking each shelf, place new items behind older items. Make sure to always check the expiration dates and set aside any of those that are already expired. This allows you to keep your pantry safe and fresh!
3. Choose Proper Storage Containers
Choose the ones that aren’t necessarily just expensive, but are good at keeping your food fresh. Storage containers allow you to make sure that each item is stored properly in your pantry. There are items in your pantry, unlike canned food, which need airtight containers to keep fresh. Most of the time, you’ll need to remove them from their packaging and store them elsewhere.
To ensure long-term freshness, decant flour and other grain-based food items by taking them out of the bags they come in and place them in glass or plastic containers with tight-fitting lids. Flour, cake mix, or other similar items should be taken out of their original bags and stored in a different container because their bags could be hiding insect eggs and other problems. Imagine discovering that your pantry is infested with bugs!
Here are a few simple tricks to grouping your pantry items. There are foods that shouldn’t be stored close to others. For example, onions and potatoes. If you have both in your pantry, make sure to separate them. If you don’t, the onions’ strong odor can permeate the potatoes and cause them to spoil faster.
Lastly, in your search for storage containers, remember to look for ones that fit the shelves in your pantry, but, more importantly, ones that give you easy access to their contents. A really common container for storing rice is the mason jar. However, scooping the rice can be problematic because of the jar’s narrow mouth. Choose containers that are easy to label, too. You can label the container with the name of the content, as well as the content’s expiration date. This is why it’s wise for you to consider removable labels, too — makes for convenient updating of the container and its contents.
4. Size Matters
Finally, though most of your items might be smaller, like spice jars and whatnot, remember to always leave some room for bigger items, too! There are also smaller shelving or trays that you can use to separate different-sized items. If possible, create some taller spaces for cereal boxes, bottles, or other tall or oddly-shaped items.
Ultimately, the way you organize your pantry should reflect your daily routines and practices. With these tips, you can make sure you have yourself a pantry that keeps your food supply fresh and ready to use.
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