8 super brilliant ways to organise your pantry

I was listening to a podcast last week called The Art of Decluttering which gave me a bit of a boost with cleaning out my kitchen and pantry. I am a pretty organised person generally, but when I get busy of course everything gets a little crazy. My husband does a lot of the cooking so sometimes I don’t know where I am up to with what food, sauces, tins we have and what we need. Plus our deep freezer can become so full I can’t even see past the first 2 things! My husband knows a baker and last week he came home with 12 loaves of bread!! I was like what the hell?? We gave some away, but I knew we’d eat it all (hello, 3 boys) but this just meant trying to freeze it all!

We don’t stockpile food or buying in bulk. We eat what we have and then shop again. Here’s my meal planning tips. I do a huge shop on the weekend (at ALDI) then usually fill up again during the week with bits and pieces from Coles/Woolies depending on which side of town I want to visit.

I can’t handle an overflowing pantry. It stresses me out. I just like to see what we have and know we’ll eat it. Of course I stockpile cereal, pasta, noodles, milo and chips for the boys, but I may only only have 2 tomato tins, 2 corn, 1 sauce…

I have an absurd amount of Tupperware, but I use about 10% of it. I know, the horror! I spent many $$ on the modular mates about 15 years ago and was right in to it, but I’m too lazy for it now. We eat everything too quick in our house to have everything go in and out of Tupperware all day long. I do use some for rice, flour, sugar… but that’s it. I think I should sell it all, but I am precious about it still haha. I am going to up my basket game though and get some more. They are much more handy as you will see below.

I never ever used to meal plan! I couldn’t think that far ahead. But in the last 12 months, my husband has decided he likes to cook more than me. BONUS! I’ve taken on the job of dropping kids to sport and picking them up and this is happening most nights of the week. So I don’t get home until 6.30pm sometimes. This is why my husband gets the dinner on. Because he likes to do it he’s been pushing the meal plan thing. He usually comes with me to ALDI on the weekend and we discuss at least having 5 meals and their ingredients ready to go. This is working so much better in our house!!

Anyway, enough about me! Let’s look at some very organised pantry and kitchen spaces I found when trawling through Pinterest. I am inspired…

#1. Baskets

Put “like with like” and group them in baskets so you lift each one down and see inside rather than shuffling tins around so you can see what’s at the back. I’m going to grab a few more baskets this week.

#2. Additional Shelves

I like the little shelves to put other items on top so you’re not wasting the height of your exiting shelf. I balance tins on each other, but this is a better idea. I also want one of those hanging shelves for bread – where can I find one of those?? We did some DIY pantry shelves here.

#3. Lazy Susan

I love this idea for those dickie corners we all seem to have. How much better does it look and it’s much easier to source what you’re looking for!

#4. Labels

Have you seen these cute labels floating around on Pinterest? You can print them out yourself!

#5. Wire file holders

Use clear file holders to see what you have. Then you don’t need piles of tomatoes or onions rolling around in your kitchen in their bags. This is a great idea.

#6. Store your pans in a basket

I am totally doing this one today! I love this idea. Pans do not sit neatly on each other do they? This is a much better solution.

#7. Clear storage

So you can do baskets, or wire folders, but I think clear containers are the best. You can see what you have in an instant! I think it probably doesn’t look as neat as a pantry full of matching woven baskets, but on the practicality side it’s probably better.

#8. Jars

Head off to Kmart and buy yourself a large selection of jars – that’s if you’re motivated enough to pour all your pantry items in to jars every time you buy food products. But the symmetry and neatness here is amazing.

How’s your pantry looking?

♥ KC.

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