Few people want to spend more time doing kitchen chores. Organizing your food cupboards minimizes the time you’ll spend searching for ingredients, making grocery lists, cleaning up spills and putting meals together. Tidy cabinets also save you money. Admit it: how many times have you bought a new jar of sauce, only to find you had a fine one lurking in the depths of the pantry? Or found a stale box of cereal that you had to feed to the birds?
There are many ways that you can organize your cupboards. The key is to find a method that suits your space, your food stock and your personal preference.
Stacking
If you have plenty of cans of the same product, place them to the back of your cupboard and stack them on top of each other. Vertical rows takes up less space than horizontal rows. Think skyscrapers in big cities – air space is valuable. Remember to restock your supply from the bottom when putting groceries away.
Boxes
Repurpose shoe boxes or invest in a few clear shoebox-sized boxes or trays. They are readily available from hardware and home stores. Boxes this size are great for keeping similar items together. If you cook and bake often, shoeboxes can be incredibly useful. Consider placing all of your food coloring, baking powder, muffin liners and other baking supplies in one box, and put all of your spices, seasoning and sauces into another box. Boxes have the added advantage of preventing small jars from rolling about in the cupboard.
Tall at the Back
If your cupboards are packed and you often have to spend hours trying to find the product you need, consider putting tall items at the back and the shorter items at the front. This way you can always see the item you are looking for and it will never be behind something else. If needed, create a riser to add height to the back of the cabinet by laying a 2×4 the length of your cabinet against the back wall.
Frequently Used in Front
Most people reach into the pantry for the same few items: cereal and snacks are at the top of most families’ lists, while dusty jars of Aunt Betty’s pickled cauliflower would be at the bottom. Arrange your food so the frequently used items are in the most accessible place.
Inventory Tally
On the inside door of your cabinet, thumbtack a list of all the food you can’t easily see at first glance. Put a pencil on a string, and tack that to the list as well, to make it easy to update your list when you restock.
Figuring out how to organize your kitchen cupboards means figuring out how you use your food, and devising an organizing scheme that works for your space. An investment of time now will reap you the reward of time in the future.
Alternatively, you can reward yourself with the gift of time by hiring the professionals at Master Clean to organize your storage areas for you. They will ultimately save you the most time, now and in the future, when you reach into those neatly arranged cupboards.
