Pantry Organization & Giveaway!

You know something that is really disappointing? Finding groceries on a great deal, only to have them expire in the back of your pantry. Likely, you continue to buy that item or a substitute, blissfully unaware that one is in the back of your pantry expiring.

I have a small pantry and the organization of my pantry is a challenge for me. I can clean it out regularly and still, it manages to get messed up and things become hidden. Part of it is everyone looking through the pantry for a snack or dinner or ingredient for dinner and part of it is that desire to sometimes just get the groceries off the counter - not necessarily "put away" just out of the way. Together, these two things lead to my organized pantry quickly becoming a jumbled mess and making it harder to use thing up in a timely manner.

One way to help make sure that I use my groceries up in the order that they were bought (or at least the order that they expire) is to regularly clean out my pantry - but as good as it feels to accomplish, it is just something that I struggle to make the time to complete.

I partially resolved my issues a few years back when I finally located my first canned goods organizer for my pantry. The biggest challenge that I had then was that I only had 6 compartments that could hold cans, so somethings had to be grouped together which meant moving more cans than I like to get to that one thing I wanted. It certainly was leaps beyond what I had before, but still I could use some help.

A few months ago, I learned about Cansolidator from Shelf Reliance. I recently received one to review and let me just say - I love it. As much as I love the other canned goods organizer I have, this one is so much better. One feature that I really like is that the tracks are set up on a bracket that allows you to customize the spacing between tracks. What this allows is the option to allow it to accommodate tuna cans or tomato paste cans or family size cans. This was something my current organizer did not allow. In addition, with the size of the tracks, it is much easier to accommodate larger diameter cans as well. With my first organizer, when I would use it for cans like Progresso soup, they would sometimes hang up in back, but with the Cansolidator, the larger tracks allow this size and larger cans to easily be stored. The height on this organizer is shorter than my old one. This allows me to put the rack directly on my pantry shelf. There is even room above it, where I have placed some boxed goods for easy access. However, if you have the room, the Cansolidator is designed to be stacked one on top of the other or expanded end to end. I love this flexibility. The pantry unit lists a capacity of 40 cans, but really, this will depend a lot on the size of can that you are storing. I'm guessing larger cans won't fit as many. In addition, if you are storing some cans that are smaller, you have the option to purchase an additional track as an accessory to gain an additional row of storage and increasing your capacity.

The Cansolidator was very easy to assemble. Start with the end track and then, using your cans and the numbers on the bracket as a guide, determine where to place the next track. It is all plastic construction and seems very sturdy.

You can see how I am using mine:

I am using it for a lot of my smaller cans - tomato sauce, tomato paste, tuna and then one row of larger soup cans. Since I have another organizer that is working for my small soup cans, as well as for vegetables, beans and canned pasta items, it made sense for me to use this more flexible unit to organize the different sizes. You can see also, that I have room to the right side of mine and could accommodate another row of cans if I purchase an additional track. Right now, I am using this space in my pantry to store peanut butter, since the bracket forces there to be a gap between the right row of cans and the wall - it works for me now, but at some point in the future, I probably will pick up an additional track.

Would you like to have a Cansolidator? You can purchase them from Shelf Reliance - the prices range from $35 - $63 for the Cansolidator Cupboard to Cansolidator Pantry Plus. Right now they are available at a discount of 25% (not sure if this is limited time offer or not, it doesn't say).

Giveaway:
You can also enter to win a Cansolidator Pantry. Shelf Reliance has provided one Cansolidator Pantry for giveaway to one A Busy Mom of Two reader.

To enter - Leave a comment letting me know you would like to win.

Additional Entries (leave a comment for each additional entry)

Follow A Busy Mom of Two on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway. This can be once daily, please be sure to leave a link to the tweet in your comment.

Post about this giveaway on your blog and leave a comment with a link to your post.

Sign up to receive daily updates. Leave a comment letting me know you subscribe (or that you already do).

Share this giveaway with your friends on Facebook. Leave a comment letting me know you did.

Giveaway will remain open until August 26th at 6pm. Winner will be selected using Random.org random number generator. The winner will be contacted by e-mail (Please make sure that your email address is either in your comment or clearly visible on your profile or blog) and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner may be selected.

No compensation was received for this post and the opinions are all mine. Shelf Reliance provided one Cansolidator Pantry for my review and another for the giveaway.