5 Steps to a Holiday Pantry Makeover

SAN ANTONIO – Getting your pantry ready for the holidays is easy when you follow these five steps from The Container Store:

Step 1 - Take Inventory & Toss Expired Items

If you are looking to do a pantry redo, the first step is to remove all of the items inside — set a staging area on a dining room table. Discard out-of-date items and donate non-perishable items that you won’t realistically use to a local food bank. Cleaning out your pantry is a great plan once a month, but is a must before the holidays.  It will also make it easier to know what you have and what you need, in addition to keeping the area clean!

Step 2 – Simple Swipe Down

While everything is out of the pantry, take advantage of the opportunity to clean off the shelves with a quick swipe-down. You can even use this opportunity to add liners to your pantry shelves. We suggest lining all of your pantry shelves with a heavy-duty liner that will make clean-up of any spills much easier!

Step 3 – Group Like Items

Before, Jen had similar items like cans and packaged goods stored in multiple places in her pantry. This can lead to forgetting you have ingredients to actually over buying because you can’t see them! By grouping food items by type, size or function, we were able to create a function for each shelf, bin or drawer and make it much easier to locate small, hard-to-see items.

Step 4 - Maximize Space and Visibility with Smart Bins, Containers and Storage

There is often a lot of wasted space in a pantry due to items that cannot be stacked atop one another. Look for organizers that maximize shelf space — for example, add on shelves or tiered organizers that can maximize the vertical space.

Canned goods can quickly get “lost” on deep pantry shelves. Stacking cans one in front of the other is just not practical! You will forget what you’ve got stored in the back because you can’t see it. Choose a tiered shelf organizer that provides you with a full view of your canned goods.

You can also use these bins to group like items, for instance – pasta noodles, individually packaged snacks or drinks and so much more.  This also allows you to quickly identify and access the item(s) you need instead of having to search or sift through other items on the shelf.

In addition to maximizing space, these add visibility, too. Being able to use your entire collection will prevent you from buying multiples by accident. You can also better see your ingredients by transferring pantry staples such as sugar, flour and rice into see-through canisters. Doing so will not only help preserve the freshness of these items, it will be easier to see when you’re running low on an item.

Step 5- Remember the Floor & Door  

The floor is a good place to store larger items such as bulk food storage containers or baskets of often-used items such as onions and potatoes. Utilize the full space between the floor and your lowest shelf by choosing stacking bins or baskets.

If you have a door in your pantry or kitchen area, don’t neglect that often wasted space. The elfa Door & Wall Rack is designed to fit onto the back of a door. The system uses adjustable baskets to provide you with a custom storage space for canned goods and other dry foods, cleaning supplies and even bottles of soda! The rack will ease the overcrowding in your cabinets and make it possible to have everything at your fingertips.

For more information, visit The Container Store.