As a Professional Organizer, over the years I have tested and used many pantry organizing products. I have found several that I seem to use over and over again. I decided to post eight of my favorites to help you keep order in your pantry.
Stepper Shelves: These steps really take the guess work out of wondering what canned goods you have on hand. It is just like in the grocery – how cool!
Lazy Susans: These spinners work overtime and are incredible for storing and finding condiment bottles. Simply spin and oila’, you have found your soy sauce!
Plastic shoe boxes: For those of you who follow me regularly, you know that I am obsessed with plastic shoe boxes by Sterilite. I use them everywhere when I organize and in the pantry, they really keep your sauce packets and Asian noodles under control. I could write an entire article about everything they help me contain but I need to move on!
Plastic Drawers: Need an extra drawer, no problem. These little ditties can be found almost everywhere and come in whatever size you might need.
Rectangular Plastic Storage Containers: I always recomend rectangular or square containers because they optimize space much better than round or oval. Check out this very small cabinet which sits above a stove. My client really took my advice to heart and found the perfect sized containers to maximize her small amount of kitchen storage space. She lives in a beach house and storage is virtually non-existent in her kitchen. Good job Anne!
Canned Good Racks: These are great for holding similar items or when you don’t have a tall enough space for stepper shelves. For instance, if you buy Cream of Mushroom Soup or El Pato in bulk, this device keeps them all lined up in a row and drops one down when you take one away.
Sterilite Plastic Bins: Ok, do you have tupperware issues like most of my clients? I know that I did before I came up with this solution. My kitchen did not have enough deep drawers to contain my tuppers, so I made my own with these handy plastic bins. As you probably have already figured out, shelves are not the solution for organizing your Tupperware containers. One bin for bottoms, one bin for lids. It works great! Try it – you will never go back to storing them willy-nilly on shelves again!
Giant Lazy Susans: This is the grandaddy of all solutions for those deep dark recessed pantry cabinets. Install a giant heavy duty lazy susan and your seemingly unusable storage area will now provide everything with a spin of your fingertips. Yippee! My deep dark pantry stopped swallowing my canned goods!
If you have come up with any new solutions for kitchen organizing besides these, or have any comments about these tips, please leave a comment below.
If you are a manufacturer of a new organizing product, contact me to send a sample of your product. I will be happy to test it out and post my comments.
The small lazy susans work great if you have an upper diagonal corner cabinet. On the upper and middle shelves where I cannot reach the back I use one in the middle all the way back and one on each side in front of the back one. I put an upside down round plastic bowl, like whipped topping comes in, in the middle of each rack that I use for spices. One row of small spice bottles fits on the lazy susan around the outer edge of the bowl and larger spice bottles go on top of the bowl which raises them up so I can see the labels.
I use your idea of a bin for my plastic storage containers, but I use one for square bottoms & lids and one for round bottoms & lids. This way I only have to pull out one bin and I have both parts. I put them in the lower cabinets and line the shelf with stick on tiles so they slide nicely. I use small plastic baskets in the kitchen cabinets for vitamins, jello/ pudding, sprinkles and food coloring, bagged baking supplies like choc. chips, powdered sugar, marshmallows. I use them in the linen closet too for extra supplies – one for tooth items, one for hair items, one for sunscreen & bug sprays and a red one for 1st aid items. Love your tips! Thanks,
Thanks so much for your great tips! I love to hear more creative solutions!
I would encourage you to only use rectangular or square plastic storage bins. Round bins waste space within your fridge and cabinets.