de-clutter your kitchen pantry in an afternoon

Organising your pantry is an achievable afternoon task that is going to bring a sense of calm to your everyday life.

The first thing you’ll need to do is empty out your pantry! Move all your pantry items to the kitchen bench for visibility, from here, you’ll be able to see exactly what you have and will be able to do a bit of an inventory check. Next, you’ll need to start decluttering, we are all guilty of hoarding food we are never going to eat or shouldn’t be eating because it expired in 2020…. We suggest donating any unwanted food to charities such as Food Bank. Remember to check the expiration date of all your food, even the soup! It eventually does go off.

To stay on track of your newly organised pantry we recommend developing a weekly meal plan or a list of quick recipes to keep on hand. Having a meal plan will not only help organise your week, it will also help to reduce waste in your household as you are not over-purchasing perishable items at the supermarket.

We recommend having a night each week dedicated to leftovers instead of disposing of uneaten food. Re-purposing leftovers can be super helpful if you’re time poor, that beef stew you made on the weekend can be turned into a tasty mid-week pie!

organisation tip - A fun trend we’ve seen in kitchens is the inclusion of an easy-grab snack drawer! This could include things like muesli bars, crackers or nuts and will mean you can grab a snack quickly without having to go looking in the pantry.   

To make your pantry easily accessible and user friendly we suggest grouping your pantry items into categories such as condiments, canned food and dry produce such as pasta and rice. Our pantry pull-out baskets are perfect if you want to maximise your pantry space – they also allow you to pull the contents of your pantry out, so it’s right in front of you. Dividing your pantry with wireware will make it super easy to do your weekly shop as you can see exactly what needs replenishing.

If you have a butler’s pantry, you may need a little more time to re-organise the space depending on its size. This may take more than an afternoon but is a great opportunity to create a clutter free pantry space that doubles as a preparation area. When organising your butler’s pantry, it is important to consider a functional layout for everyday life. Keep in mind what you want to store in there, for example your toaster and kettle or larger appliances such as a kitchen aid or air fryer. These decisions can take decluttering your space to the next level. If you are looking to include a butler’s pantry in your kitchen renovation, you can see how to design a practical and functional pantry with kaboodle here.

For a more visually appealing and streamlined pantry, look at purchasing some storage containers, such as these Inabox Tidy Trays available at Bunnings. You can use the tubs to categorise your food, which will really take your organization to the next level.

To take your pantry and kitchen storage solutions to the next level! Check out our wireware range here. We hope these tips have been useful, for more inspiration and ideas, visit our design blog or follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.