How to Organize Your Pantry in a Way that Actually Works for Your Life

If your pantry has been “organized” more than once,  but somehow never stays that way,  you’re not alone.

We see it all the time. Beautiful containers. Labeled shelves. And two weeks later… snacks everywhere, duplicates piling up, and no one is quite sure where anything goes.

Most pantries don’t fail because of lack of effort. They fail because they weren’t set up for real life.

As a professional organizer serving Baton Rouge, Prairieville, and surrounding areas in South Louisiana, we’ve helped families reset their pantries in ways that are simple, functional, and sustainable — without the stress.

Here’s our three step process for editing and organizing pantries that actually lasts.

Edit the Items in Your Pantry

The most important thing to do before trying to organize is to remove everything from your pantry and edit whats already there. Seriously, take every single item out of the pantry, even if it covers your entire kitchen. You need to see what you've got before you can start the organization process.

This is a step a lot of people skip that leave them frustrated.

As you are removing items from your pantry, check expiration dates and immediately throw anything that is expired (or looks questionable). If there's an item you bought, but you know you'll never use, and it's not expired, consider donating it to your local food pantry.

Next, you'll want to take inventory of duplicate items. Have 3 Costco-sized bottles of ketchup? Great. Group those together as you remove items from the pantry so you know what you've got.

As you continue to edit, it may be helpful to group like-items together. For example, cereals, breakfast bars, oatmeal can be grouped together for breakfast. Likewise, bottled sauces like mustard, ketchup, and barbecue sauce can be grouped together for Condiments.

Doing this will allow you to see what Zones you'll want to establish in your pantry, which takes us to step two of organizing your pantry.

Create Zones

Zones are designated spaces for certain types of items as I mentioned above. For example, you may have a Breakfast zone, or a Condiment zone, or a Canned Goods zone.

Establishing zones helps you visually scan each section to see what's missing when you're making a grocer list, and it also eliminates decision fatigue when it's time to put groceries away because where each item goes has already been decided.

Not only that, but it also gives an added layer of accountability to everyone in your household to store items in the correct spaces, which will ultimately help things stay organized.

Our most-used pantry zones include:

• Breakfast

• Dinner

• Quick Meals

• Snacks (I recommend putting this on a lower shelf for easy access, especially for families with young children)

• Condiments

• Baking

• Breakfast

• Canned Goods

• Pasta & Bread

• Backstock (This is where you store any duplicates or bulk purchases)

Now, remember, this blog post is about organizing your pantry in a way that actually works with your lifestyle, which means you should audit your daily use items and decide how those fit into zones.

If you work outside of the home, and you need to have easy to grab snacks that you pack in your lunchbox everyday, that may warrant a zone. The same goes for other lifestyle items, such as protein powders or drink supplements, like electrolytes. That can be a zone as well. It's about finding what works for you and your lifestyle, and creating a zone.

Organize for Visibility, not Aesthetic

After organizing hundreds of homes in the Baton Rouge area, one thing we know for certain is that if you can't see it, you either 1. won't use it, or 2. will probably buy it again.

That's why when we're working in a client's home, visibility and practicality are our number one focus. Sure, if we can get your pantry to look Pinterest-perfect, that's an added bonus, but we're there to make sure your organization supports your daily life.

What this means for you is that as you're creating and placing your zones within your pantry, you need to consider how you use the items throughout your day to day. If your kids need easy access to snacks, put the snack baskets on the floor or on a low shelf. If you need to remember to drink a protein shake with your morning coffee, group those two things together so it triggers the habit.

We also recommend using clear or open containers as much as possible so that you can actually see the items in your pantry. Nothing will cause you to buy duplicates and crowd your pantry faster than not being able to easily see what you have in each zone.

Here are a few of our favorite pantry items for easy visibility.

Feeling overwhelmed? We can help.

If your pantry feels like a constant source of stress, you don’t have to figure it out alone.

We help families across South Louisiana, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Ascension Parish, and the Northshore create pantry systems that are simple, sustainable, and judgment-free.

Request a free consultation at socoorganizers.com/contact

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• Shop with SCO: Pantry Organization

• Why Clutter Builds So Fast  (and how to tackle it)