Pantry Organization for the Rest of Us

Even if you’ve been living under a rock (or maybe even a pile of your own junk), you’ve probably heard of Marie Kondo by now.  She had that annoyingly successful book a few years back.  She’s now starring in her own show on Netflix.  And she is the darling of thrift stores and used book stores the world over – because those shops are making a killing off of our Kondo-inspired collective tidying and the resulting donations. 

Marie has a method – tackle clothes, then books, then basically the rest of your crap.  But I don’t like to play by the rules.  Or at least I like to think I don’t.  So when the tidying bug bit me, I bypassed my closet and turned my eye directly to the pantry. 

It’s not awful.  But it could definitely be better.  

First, I motivated myself by buying bins and labels.  Again, this went against Marie’s code.  She instructs her accolytes not to purchase any organizational materials until they have fully completed the tidying process, because they might find usable boxes and bins already stuffed in a closet somewhere.  But, I reasoned, after making the investment in storage bins, there would be no turning back.  I would be forced to tidy the pantry. Forced to clean by Amazon Prime. 

Next, I pulled everything out (that trick I did get from Kondo) and spread it across the kitchen island.  

Marie’s method is to hold each item and ask yourself whether it sparks joy.  Because quinoa and oatmeal don’t exactly inspire joy in me, I followed a slightly different approach.  I picked up each item, but I asked instead whether it was expired (buh-bye, baking powder that was best before 2015) or unhealthy (see ya, Cocoa Puffs). 

Or sometimes both. I’m looking at you, last year’s Halloween candy.

 The expired food never even made it to the counter.  So that took care of 5 garbage bags of waste right there. I can’t believe I just admitted that.  Moving on.

Once the food landed on the island, I decided if it was something we had any business eating. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not tearing all sugar out of my family’s hands.  I don’t have the stamina to deal with a mutiny (which would be led by my Oreo-loving husband, btw).  But we can make a few changes. So I got rid of the worst offenders and made a mental note to switch a few more items to healthier options.  Then I went and wrote down an actual note to myself, because mental notes in my head are less likely to survive than Justin Bieber’s marriage.

Then I simply divided everything into categories (“Crackers,” “Bread,” and so on.  Turns out, we are definitely not a Keto family!) and placed it back on the shelves.  The things I wanted the kids to easily access went on the lower shelves, while the items I wanted them to ask an adult for help with found homes on higher shelves. So School Snacks went on the bottom, in the hopes that I can shift the immense mental load of remembering to pack a daily snack to my kiddos.  Their young brains are far better suited to that task.  And I placed baking supplies near the top, because I have seen what my kitchen looks like when my kids decide to have an unsupervised dessert-making competition.

My dear hubby says Marie Kondo is making a fortune from pedaling basic common sense.  Maybe so.    

But look at my pantry.  Isn’t it pretty? Didn’t my daughter do a nice job labeling all the bins?  Doesn’t it give you the impression that I’ve got everything under control? Now, whatever you do, don’t look in my closet!

P.S. I thought about adding some cushions or throw pillows on the floor, because my daughter recently decided to use the pantry as her refuge when we offend her somehow.  Such as by looking at her wrong. Or giving her a red cup instead of a blue one. Lord help us when she hits 13. And I’m not sure why she prefers the pantry over her comfortable bedroom.  Actually, that’s not true.  I do understand.  Because peanut butter.  🙂