It’s time to clean out the pantry. With Christmas just around the corner, it’s the ideal opportunity to deep clean our pantries and make way for all the ingredients the holiday season cooking brings!
While I don’t personally have a pantry at this stage my equivalent, a food cupboard is very full and cluttered. Even though it’s small, I have a lot of problems finding things! Food seems to get shoved into every nook and cranny, very willy-nilly.
I’ve taken a before photo of how cramped, shoved in, and cluttered this space is, check that out below! It’s a risky business trying to get something out because whenever you pull something out, something else falls out along with it and generally smashes on the floor. I’ve broken two salt shakes in the last couple of months, just because my cupboard is too full. So that’s it, it’s time to declutter.
First things first, I swept and mopped the floor so it was clean enough to put things on it. I then took everything out of the cupboard and placed anything out of date straight into the bin, don’t need anything out of date in there do I?!
Then I sorted through everything to see if there is stuff that I am definitely not going to use and put that in a separate pile for rehoming to someone that might use it. For example, during lockdown for some reason I bought flour that was gluten-free and I am just never going to use it. So I’ll gift that to some gluten-free friends! Within the photo below, you can see the pile (circled) of items I’ll rehome.
Once the space is clear, it’s time to clean out the cupboard completely. Sweeping the surface first then giving it a good spray down and wipe out.
Since I have all my food items out in front of me, I’m able to start categorising by placing like items together. Prior to placing items back into the cupboard, I’ll consider the frequency of when I use them. For example, I use my cooking oils and sauces often, so they’ll be placed at the front, with baking items at the back as I don’t use them as regularly. I used a plastic container with no lid to contain all my herbal teas so when I have a visitor and I offer them tea I can just pull out the plastic container and access all my teas easily.
My cereals are in one area together and my spreads like Marmite and peanut butter are also placed together near the front. I did this with everything else too, like pastas and rice etc.
Now that everything is easy to find and there’s half the amount of stuff in my cupboard I can access things a lot easier. Yay for a tidy pantry or food cupboard in my case. It’s a good feeling once it’s done as now I can actually find things in my food cupboard without things falling out onto the floor and breaking.
Extra Tips:
- If you have a large pantry or scullery, you can still follow the same system but of course, it may take a little longer, but it is generally easier to put away so things are easily in view.
- If you have the budget, you can purchase pantry organisers or containers that you could label. Consider small baskets or holders for like items.
Happy decluttering!