Pantry Perfection

In America we tend to waste a lot of food. We’re all guilty at one point or another of storing things in our fridge and pantry that expire in the back while we purchase more food items, forgetting what we already have. Not only is this a waste of our money, it is a waste of resources.

A Change Gonna Come

Recently, I decided I needed to stop this particular cycle in my own life. My pantry was pretty much a mess so I started looking into storage containers.

To my disappointment, I discovered that most of those storage plastic containers are incredibly expensive. On average they were $10 – $20 each. Enter the mason jar.

I know mason jars are the pinnacle of hipster pinterest environmentalism, but they really are kind of fantastic. I got an entire case of twelve 32oz jars for $10 from Target. The larger jars were $6 each but they were still significantly less expensive than the plastic containers.

1. The first thing I did was empty out my entire pantry and gathered everything on a table.

2. I then took a damp paper towel and cleaned off all the dust and grime that had accumulated inside my pantry.

3. I started separating out things that had long expired and composted/recycled them. Once I had all the stuff I wanted to keep, I transferred all my packaged projects to their respective jars. Using a chalk marker, I labeled the lid with the name of each item as well as the expiration date before I recycled the packaging.

4. For anything that didn’t readily fit into a jar, I bought a couple of baskets that were on sale at Target to store them. Some of those items include: medications, vitamins, first aid items, bags of chips, etc. They fit nicely into the baskets and helped to keep smaller things from getting lost in the back of the pantry.

The entire process of filling the jars and labeling them ended up taking about 2 hrs. But since then, my pantry has stayed organized and clean. I haven’t had to throw anything away for months since I did my reorganizing. I know exactly how much of something I have and I can see the expiration date right on top of the jar so I know what needs to be consumed and what needs to be refilled. Also in an effort to minimize packaging waste, I’ve started buying things at the bulk bins whenever they’re available.

As a bonus, my cereals and granolas stay crunchy since they are sealed tightly in the jars. Happy organizing!