organizing the kitchen pantry

 Are you lucky enough to have a pantry in your kitchen? My kitchen doesn't

have a pantry, so I keep most of my dry goods in one main kitchen cabinet.

This is where I keep all my grains, pastas, spices, and some other

items such as peanut butter, honey, raw almonds (we eat some every day; 

other nuts are kept in the freezer), and dried fruit.

This is the cabinet before. Not too bad, but a little sloppy.

I started by clearing everything out of the cabinet and wiping down the shelves.

Then I threw away anything that was expired.

I like to keep grains and pastas in glass jars ~ it keeps the items fresher when

you can put the lid back on a jar instead of trying to close a box or bag. Ever

try to close a box of pasta when you didn't use the whole thing? I can't tell

you how many times I actually used tape to keep a box closed.

 I also like how you can easily see what you need when items are in glass 

containers. I cut the  cooking instruction label off the original bag and put it in

 the container with the grain or pasta.

Honey, maple syrup, and molasses are obviously sticky, so I use plastic

lids underneath these types of jarred items to catch the drips and prevent

the sticky stuff from getting onto the shelving.

 

I ran out of glass jars for some of the goods, but I'm always on the

lookout at thrift shops. I also reuse salsa jars or any other food that comes

in jar that is big enough to re-use for dried goods. I then group things together ~

grains, pastas, dried fruit, dried beans, and spices.

 

I think I have every spice known to man. I don't want to be wasting time 

searching for a particular spice when I'm cooking, so I organized these in

baskets according to how they're used. For example, one basket holds Italian

spices - oregano, thyme, basil, rosemary, onion salt, garlic powder (though I mainly

use fresh garlic), and parsley. Another basket holds baking spices - cinnamon,

ginger, pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, and cloves. How about a basket for salts and

peppers? I have a pepper grinder for coarser pepper and then a bottle of "regular",

fine-ground pepper. I have a little bottle of kosher salt, but I sometimes use Trader Joes

21 Seasoning Salute in my cooking, since it's a salt-free blend.

 

It's so easy to just pull a basket off the shelf and have all the spices you need

at your fingertips. Now I need to find my label maker and label these baskets!

 

And here's the after - much neater and more organized.

 Joining Cozy Little House for Tweak it Tuesday. 

Come on over and see what all these talented ladies have been up to!