Ask The Expert: Organizing
SHOW YOUR
Pantry Some Love by Crystal Nerpel, Owner of Cloud Nine Organizing
S
itting around the kitchen table with my family is something I absolutely love. It’s a chance to reconnect and destress. No matter what we’re eating I call it soul food; being together during mealtimes feeds the soul.
Being an organizing expert means I start thinking about the meal way before it gets put on the table. For me, all meals that feed the soul start with an organized pantry - showing your pantry a little love will only make those family meals that much sweeter. MAKE SPACE FOR EXTRA INGREDIENTS:
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This time of year you may be baking and cooking more often for loved ones. That means you’ll have additional baking and cooking ingredients on hand. Keep all those extra ingredients organized with these 4 pantry organizing tips: •
In addition to saving space, you’ll be able to see how much you have before heading to the grocery store.
Move packaged dry goods into clear, airtight, rectangular containers. In addition to saving space, containers keep the mess under control and keep food fresh longer. Remove packaged snacks (i.e, granola bars and fruit snacks) from boxes and put them inside small bins.
Store round bottles and jars on lazy susan turntables. You’ll be surprised by how much easier it is to grab what you need when you use a turntable. Start buying fresh or frozen vegetables. Canned foods are sometimes the biggest culprit of pantry clutter, and have less nutritional value than the alternatives.
SAVE TIME BY QUICKLY FINDING WHAT YOU NEED: Cluttered pantries cause frustration, and frustration can snowball into other negative effects; like an otherwise easy dinner prep turning into an annoying ordeal. When you can find your ingredients quickly, you may have just saved yourself a 20 minute trip to the grocery store. Family dinnertime should be the part of the day you look forward to the most, not the part of the day you dread because it’s just another chore.
SAVE MONEY BY SHOPPING YOUR PANTRY: This is something many people do not do: Look at what you actually have on
hand before you make a grocery list and head to the store. Buying extra food doesn’t sound like a big deal, unless it becomes a habit and you start accumulating food-clutter. An overstuffed pantry makes it difficult to see what you really have on hand. Eventually, when you do find the hidden cans, bags or boxes of food you may have to throw them out because they have expired. MAKE IT A WEEKLY HABIT. Friday evening, the pantry will look different than it did Monday morning. This is an area of the home that is constantly changing because we are always eating our food and buying new food. Make it a habit to pay attention to your current stockpile and straighten up the pantry on a weekly basis. Taking a few minutes to straighten and rearrange will only make life more pleasant as you are baking those holiday cookies or simply planning the next day’s family meal.
CLOUDNINEORGANIZING.COM
12 | LANTANA LIVING | DECEMBER 2020
www.LantanaLiving.com
