During a recent postpartum nesting phase (I swear it's a thing), I went on a mad purge of expired and useless food items in my kitchen. Now, I don't have a real pantry, just some crappy old cabinets, so all my pots, pans, utensils, and food have to play nicely wherever I can find space for them. I also have very limited counter space (and don't like things sitting out anyway), so having neatly organized cabinets is really the only option besides insanity. To organize my "pantry" cabinet, I employed my own advice on how to successfully organize any space:
Step 1
Take everything out. Eh.Vry.Thang.
Step 2
Separate Eh.Vry.Thang into three piles: Keep, Toss, Donate. (In some cases, you can add a fourth pile for items you intend to Sell, or make that your third pile with the intention that whatever doesn't Sell is then Donated. The danger with a Sell pile is that unless you find a buyer or have a garage sale very soon, you're still holding on to a pile of stuff you're not using, and it's just taking up space indefinitely. So be wary of that.)
Step 3
Once you've sorted all your items and removed the Toss and Donate piles from your space, organize what's left in the Keep pile. If it's clothes, that might mean grouping items by sleeve length or season. If it's food, ya probably want to consider grouping similar types of food together. Example, put all the rice together. It just makes good sense, people.
Step 4
Put it back. Organized this time. Use boxes or bins or jars or whatever makes sense for your budget, time, and items/space you're organizing.
After I took everything out of my "pantry" cabinet, tossed what was expired, gave to my neighbors what I knew I wouldn't use, and prepared to put everything else back, I was faced with the task of corralling the remaining items into like categories. Some items were already somewhat organized, like my spices all on a lazy susan (not actually my ideal choice for spice organization, but I don't feel like spending cash on a door-mounted spice rack at the moment, thanks), and coffee and filters in a little rush basket. Aside from that, the three biggest sub-piles within my Keep pile were pasta, cereal, and rice. I shoved them all on the top shelf because, let's face it, I use them a lot and know I'll take them down. Small items like spices or canned food on the top shelf might as well not exist in my house, because I won't see them, which means I'll forget about them, which means they'll never get used. In order to make it easier to get these oft-used items off that pesky top shelf, however, I needed to put them in containers. Ikea pulled through for me again, this time with the versatile SAMLA box.
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| Trader Joe's and Ikea meet again. |
I brought home three of these babies and discovered they fit my groceries, and my needs, perfectly. I'm not gonna lie, I'd be stoked to have some super trendy and oh-so-cute chicken wire baskets with chic petite chalkboard labels, but those things ain't cheap. These little plastic boxes are less than $1.50 a pop. They're also clear so I can see the contents without bothering with labels, sturdy enough to hold heavy bags of rice, and perfectly washable in case I ever need to hose 'em down. Simple, cheap, works for me. I also like how uniform this shelf looks now (I had previously considered using my old standby - shoeboxes - which would have been free but not as presentable). This was a small investment that makes my daily life a little easier.
What's your favorite cheap 'n' easy organization tool? Where and how do you use it? Have you ever used the SAMLA box for organization? How have you used it?
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