7 Effective Ways to Organize and Declutter your Pantry

Does your pantry look like it’s been hit by a cyclone? Do you want to know the secrets of the professional organizers?

All you need is patience and time to declutter your pantry in 7 easy steps.

1. Begin to declutter your pantry by removing all the expired foods. This includes anything over 3+ months, if you have not touched it by now I highly doubt you ever will. 
2. Take items and group them by category. Put all your breakfast items in one group that is easily accessible to everyone. For example: cereal, oatmeal, breakfast bars/pastries, etc. Some groupings you might find useful would be: canned items (veggies, meats, soups, coffee, kids foods), boxed items (potatoes, rice, noodles), drink mixtures (Kool-Aid, ice tea, tea bags), snacks (nuts, popcorn, candy, chips, pretzels, Cheetos, etc.), paper goods (napkins, paper towels, garbage bags, etc.)  
3. Try to use Air-Tight Canisters when it comes to perishable food items. This will not only give your food a longer shelf life, but also save you money in the process. With Air-Tight Canisters you will always know when food is running low. What a wonderful way to not only declutter your pantry by keep it organized.
4. Designate yourself an “emergency” shelf. This will be for those guests that just so happen to pop in at the last minute. A few things you might want to consider having on hand would be: paper products (plates, napkins, cups), cookies, crackers, or no bake desserts, drink mixers or ice teas, chips and dip.
5. Be sure to have each shelf with labels pointed outword. This makes it much easier to declutter your pantry and locate just about anything quickly and efficiently. Keep the grouping of all the categories together. Veggies, soups, fruit, etc. To save on even more space, line duplicates behind one-another, always make sure you are rotating your stock as well. Nothing worse then opening a can of something realizing it has turned bad because of not checking dates.
6. Now for those of you that don’t have a panty it's ok. Believe it or not many people use upright storage units, which is close enough to a pantry. Even if you have a closet that you really aren’t using can be turned into a pantry. Whatever you use can be organized from these tips.
7. Lastly get the family involved with your organizational efforts. Go over with them on how to properly put things away in their designated locations. Explain why it is important to be organized and clutter free. 

Congratulations you are on your way to a pantry you can be proud of! Learn more about how to declutter your pantry from Mimi Tanner, who is one of the leading experts in this field.