Getting it Together in 2010 – The Pantry

Hi Ladies! Before we get started on this week’s project, let’s take a moment to remember and say our Bible verse that is guiding us through our Getting it Together in 2010 projects:

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed…  2 Timothy 2:15

How did you do on your recipe organization last week?

If you’re like me, with the best intentions but not quite as much time, you may not have gotten it ALL together. Hopefully we all got started, though. I’m still working on getting all the recipes clipped from my stack of magazines, and can’t wait to start filing them!

This week, let’s take a look at the pantry. It’s a lot harder to cook a meal if you don’t know where your ingredients are! Here are a few tips to help us organize our cabinets this week, so that we can focus more time in 2010 on the things that matter: God, family, and more fun than hunting for the last can of cream of mushroom soup!

• Remove everything from your shelves – everything! You can’t organize what you can’t see.
• Wipe your shelves and make sure they are a clean slate. If you’re like me, you probably haven’t done this in quite awhile. Put down new shelf paper if you’d like.
• Sort your pantry items on the table/counter – like with like. All soups together, all cereals together, and so on.
• Access your space. Think about investing in some inexpensive tiered shelves (I found some at Walmart for just a few dollars), door racks to hold small items like spices or cooking sprays,  or odd-shaped bottles.
• Try to put perishables in air-tight containers: flour, sugar, etc.  This will help keep your shelves clean and keep little critters at bay. You can find these containers at the dollar store or most any other place that sells household items. Good ol’ mason jars work well, too!
• Begin putting your items back in the pantry in ways that are convenient for you – this isn’t a one size fits all project. For instance: If you’re “vertically challenged”, you may not want the items that you use daily to be on the very top shelf.  Likewise, no one needs items they use once a year (think serving platters with holiday themes!) in the kitchen every day.  Find another home for seasonal items and free up space for everyday use.

What are your best tips for organizing your food items and paper goods in the kitchen or pantry?

Let’s all chip in and help one another to tackle this area this week.  We spend a lot of our life searching for missing items at home – let’s all cut out one source of searching so we can free up that time for more worthy pursuits and so that we can be “ workers who [have] no need to be ashamed“!