Keeping an organized pantry in your Heber Springs rental home can appear to be a huge task. It is necessary to figure out where everything should go and how to keep things fresh and still in order over weeks (and years) of use. To see to it that your food supply is fresh and worry-free to access, comply with these simple pantry organization tips.
1. Create a System
Quite a lot of people approach pantry organizations with a somewhat simple system: grouping similar items together. Conceding that this is a rather good approach, it’s not the only technique to organize a pantry. Take into account placing items that you habitually use together alongside one another, such as pasta noodles, and sauce or baking essentials. Though take note, there are other effective techniques to group your pantry items.
You might take into account how often certain things are used, and place continually used items in the easy-to-reach spots. Another option would be to set up zones or stations in your pantry, grouping food items according to function or the time of day they are oftentimes used. Examples of this will be a coffee station, a bin with after-school snacks, or a shelf for breakfast. Whatever system you decide to use, it should reflect your routines and how you use your pantry every day.
2. Rotate Your Storage
One always forgotten strategy to pantry organization is a frequent rotation of food items. It is all too normal for food items to get shoved behind others and forgotten, or for purchased items to sit unused for months at a time. To stop throwing out expired food, it’s relevant to develop a first-in, first-out system for your pantry items. If you’re restocking each shelf, put new items behind older items. Thereafter, always remember to take the time to continually check the expiration dates of your pantry items and clean out anything that has expired. In this fashion, you can preserve and keep your pantry food items fresh and ready for use.
3. Choose Proper Storage Containers
It doesn’t need to be extra expensive or really pretty (although it can be), but certainly, included in the most essential practices to keep food fresh in your pantry is to give importance and see to it that each item is stored properly. In contrast with canned food items, which would be stacked neatly right out of your grocery bags, other food items have to be removed from the original packaging and stored in airtight containers.
To actually ensure long-term freshness, decant flour, and other grain-based food items by taking them out of the bags they come in and placing them in glass or plastic containers with tight-fitting lids. The very reason you shouldn’t keep flour, cake mix, or similar items in their original bags is that not only will it go stale relatively quickly but, at the same time, the bags may be hiding insect eggs and other bad problems. The last thing you want is to see that your pantry is infested with bugs!
It’s also imperative to adhere to some easy norms with respect to grouping your pantry items. Some particular foods shouldn’t be stored very near to other foods. If you place both onions and potatoes in your pantry, you should take care to separate them. If you don’t, the onions’ strong odor can permeate the potatoes and cause them to spoil faster.
Lastly, when choosing storage containers for your pantry, it’s imperative to select containers that not only fit your shelves but, on the flip side, also give you a chance to track and access the contents quickly. Mason jars might look like a nice option for storing rice and other items, but admittedly, the jar’s narrow mouth can make scooping difficult. Likewise, select containers that you can label with the name of the contents and the expiration date. Think of investing in removable labels to be able to right away update each container’s information each time you refill it.
4. Size Matters
One last point, as you organize your pantry, it’s significant to not only group small items, particularly spice jars, in an orderly fashion but to make room for those bigger items also. Undertake to add smaller shelving or trays to keep little things together and in an orderly fashion. If that is possible, make some taller spaces for cereal boxes, bottles, or other tall or oddly-shaped items.
In the long run, with a little creativity and some wise and careful planning, you can make a tidy and functional pantry designed to actually help you keep your food supply fresh and ready for use.
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