Organizing deep pantry shelves could seem impossible but actually it’s quite simple. Those with bigger budgets can create a pantry with pull out shelves which essentially gives the storage of a drawer. Easy to access the entire shelf. But even a pantry with wire shelving shown in this post can become a phenomenally functional storage space. Take these strategies to your pantry!
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Steps to Organize your Pantry
- Completely empty the space – like organizing any room, the most efficient and thorough way to get started.
- Clean and beautify the pantry – the cleaning part is obvious but take this opportunity to add a splash of color or upgrade your shelving.
- Sort contents – Decide on your zones and sort items accordingly.
- Put contents in containers – containers create designated space for the items in your pantry. This is critical to maintaining organization.
- Put loaded containers in the pantry – you must be very strategic about where you put each container. Think this through carefully
Top Strategies to Organize Deep Pantry Shelving
Selecting Containers
There are 3 main characteristics to the right container for a pantry.
1. Size – to maximize the shelf of a deep pantry you need to find containers that go the full depth of the space. Be sure to know how much space is between shelves vertically too. When shopping for baskets and canisters, keep in mind specific items you need to store. For instance, if your family are granola bar eaters, you are going to want a skinny short basket like the ones below.
2. Style – Opening a pantry that looks amazing can make your day happy…well it makes my day happy! There are a few main styles of baskets: woven, metal, clear plexi. Keep in mind the type of visual person you are. If you need to see the items then plan for plexi or metal containers. If you are like me and you need to simply your the visual stimulus, find woven or solid metal baskets. I’m not one to label. I use a concept of keeping similar baskets for each category. All snack items should be in the same style basket and all baking items in a different basket. This creates visual organization.
3. Lids or no lids – for the most part, most people do well with no lids on pantry organization containers. My suggestions are only use lids for canisters with fresh items like trail mix. The only other time you might want to add a lid to a container is if you don’t want your kids in it. I’m not saying use a lock and key lol. Kids are developmentally very visual. Therefore, use the ‘out of sight, out of mind’ concept. The kids might get wise to it but if they can’t see the cookies in the pantry, they are likely to forget they are there.
Creating your Pantry Zones
Start by thinking about how you use the stuff stored in your pantry. Some may find it useful to organize by breakfast/lunch/dinner. You may not want all of the canned items together. For instance, soup cans could be categorized with lunch or sandwich items while canned tomatoes could go with cooking ingredients or dinner.
I plan my pantry around my kids as well. They tend to rule on everything, don’t they?! If you have young kids, you want to keep certain items out of reach like maybe the baking flour. On the flip side you may want to make sure the snacks are down low so they can be independent.
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