Keeping an organized pantry in your Round Rock rental home can be exhausting. It’s key for you to determine where things should go so that you will know how to keep things fresh and neat, too. To be certain that your food supply is fresh and easy to access, take note of these simple pantry organization tips.
1. Create a System
Most people approach pantry organization with a relatively simple system: grouping similar items together. There are, however, multiple ways to organize a pantry. Consider taking your pasta noodles and sauce, or even baking essentials, and group them together since these are items that are often used together. Grouping a pantry can be done in many different ways, though.
Consider taking all your frequently used items and stashing them together in an easy-to-reach spot. One way of doing it is to create zones or stations inside your pantry which will segregate your items according to function, or time of day when they will get used. Examples of this might be a coffee station, a bin with after-school snacks, or a shelf for breakfast. Make any of these systems work by making sure that they fit your daily routines in the pantry.
2. Rotate Your Storage
One thing that you should never overlook in pantry organization is the rotation of your food items. It’s not a surprise when food items get pushed into the back of the line and forgotten for several months. So that you don’t have to deal with expired food, you can come up with a first-in, fist-out system for your pantry. When restocking each shelf, place new items behind older items. Always sift through the items and look at their expiration dates so that you can do away with the ones that are expired. In doing so, you can ensure a pantry that’s always fresh.
3. Choose Proper Storage Containers
Use storage containers to keep your food fresh. You don’t need to get the expensive or fancy ones — just use them to segregate and store your items! There are items in your pantry, unlike canned food, which need airtight containers to keep fresh. Most of the time, you’ll need to remove them from their packaging and store them elsewhere.
To ensure long-term freshness, decant flour and other grain-based food items by taking them out of the bags they come in and placing them in glass or plastic containers with tight-fitting lids. Insect eggs or other problems could come with the original bags of flour, cake mix, or other similar items. It’s always best to transfer them to another container. It would be a nightmare to one day discover that your pantry is infested with bugs.
Remember these simple tricks when grouping your pantry items. When grouping food items, note that there are foods that shouldn’t be stored close to others. Common items like onions and potatoes in your pantry should always be separated. If you don’t, the onions’ strong odor can permeate the potatoes and cause them to spoil faster.
Finally, a good storage container is one that you can fit in your pantry shelves; but, they should also allow you to easily access its contents. A really common container for storing rice is the mason jar. However, scooping the rice can be problematic because of the jar’s narrow mouth. Choose containers that are easy to label, too. You can label the container with the name of the content, as well as the content’s expiration date. Buy removable labels so that you can easily update each of your containers every so often.
4. Size Matters
Finally, in your pantry organization, think about arranging smaller items like spice jars in their own space, so that you can make room for bigger items, too. There are also smaller shelving or trays that you can use to separate different-sized items. If possible, create some taller spaces for cereal boxes, bottles, or other tall or oddly-shaped items.
Ultimately, you can always opt to carefully plan and organize your pantry in a way that is convenient and effective in keeping your food supply fresh.
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