Getting your pantry/food storage organized can be a challenge. Sometimes it’s just a matter of purging and moving things around. But honestly, for most of us, it’s about making better use of the space. And that means you need to invest in a couple of inexpensive products to make it easier to see and store things. Here are my favorites:

• Under-shelf racks. These essentially add another shelf and it’s much better than stacking things, trying to balance them and having them tumble all over the place.
• Wall or door-mounted shelves. These allow you to use space you didn’t even know you have. Use spice rack size for small items and wider shelves if you want to store canned goods.
• An elevator. A graduated stepped shelf that you set on an existing shelf allows you to finally see what’s behind everything! You’ll no longer buy duplicates of black beans and tomato paste because you’ll finally be able to see what you own.
• Plastic shoeboxes. I love these to store bulk bags of spices I buy from Penzey’s, to keep all the individual size canned fruit packages from rolling around, and for tea and drink mixes. I also use one for my collection of sea salts. They’re easy to take in and out and keep all those little things organized.
• Square glass storage jars. These are my pick for storing baking goods, cereal, pasta, and other products. Because they’re square, they stack and fit together. Glass contains no harmful chemicals and they are see through, so you know exactly how much you have left.

The glass jars are the most expensive items on the list. You can get everything else for $50 or less. I suggest gradually replacing your plastic with glass over time. You can find many of these are discount stores like Walmart or Target. Amazon is a great online source. The Container Store also have a lot, but their prices tend to be a bit higher.

Getting your pantry/food storage organized can be a challenge. Sometimes it’s just a matter of purging and moving things around. But honestly, for most of us, it’s about making better use of the space. And that means you need to invest in a couple of inexpensive products to make it easier to see and store … Read more →

I started the New Year out with some organization projects.

My pantry is always an ongoing project. Last year we put shelves on the inside of the door. I kept my food

wraps there (plastic, aluminium, parchment, etc.) but they often come flying off when the door moves. So yesterday we installed a shelf just for them inside the pantry, inside the wall it shares with the kitchen (so you have to go in and look behind to see it).  This not only contains the wrap and prevents it from falling on my head, but it also opened up two whole shelves for me on the pantry door. I moved rice, broth, and pasta sauce to take up the space. It’s given me some breathing space inside the pantry itself.

In other organizing projects, I did all the filing that had piled up and put away some paperwork for finished projects. Then I did a major sort of books. I have a huge collection of textbooks I use for some textbooks I co-author and I went through those and purged the ones that are now old. I also went through my regular bookshelves and got rid of some duplicates of my own books and created a giant donation box for the library.

I sat down with my cooking notebooks and filed all the recipes I’ve ripped out of magazines or printed from web sites in the past year. While I was doing this I made a list of some to try, so I’ll have some dinner ideas for the next week or so.

I started an accordion file for travel information I’ve ripped out of magazines or printed. I used my P-touch to label each section and then filed it all alphabetically.

I still need to pull out all of the bills and receipts from my files and get them organized for taxes. It’s a job I don’t look forward to at all!

I started the New Year out with some organization projects. My pantry is always an ongoing project. Last year we put shelves on the inside of the door. I kept my food wraps there (plastic, aluminium, parchment, etc.) but they often come flying off when the door moves. So yesterday we installed a shelf just … Read more →