Revamp Your Pantry: Declutter and Organize for a Fresh Start!

It is easy to open your pantry or fridge, be overwhelmed by how cluttered and unorganized it is, and walk away! But you are going to solve that problem TODAY, and I am here to help you! We are going to declutter and organize your pantry for a fresh start. The same principles can be applied to cleaning out your fridge, or anything for that matter.

Step One:

Pull everything out! Yes, everything. We must assess what we have and what is trash, look at expiration dates, etc. You can make piles on the floor or countertops around you, but make sure everything is pulled out before we move on to step two!

Step Two:

Analyze the damage! Grab a trash bag and start throwing away anything that is opened and dried out, expired, or anything you think you aren’t going to use. Because, let’s be honest, that sauce has been in there for over a year now! Toss it!!

Step Three:

We need to sweep off the shelves and then sweep the floor. Once the sweeping is out of the way, wipe all the shelves, door frame, door, and whatever else is wipable. We are starting over, so everything needs to be fresh and clean!

Step Four:

We will let the pantry air out and dry from our scrubbing. While we wait for that, we will start wiping out all of our bins, buckets, or whatever organizational products you have for food. If you have children who love PB & Honey sandwiches like my kids do, you will need to wipe those bottles down.

DISCLAIMER: You should have organizational bins for your pantry. Organizational products are the only way to truly keep things organized and decluttered. When you don’t have bins, products get pushed to the back, and you can’t see them. This, over time, is going to be a waste of money. If you waste $100 a year throwing away expired food that got hidden or repurchasing the sauce because you couldn’t see it, then you could see how a $100 investment in organizational bins is worth it. You only need to buy them once (as long as you take care of them and purchase quality), and they prevent you from losing your crap to the back of the pantry! Over five years, you’ve saved $500! See!! Buy some bins. 😉

SAVINGS TIP: If you don’t have $100 to spend at once, one thing I recommend to people just starting to purchase organizational bins is to buy one bin every time you go to the store! This could be an extra $5-$10 twice a month. Costco always has bins for a pretty reasonable price. If you buy one set every month or every other month, you should have plenty of bins all over your house in no time! I’ve seen people start with no products to ending the year with a whole house organized because they purchased one organizing product each time they went to the store. This obviously takes a little longer, but delayed gratification is better than no progress at all.

Step Five:

After discarding trash and expired food, examine how many totes are empty or extras now that all the clutter is cleared out. I haven’t bought my kids cereal in a long time, and I’m not planning to buy it for a while, so I will put those containers away for now. However, when they went to school a few years ago, when the bins were empty, it reminded me that I needed to restock the cereal. If you know you aren’t going to need the bins for a while, set them aside. If you need to restock something, we will set the containers back in the pantry empty.

Here is the greatest tip for keeping a place organized and decluttered: everything needs to have a place, and everything always gets put back in its place. If you don’t have a place for an item and can’t create a space for it, you either don’t need it or have no room for it! Its gotta go!

Step Six:

After getting all the extra totes out of the way, organize any bins that hold bags, lunch boxes, grocery totes, dust pans, etc. Make sure you need everything that is in them. Don’t be afraid to trash or donate items you no longer need. My kids stopped going to school, and I got rid of all the lunch boxes. The reality is that the chance I might need to pack my kid a lunch again is so slim that I would just put it in a plastic sac if it came to it. Otherwise, we use a cooler bag when we go to the lake, etc.

Step Seven:

The fun part!!! Put everything back together!!! Organize the cans in an area. Put all of the breakfast food together. Put like items together and create a system that you and your family can maintain. It isn’t unreasonable to teach children to be organized. It is emotionally satisfying when things are well-kept. It is also a learning opportunity for them to know how to manage a household when they move out on their own.

Feel that? ahhhh! Less stress and more happiness. 🙂

Be sure to declutter items as often as possible so as not to overcrowd your space, but depending on your family size, you shouldn’t need to clear everything out again for another 4-6 months.