Organize your kitchen life
Conquer the pantry and corral your recipes
Every year when I put away the holiday decorations my house feels empty and bare. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I like to think of it as a clean slate. Even though it may take me a week of melancholic wallowing in post-holiday blues before I get motivated for a fresh start, I eventually get to the point where the organization bug kicks in. Unsurprisingly, the kitchen is where I always choose to start. Two areas that have made my kitchen life easier are an orderly (and pretty) pantry and a good management system for my recipes.
For me, the hardest thing about being organized is staying organized. I admit, I’m not so good about getting rid of the old to make room for the new … so things tend to accumulate in my kitchen. My husband (the engineer) always says, “Life would be easier if you’d just take a few extra minutes to put everything back in its place.” I’ve been trying to practice this, but the main thing that works for me is to create a well-organized space—that I enjoy looking at and being in—which motivates me to keep it that way. A couple years ago, I embarked on a pantry overhaul that has made all the difference. Now I just give it a good cleaning and update with a few new organizational improvements each year.
Looking directly into my pantry. (Yes, I may have bought the Pellegrino because it makes me happy to look at.)
Conquer the pantry
Where to start? The first rule is that yes, you really do need to take everything out of the pantry and place items into groups. Examples include: baking, snacks, pastas & rice, canned goods, oils & vinegars, etc. Trust me, it will be easier to see how to organize everything once it’s laying before you. This will also reveal if you have multiple bags of the same pasta, all opened and stale (guilty). Or bits of cereal left in bags shoved in the back of the pantry (guilty again). Or items that you never use and (yep, we all have ‘em) expired items.
Pick your storage containers
I prefer glass over plastic but either works. I’m a believer in taking items out of their boxes and placing in clear containers so you can see them. Plus, the uniformity is appealing to the eye. Plan the sizes and shapes of your containers in advance so you can coordinate your storage system. If you want to stack items, pick your containers accordingly. (Big hint: I cut the cooking instructions for my pasta and rice off the packages and taped to bottom of the jar! You can thank me later.)
Here’s a closer look at my jars. They don’t all match but they coordinate well enough to look organized.
While you can pick an entire organization system from a place like The Container Store, you can also take small steps to get organized and search for items a little at a time. I made several trips to stores like Home Goods where I came across jars with aqua lids (my color scheme) and smaller ones with stainless lids. I bought a few items at a time and then built around them. One mistake I made is with my flour. It’s in a large jar that has too narrow of an opening so I can’t easily scoop it out. I’m thinking this year I’ll invest in the Heritage Hill jars that Ina Garten is rumored to use. Target has a similar less expensive option. Remember that for some items such as brown sugar you’ll want airtight lids.
Heritage Hill jars available at Crate and Barrel.
Mason jars are a fairly affordable option for a variety of dried goods. Even the largest size at 64 ounces fits the wide mouth lid. You can customize your look with a variety of lids, such as:
Ball wide mouth storage lids that even fit the half gallon size jars, which I use for granola.
Masontops carries a set of pastel-colored lids as well as a 4-pack of white lids.
You can take it up a notch with these Turnco jars that come with beautiful wood lids or pick from maple, walnut, cherry, oak or mahogany lids that fit standard Mason jars from Etsy shop Wood Expressions (pictured below).
Target is currently having a storage event with reasonably priced items. To make it easy to find on their site, they have a section on “pantry storage’ and “food storage.” I’m liking these Threshold glass jars with wood lids.
Other great storage items to pick up at Home Goods or discount stores (or even sites like Joss & Main) are:
Lazy Susans or turntables. These are great for holding jars, things like oils and vinegars, condiments and other small items. I have one dedicated to baking (vanilla, baking powder, extracts and such.) I’m buying one of these turntables with built-in bins or sections from Target.
YouCopia Crazy Susan 11" Turntable with Bins available at Target.
Trays or large platters with lips. I actually had several items in my house already that worked. Look around to see what you can use.
Tiered shelves or shelf risers (think mini bleachers). These work for spices and other small items.
Under-the shelf drawers if you’re short on drawer space. I added a few of these to hold plastic wrap, foil and the like.
Rectangular or square baskets are good for holding miscellaneous snacks or even napkins. Your potatoes and onions will thank you if they have a place to call home where they can breathe. (But keep them separate as the onions will make your potatoes go bad more quickly.) I have several aqua and white wire baskets to hold canned goods. And I spied these food storage bins at Target – ahh they have aqua handles!
I used a random tray for my oils and vinegars and incorporated a couple baskets I had in my house. The aqua basket hides things like taco shells, crackers and one-time pasta purchases. I have several turntables to corral miscellaneous items.
Label, label, label
This is the fun part!
I suggest finding jars or containers for everything first and then figuring out what labels you’ll need. Only make labels for those items that you use a lot and will continue to refill. I actually have a few jars for cereal and pasta with chalkboard labels so I can switch out the content names .I ordered these custom vinyl labels (above) several years ago on Etsy, but I’m in love with the more modern Pear and Paper labels, also customizable. There are so many choices on Etsy. Just search “kitchen labels” or “pantry labels” and you’re sure to find something you like. Choose from vinyl special fonts/hand lettering styles available in a number of colors or more modern and minimalistic printed labels available from places like Paper and Ink Shop.
Modern BeSpoke Labels from Etsy Paper and Ink Shop.
Also, don’t fret if you can’t do it all at once. Try doing one side of your pantry, or one grouping of items. It doesn’t ALL have to be matchy-matchy nor does it have to be the perfect-Pinterest pantry, but you want it to look coordinated. Give it a little of your personality. You may find that you need to collect the containers gradually or that the arrangement isn’t working. Make it a work in progress. The second year I bought a step stool (in my color) and later added a row of hooks on the wall behind the door for my aprons. I keep thinking I’d like to put all my baking materials on a cute cart instead of going back and forth. But for now, that’s still on the list of improvements. (Patiently waiting for Ikea to bring back their aqua-colored kitchen cart.)
Corral your recipes!
Last but not least – organize your recipes!! You may have become a home cook in 2020, so make 2021 the year you document that with your new recipe database! This will make your life in the kitchen so much easier. I so so recommend using Paprika and have written an entire post about this recipe organizing app. This is not one of those databases with umpteen recipes that you pay for. Instead, it’s a smart way to organize and create a custom recipe database. (Note that I don’t get anything for saying this, I just really love my Paprika app.) If you’re constantly Googling recipes, you subscribe to a number of food blogs or digital food magazines, or you love to scroll through Instagram or Pinterest for recipes, this is for you. With just a couple of clicks you can import the recipes into your Paprika app and organize them into “categories.” This is where the staying organized comes in. I’ve trained myself to make sure I categorize every recipe (i.e., vegetarian, Mexican, breakfast, cookies, etc.) at the time I add it because going back later never happens. You can also import existing digital recipes or cut and paste to add recipes, or manually type in old family recipes. This is a fabulous tool for sharing across your foodie group of family and friends.
Go ahead, break a rule
The main rule is to do what works for you. Depending on your kitchen layout and size of your pantry, you may keep all your dry food in a pantry or some in kitchen cupboards. Think about how you use your kitchen and your traffic flow. I have everything in the pantry (not super convenient but it works and gives me extra steps in my day). I have one cupboard in my kitchen dedicated to spices and seasonings. I love opening this cupboard and gazing at my pretty spice jars.
These beauties are what motivated me to get organized in the first place—even if I did break my own rule and didn’t use clear storage containers.
My kids gave me the gorgeous spice jars (in my color scheme no doubt) for Christmas one year. They are handmade by a woman in Portland (Vitrified Studio) however she no longer makes them. The downside is that I never know when I’m running low on a spice, as my next door neighbor can attest to when I call asking to borrow a teaspoon of cumin yet again. Yes, I broke the “clear storage” container rule. Ahh, but I do like looking at them. And keeping them in alphabetic order!
Start organizing
So, don’t procrastinate. Put away the Christmas decorations. Clear that stuff out and make this the year you organize your food life. Get your pantry in tip-top orderly shape and gather your recipes into a database that’s always available at your fingertips. For inspiration, you can find a ton of information online, in books and on TV. My starting point was “One Year to An Organized Life,” which is a book that recommends starting your organizing journey in the kitchen, including your cupboards and drawers. (Okay, I may have only got to one additional room after the kitchen.) We’re all familiar with The Home Edit, ideas abound on Pinterest and you can always turn to Marie Kondo to spark joy in your pantry.
It looks like we’ll all be in the kitchen for a while longer so it might as well be an efficient and visually comforting place to be.
