Pantry Reorganization

Last weekend, I decided to enter a $250 Pantry Makeover giveaway, unfortunately I didn't win. Fortunately, I had to submit a photo to enter and I realized what a mess my pantry had become.

My cans were well organized already, thanks to my canned goods rack, but the rest of it was a disaster. Things were simply 'shoved' in wherever they would fit. Stacks of pouch items had toppled and were covered with other things.

As I removed everything, I started to realize that by not being organized, that I had lost track of things. There were multiple partial boxes of the same item. There were things that had long since expired. There were things I needed for recipes that I had continued to buy each time I prepared and yet there those items were, buried in my pantry.

I organized using food storage containers and lining pouches up in them (by expiration date), so that I could allow for them to stay upright and to use with a more reasonable rotation. I threw out a lot of partial bags of chips and organized all of my crackers in a deep stack. We can simply eat from the front box back now. I used a couple of food storage containers to empty bags of food into so that we can more easily access and consume that product without worrying about it getting crushed or lost.

Now my pantry looks like this. I can find things and I was able to sort things so that the products to be used first were most accessible. It made menu planning this week easier, as I was able to see what I had. In fact, I created a dish (promise, I will post this soon) for dinner on Sunday to use up some odds and ends. (honest, the picture doesn't really do it justice - as I sit here, I could see you saying, really that is more organized?)

Having an organized pantry works for me.

For more tips and tricks, check out Works For Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family.