How to Organise your Pantry
We all love a good larder but what is the best way to organise them?
Larders come in all different guises, some people have a proper cold room, others have beautiful larder cupboards and other make the best of a collection of wall and base cupboards. As long as it stores food, you've got one!
STEP 1 - GET IT ALL OUT
The important thing when organising your food is to make sure you can see everything so you remember to use it and aren't wasting space on stuff that went out of date years ago. Empty those cupboards, check those dates and whilst you're at it, give the shelves a quick wipe down. Let's be honest, they're probably sticky and this wont happen again for quite a while!
STEP 2 - CATEGORIES
I like to first divide into Sweet & Savory. From there, find some common themes to your food and group them together, flours, sugars, pastas, eat from the tin (custard, fruit, soup), cook from the tin (chopped tomatoes, lentils)
STEP 3A - BASIC PLACEMENT
I think shallow cupboards are much easier for food storage than deep, I would rather recommend using two wall cupboards instead of one base unit for your storage. It's the same volume, just much easier to see. For those with deeper larder or base cupboards, this is where spice & oil racks come in use. They essentially create two shallow units in one, if you don't have one already, for the tiniest bit of DIY, you can get spice racks to add to your doors, just remember to shorten your centre shelf depth or the door wont close!
Arrange your new categories on your shelves with the taller items at the back so you can see everything. Tins all come in the same size so stack items of the same food to create the different heights. You'll know that there is another of the same underneath. Remember to stack in date order though so you always use the oldest one. Keep all your labels pointing forward.
STEP 3B - BEAUTIFYING
If you want your shelves to look like the ones you've seen on Pinterest or Instagram, this is where the gorgeous Kilner Jar comes in. I'm a huge fan of decanting but I've learnt that sugar works best in a paper bag as it turns to rock! Remember to label your jars though so you don't mix up your bread flour with your plain flour, I like to keep a little note of cooking times for my pastas as I'm always chopping and changing brands. The great thing about decanting beautifully is that they look gorgeous on open shelves which is quick to grab and creates extra space in your cupboard.
STEP 4 - MAINTAINING!
There is no point doing all of this unless you remember to put things back in their categories after your food shop and cooking sessions. It will soon shuffle down and become second nature and you'll wonder how you ever managed before!