This is Part I of what I plan on being a multi-part series of instructions on how to organize your pantry. My pantry isn’t just one room or cabinet as of now (unfortunately). But everyone’s pantry setup is different, however, you’ll be able to use these techniques to organize your pantry no matter what your setup is.

Step-By-Step Tutorial:

• The first thing you want to do is assess the situation and what room you have to work with. Right now I have an okay sized pantry cabinet, however, the deep cabinets are not necessarily practical…
• I also have a cabinet right next to the stove where right now I keep all my baking stuff…
• Then a new jelly cupboard (or small pantry cabinet) for an extra little bit of space.
• Next you want to clear everything out so you have a clean slate to work with. Group similar items together on a table or the floor so you can see how much you have of each group. It might also be a good idea to make a list of the different groups as well.
• While everything is out of the cabinets, wipe them down and clean them throughouly.
• First I filled the larger built in pantry cabinet.
• The top shelf ended up being empty for now because of how nicely organized things are so I will probably store something else up there later.
  
  The second shelf I put soups on the right and on the left other canned miscellaneous foods. On the shelf below that I put canned vegetables and sauces.
• The fourth shelf down has miscellaneous dry goods on the left and baking supplies such as flour and sugar on the right.
  
  The bottom shelf now has pasta and rice on the left and oils and other topping type things that didn’t fit anywhere else on the right.
• Then I put the miscellaneous extras in the small cabinet next to my stove. For the top shelf I put sprinkles and other decorating supplies. On the middle shelf I put muffin/cupcake cups and other items such as birthday candles and some cookie cutters. For the bottom shelf I put the chips and some various cooking stuff used often such as cooking spray and vanilla extract.
• Finally I filled the jelly cabinet/small pantry.
• I first put cereal and oatmeal on the top of the cabinet for easy access in the mornings.
• In this pantry I have three vegetable bins so the top one is left emtpy for red potatoes and vegetables that I don’t have as often…
• The middle bin is for onions…
• And the bottom bin is for potatoes…
• The top cabinet shelf I put my spices for now. I plan to get a spice rack soon for these though, but that’s for another part. The cabinet beneath that I put “Cream of..” soups, broths, and stocks because I mainly just cook with these so I want to keep them seperate from my other soups.
• In the cabinet to the right of the bins I put snacks.

This concludes Part I of this Pantry Organization series.

I’ve decided to break this down for several reasons including being able to see how much you REALLY have once it’s properly organized so you know what the best organizing solution(s) to purchase is.

Another reason is to get a feel for where things work the best. With this system I can move things around if they don’t seem to be working where they are and then when I get to Part II, I’ll be able to purchase the correct containers/storage solutions that will fit properly where I need them.