Organized pantry: how to do and maintain it? It’s advantages!

An organized pantry should be your aim. It not only looks good but it helps healthy eating and in making right food choices. What are the advantages of it? How to do it? Here are some tips on it.

An organized pantry

A lot is being discussed on internet and social media about pantry organization. It should be the aim of everyone. But often, we fail to do it properly. This is because we lack the know-how on it.

An organized pantry is a must for aesthetic reasons. A clean and well-organized pantry looks good. But besides this, such a pantry also promotes healthy eating. It makes us do right food choices. This is important for a healthy and balanced diet. In a well-stocked and well-organized pantry, we can find the nutritious ingredient easily. There is no wastage of time.

Moreover, if the pantry is organized, we know what is missing and what to buy and when. Food ingredients are not wasted and surplus buying is avoided. Thus, there is saving on our time, money and efforts. We feel motivated and our moods are high with such a pantry.

A perfect pantry is vital. But often, many are unaware about how to maintain it. But it’s not very hard. Here are 12 tips on how to go about it.

Purge the pantry

Firstly, start with removing things that have expired or are unhealthy. This will automatically prevent us from using them. Once you this clean your pantry, contamination chances reduce.

Record

Make a list of the food ingredients you have in the pantry. This would result in mindful shopping. It will avoid double purchases and purchases of unhealthy foods.

Categorize

Categorize the foods in the pantry. You can group them into nuts, whole grains, legumes, spices etc. This would improve your eating choices and food preparation.

Separate

Remove the ingredients from their packages and put them in separate airtight containers. This will make things uniform and give a clean and good look to the pantry.

Label

Pantry organizer, Natalie Manoshian says that this step is important. Put labels on all the containers. Add names and expiry dates. This will lower your chances of using wrong foods accidentally or using expired foods.

Create a separate corner for kids stuff

Use the lower shelf to keep kids-friendly foods that are also healthy. These include nuts, healthy snacks, seeds, etc. that the children can take on their own when hungry.

Divide

Try to separate small items such as measuring spoons, tea bags by means of drawer dividers. This will help you to locate them easily. A clutter free pantry reduces stress of finding things and saves time.

Different sizes of jars

Size the containers or jars so that items are in the right size containers. Larger jars for items that are stored in bulk and smaller jars for those that you require in smaller amounts.

Transparent containers

Storing in transparent containers is better so that one can visualize them. This will help to choose them easily and also know if they are going bad.

Baskets and tubs

One can make use of buckets and tubs to segregate items.

Use vertical separators

Using risers or vertical separators helps to place more things with no overcrowding.

Read here: Refrigerators, their limitations: 12 foods that should never be stored in the fridge!

Mindful shopping and stocking

Be mindful of what you have in the pantry and what you need to stock. This helps in mindful and right choices. This favors mindful eating and portion control. Similarly, one can do proper organization in the refrigerator to store fresh fruits and veggies, other food items and frozen foods.