The Power of a Pantry

An organized pantry can save you time, money, and energy. I'd say it can change your life.

I grew up in a classic Colonial Home that permanently housed 6 people (but was a constant revolving door of friends, family, and neighbors) and had no pantry. Instead, my parents implemented some thoughtful solutions for where to store food. I recall a lower shelf in a corner cabinet being used for cereal, an upper cabinet shelf used for canned goods, and an upper corner cabinet used for snacks. The kid snacks were on the bottom shelf so we could grab them most easily, and my dad’s snacks were up higher. On a lower shelf, my mom housed backstock items and her cans of La Croix and Diet Pepsi. There was always a bowl of fruit or snacks my mom made and put in individual bags for us to take easily and make our very busy schedules a little more manageable.

It is interesting to me that I can vividly recall where everything was in my childhood kitchen which my parents moved from 6 years ago. It is also interesting to me to reflect on how a pantry—or lack thereof—can influence our habits.

Throughout my adult life, I have primarily had small spaces to store my food; in college, I typically had 1 shelf of a kitchen cabinet. Currently, I have 1 upper cabinet to store food for my husband and I, which feels tight after 3 years of living with a pantry that had its own switch on the circuit breaker labeled “middle bedroom”.

before and after photos of my pantry in my previous home

You would think I would miss my huge walk-in pantry, but I surprisingly don’t. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how a pantry influences our daily lives more than I initially realized. I noticed that the size of my pantries at various different times of my life directly equates to how much money I spend on groceries and the amount of food I waste. Spoiler here: bigger is not better for me. However, a well-organized pantry, regardless of the size, has the power to change anybody’s life and if you don’t believe me, you have got to keep reading.

Having an organized pantry does not mean that it needs to be picture-perfect or ready for Instagram. However, an organized pantry will:

Influence your eating habits:

This one feels a bit obvious, but if you fill your pantry with candy and cookies, you will eat candy and cookies. If you fill your pantry with healthy snacks, you will eat healthy snacks. See what I am saying, here? We keep our dark chocolate stash strategically in an annoying to get to the spot which doesn't stop us from enjoying, but the apples are definitely more attractive and are stored on the kitchen table in a bowl.

Help Manage Household Routines:

Your pantry can help you to facilitate the flow of your day. Grouping all of your kid’s snacks together can help them to effortlessly pack their lunches. Placing your morning vitamins with your other breakfast items can facilitate your remembering to take them. Having labeled and organized categories of food will help other people in your household take ownership of the space and won’t need to ask where to find things. Win-win-win!

Improve relationships:

See above. “Where is the ___?” No more. Just use your eyeballs. Let’s save the questions we ask each other for more important topics.

Make Shopping Easier:

When you have an organized pantry, you will have a better idea (more quickly!) of what you need before you go grocery shopping. If you are committed to maintaining your system in your pantry, you’ll stop overbuying foods that end up sitting around for a long time. Sounds like we are saving time and money here and I am all about that.

Reduce Food Waste:

This is a big one and should be everybody’s goal. If your pantry is well organized and you have a good pulse of what is in it at all times, you are less likely to allow cans of food or snacks to expire. Many items in the pantry can be stored for a long time, but that doesn’t mean that you need to house a supermarket’s selection of dry goods. If you are wasting less food, you are wasting less money (and time shopping and hauling stuff that you don’t want around!).

Reduce Decision Fatigue:

We make so many decisions every single day and many of them we don’t even realize we are making. Having an organized pantry, which in my world includes only having the foods you love to eat and/ or are good for you in it, will help you to quickly select the item you need without having to waste your precious mental energy over the many choices.

Save money:

Being mindful of what you bring into your space because of your organized pantry will help you to reduce impulse buys and increase your likeliness to eat what you have in your pantry.

Save time:

In addition to saving time while grocery shopping, you can group your foods in strategic ways that make meal prep easier. As a super bonus here, it can give your housemates more agency to do some food prep if that is not normally their role—earning you a whole bunch of new time that you can spend doing other things instead (like that 15-minute workout you are always trying to sneak in!). Save a couple of minutes in the pantry every day and you have the power to use your time in a way that is more useful to you. It compounds and makes a positive change.

If you are reading this and are thinking that something needs to change in your pantry, I strongly recommend that you take some time to go through all of your current food.

Identify any foods that are expired or that you are surprised you have doubles or triples of (this is a sign you can make some adjustments to your shopping habits!). Then, I suggest grouping your items by like items, or how you use them. If there is non-expired food you know you don’t want, please donate it or give it away. If there is anything excessive, make it a point to try to eat it up in the near future. This all takes time, so exercise patience and wait for time to pass (while not bringing more food into your house if necessary) and see how it is going before investing in any specialty organizing products. Good things take time!

Client pantry in progress. She’s coming along!!

Last week I was helping a friend organize their pantry and it is really starting to come together! I’m excited about this pantry because I know that if the system is maintained, this will be much more functional for the household. As a bonus, it’s an aesthetic upgrade as well!

If you are looking to expedite the process of pantry organizing and feel like a DIY pantry is not how your brain works, I would love to loan you this extra hard-working part of my brain (for free! I just like doing this! Email me directly). Ask me questions and better yet—send me pictures! Helping you would be my honor!

In the meantime, I will work on getting a whole post together about how my pantry is organized.

Until next time!

Love,

Laine