What does the pantry and entertaining have in common? The first flows into the second, either wasting time, adding frustration, and adding costs, or the opposite. An organized pantry breeds organized entertaining. The pantry, where we store our boxes and jars of food, is just about the easiest spot in the kitchen to get UNorganized quickly! I have some ideas to help your pantry STAY organized…at least through the fall and winter entertaining season. After that, it’s up to you!

First off, as you might imagine, schedule an hour on that calendar I told you about, to remove everything in the pantry. Now is the time to discard the food items that are probably too old to use, and if unsure about it, I’d recommending tossing an item. Be ruthless. Are you REALLY going to use that jar of pickled ginger you received as a gift two years ago…but which looks perfectly fine? I have a jar of chestnuts in my pantry for 3 years now. I promise, it’s GOING. I already have my hour scheduled in my calendar for this week! But, the thing is, I want those items gone so that I can stock up on these great specialty gourmet foods for THIS season’s entertaining.

Next, you can start to think about how you wish to organize the remaining items. You do not have to instinctively sort your items by size, putting the tallest items in the back of the pantry. What is probably a better idea is to, first, organize like items together on a table or countertop, such as cereals, pastas, cans or jars of tomato products, soups, baking products, entertaining foods such as crackers, specialty jarred foods and so on.

Once the food items are all sorted through, think about how and where to store the items in the pantry. Here are ideas on the “how.”

1. Frequency of use - If cereals are a staple in your house, put them at your extended arm’s height in the pantry for easy access. Other items with frequent use should be in that same general area. In fact, the least used items should be farther away from that “central” location.  What should work well ergonomically is a 30″ vertical span, with the center of that 30″ being your extended arm’s height, as to where you store your most frequently used items. The only deviation from this would be to logically place items that kids are allowed to get to, lower than the center position.

2. Small items - Pay careful attention to what you place in the back of the pantry. Here is where storage aids come in handy. In the case of those great, jarred, gourmet spices or jarred foods, as we know, many of them come in small sizes. Baskets are a fantastic way to store these small items, perhaps by category. You could even put a label or a tag on the basket so that you know quickly what is in the basket. Another idea to store small items is to use racks on the inside door of your pantry. I’ll tell you a great hint…the bathroom accessories department is a fantastic place to see ALL shapes and sizes of racks. You wouldn’t normally think of looking there, but that is often the place I go to get some great metal racks for the door. They’re strong and good looking. Or, the ever-useful lazy susan spice rack is great for in front of the pantry, again, situated at arms length, and it doesn’t take up precious counter space.

3. Large items - Storing large items on the floor can make one cranky, when you have to bend down and peruse through your items to find what you need. Instead, consider our classic friend, the laundry basket. Have a few laundry baskets for the larger items…for overflow juice cans or large plastic bottles, all those extra juice packs you have for the kids, even paper towels or napkins. You would probably not have to label these baskets, as they are for larger items. But, with a handy handle on them, the quick access is great.

Once you have taken that hour to organize your pantry, with just a few aids to give your things a “home” you’ll quickly know right where to go to get what you need…especially when you need it NOW.  And, we know what a fantastic feeling it is to have an organized pantry…the world just seems a little bit better, doesn’t it? I know it does for me. Now’s the time to do it. Have fun!