I’ve been bit hard by the New Year organizing bug and the kitchen was what was begging for attention this past weekend. I happen to have written a kitchen organizing book, so I have a little bit of experience in this area!

The pantry is the hardest place in my house to keep orderly. We have a pantry that is built over the basement steps, so it’s like a closet, but you have to go up a step to get in it. It’s filled with shelves and racks and baskets, as well as some risers to make cans easier to see.

The big problem was that this past year I became gluten-free, taking my family along with me (mostly). But I still had big tubs of flour (white flour, whole wheat flour, white whole wheat flour, rye flour, self-rising flour, bread flour, and cake flour) that were crowding my pantry, while my gluten-free flours were floating around in plastic bags. It was time to take action. Out went all the flour with gluten (except for one bin of all-purpose to use for school bake sales, etc.). I washed the containers and filled them with my new gluten-free products. I had enough containers left over to finally put some items (like gluten-free oats,  cornmeal, gluten-free breadcrumbs, and different rices) into their own storage containers.

Not only have I written the book on kitchen organizing, but I also unofficially apprenticed myself to Martha Stewart for several years (this blog used to be called MarthaAndMe). And Martha is the queen of organization. So I took a page out of Martha’s book and used my little P-touch machine (which prints labels) to label each and every container in my pantry, on the lid and on the side. So now I can tell exactly what is in each without fumbling around and trying to read my handwriting on the lids. It’s genius.

I kept some regular pasta, which the kids promise to use up on their own, but I separated it out so now I have a gluten-free and a regular section.

I made a bag for the food pantry with soups and other products that were unopened and contained gluten.

I still would like to switch everything over to glass storage containers instead of plastic, so that remains on my long-term wishlist for the pantry.

What condition is your pantry in?

I’ve been bit hard by the New Year organizing bug and the kitchen was what was begging for attention this past weekend. I happen to have written a kitchen organizing book, so I have a little bit of experience in this area! The pantry is the hardest place in my house to keep orderly. We … Read more →