This time of year is great for organizing the pantry. It gives you a chance to organize your food items to see what is on hand for the increased amount of cooking that comes with the holidays. The purging of unneeded items as well as organizing what you are keeping will open up space for the extra items you bring in for special holiday dishes.
It doesn’t matter if you have a very small pantry of only a few shelves or a large walk-in pantry, after a year things will have gotten out of order and need organization.
Organize your pantry like a grocery store. Have all pastas and grains in one area. Put all canned goods in another area, separating vegetables, fruit, soups, etc. If you have more than one can of green beans or tomato soup, put the newer cans behind the older cans so that you rotate your food and use up the older cans first. While going through the process or organizing the cans and condiments, take a look at expiration or “best used by” dates. Discard cans that are past their expiration date and donate cans of items you bought some time ago but have no plan of using soon. This will open up your shelves for holiday shopping.
Think before you stock up on large quantities on a sale. Will you really use all those cans before they expire? Do you have space to store the cans in a usable manner? Are you saving enough money or time shopping by buying in bulk to make up for the inconvenience of cramming your shelves or having to look elsewhere to store the extras? Next year will you find 10 cans of pumpkin in your basement along with the 20 rolls of paper towels?
Once organized, you will be surprised at how much space you now have for your holiday food shopping.
Jonda S. Beattie Professional Organizer
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