How to Organize Your Pantry to Perfection

If the kitchen is the heart of the home, the pantry may be the brain of the kitchen. When your pantry’s a mess, everything suffers, from meal planning to grocery shopping to the ease with which your kids can grab a snack. On the other hand, with a well-organized pantry, your kitchen runs like a well-oiled machine. How do you achieve pantry perfection? We’ve got some tips.  

• Make the most of vertical space. Don’t just look at your pantry’s width and depth. Rather, use undershelf baskets, shelf inserts, or even a cake plate with small items stacked above and below, to create extra storage within your shelf space.  
• Lazy Susans keep things from getting lost in the back. Use a lazy Susan to organize canned goods or other items that can easily be overlooked if they get shoved to the back of the pantry. A simple spin, and you can easily view and access everything you need. If you’ve got the space, drawers and pull-out shelving can serve a similar purpose.  

• Don’t forget the doors. Doors are an often overlooked space, and you can find creative ways to use them. Install a rack, and you can use the doors for lid storage. Put in some hooks or hanging bins, and you have a great place to hang utensils or store soup packets. Want a cheap and simple hack? A shoe organizer hung on the inside of the pantry door, is a surprisingly versatile organizing tool.  
• Bin, basket, and box it up! One way to keep your pantry, and your family, organized is to use containers. Storage bins and baskets help you sort items by type, clear boxes and jars store things uniformly and in plain sight.  
• Go a little label crazy. When everything is clearly labeled, it’s easy for your family members to find whatever they need. To keep your pantry looking well-organized, make your labels uniform. It’s easy to find templates online for pretty, consistent labels.  

At Bay Home and Window, we offer custom designed closet systems, including made-to-order pantries. Our expert designers will work with you, taking stock of your space and your lifestyle in order to create the perfect configuration to meet your needs. For custom pantries and closets in the San Francisco Bay Area, created to meet your needs, call (925) 264-6746 or contact us for a free in-home design consultation.