We are all guilty of throwing stuff in a closet and closing the door, saying I’ll organize it later.  This is especially true when we have gone to the store after work, then have to come home and made dinner, then clean up dinner, then get the kids in the bath, the list goes on and on.  The last thing you want to do is take the time and put everything away, and that is why my pantry looked like the picture below.  As you can see from the picture we use our pantry as a closet because it is pretty big and so a lot of things end up in there.  To find a great way to organize your pantry and keep it that way see my steps below:

The first step was to take everything out, and I do mean everything.  The things I found it my pantry was kind of astonishing, because we kept piling stuff on top of stuff.  I’m saying “we” because I know my husband and my son do this as well, but if I’m being completely honest it is mainly me (shhhhh don’t tell anyone I said that!)

Second step check expiration dates for all food, we had something in there that expired in 2009 (okay it was actually 2007) how horrifying!

Third step ask yourself for all non-food items why do I have this?  Will we ever use this again?  Why am I holding on to this?  For me this was some wine glasses we were given while wine tasting about 5 years ago.  I was keeping them because it was something we did with my mother in law when she was visiting.  We will never use the wine glasses and they have been in the back of my pantry just taking up space for 5 years!  To the trash with them!

Fourth step all food items in bags transfer into Tupperware or some type of plastic storage container.  I used any items I had even mason jars for storage containers.  I also moved all kid snack items to a shelf my son could reach.  In the past I would always but these items up high so he would have to ask for help to get them, but he just thought it was a challenge to climb up and get what he wanted.  Now all of his favorite gluten-free cereals and snacks like pirates booty are at his level.

Fifth step all items not used daily should be put up on a higher shelf, for us this was all of the paper products just purchased from Costco.  Because you never know when the need for a dozen paper towels will hit it is good to be prepared, the paper towels are also stacked on top of each other to save space.

The sixth and final step is to try to maintain the organization, (not going to lie this is hard) if you take a few minutes a few times a week this will not be a problem.