Monday, February 7, 2011

The Pantry... It's time.

I’ve put it off long enough. I just found a plate of homemade Christmas cookies in my pantry… gross.

The last few months of my life have been a non-stop juggling act of so many fun things, and in an effort to enjoy life a little bit more I’ve said YES to all of them. It’s been a blast, but boy has my house suffered— particularly my pantry. You see, most of these fun events end up happening at my house. My husband is one of the most social people I have ever met and we entertain very large groups of people weekly. In the hustle and bustle of it all, I’ve ended up throwing things in my pantry at will and dropping things without picking them up and letting the recycle bin overflow onto my shelves and overall just making an absolute mess.

This is not something someone who writes an organizational blog should be sharing. And here’s the even worse part…. I’m going to post a picture:

But the fact is, sometimes I let things go just so I can organize them again, haha :-) or at least that is what I tell myself. So, during what I am entitling “The Record Breaking Ice Storm of 2011”, I had some time to get organized while I was trapped in my house for 4 loooooong days. (people in Texas do not drive at the hint of frozen precipitation).


Here are my tips for organizing a pantry:

If you take anything away from this, let it be my first tip: Decide what your most healthy food options are and put them on the shelf that is eye level with you. Not only that, but prepare them in any way that you can so that they become grab and go. I say this because 99% of us are trying to lose weight or maintain a size, and we want to snack healthfully. The best way to do that is to make healthy foods easy and accessible. Go as far as making a basket of already portioned out snacks and put them right in front of your nose. It takes the search work out of the equation when you are dying of hunger. I always do this right when I get home from the grocery store. If I don’t do it then, it doesn’t get done.

Secondly, put all of your candy and other temptations on a shelf that requires a stepladder. Outta sight, outta mind, requires too much work when you’re lazy, enough said.

Thirdly, take all of the environmentally friendly grocery bags out of your kitchen and put them in the trunk of your car. That way they are all ready for the grocery store whenever you need them and you have more room in your pantry.

Next, I like to put all of the snacks my children are allowed to have at anytime (not junk food) in a basket on the lowest shelf. That way, they can get the food themselves and I can be lazy. Now, I have a daughter who always asks before she eats something (I’m sure that will change in the next few years), but for little ones it works. It makes them feel like they can do something all by themselves and that goes a long way in their brains.

Another idea: Stack like items deep, not wide. For instance, if you have 3 tomato soup cans, stack them in front of each other and put something else to the side. This way, you can see more of the variety of what you have and leave the duplicates hidden from sight. I like to think of my pantry like a display case in the grocery store. Make everything visible (as much as you can for the space you have) and make it pleasing to the eye. You’ll want to eat what looks good.



Here’s another tip: Throw out all of your plastic storage containers and replace them with glass. First of all, it’s pretty. And pretty stuff makes you happy. But mainly this tip is for health reasons, because studies** have found that plastic seeps chemicals out into the foods it contains. Plastic is all around us and hard to avoid, but we might as well fix any area we can control. I went to Ikea and bought their glass containers because they were the cheapest I have found. For my pantry I use 6 large containers and 6 small ones. That pretty much covers the foods I would normally store in plastic.

My final tip for the day is to keep a bowl of clothepins nearby (unless you have a place to clip them to) so that you can easily use and reuse them for closing bags. I’ve tried all the fancy bag closers, but I end up going back to clothepins everytime. They are cheap and they work. And then they break, but you just bought a package of 100 for the price of 3 “chip clips” so who cares!

Those are my thoughts for Pantry organization. I have designed some printable labels for the pantry that should debut sometime in the next week or two. Be on the lookout! A pretty pantry is a healthy pantry!


**I picked one article online. This does not mean I fully endorse this website. There are many articles on the harmful effects of plastics.


2 comments:

  1. great ideas marian! and ps-next time ya'll come up to visit, would you mind bringing me a can of ranch style beans???

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  2. Great Info Marian. I just wish I had deep cupboards like you.

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