Me? Organize? No. You know that can't be right. Ha. If you know me on a personal level whatsoever, you know that organization is my safe space. When things are orderly, I'm happier, able to relax more, and am much more efficient and productive. When things are cluttered, chaotic, or in disarray, it's hard for me to look past that. So today I'm giving you the inside scoop on how I organize when it comes to food storage.
A few things first. As a general rule when it comes to organization of
any capacity, what works for one person might not work for another. Be
willing to tweak things to fit your needs, space, budget or style. Rule
number 2: don't be married to the system if the system isn't working. I
rarely hit the nail on the head the first time when it comes to
organization. In order to organize effectively, the goal is to make
things easier to find/access. When we moved to our new house, I quickly
realized that organizing my cabinets in a way that stored our utensils,
dishes, pots/pans, pantry items and the like would be much more
difficult than it was in our condo. Our condo wasn't a "one and done"
organizational effort, don't get me wrong. And our new kitchen didn't
offer significantly less cabinet space, but it was the design and
functionality of said cabinets that proved to be the challenge. You see,
our condo cabinets were IKEA and installed in 2011. They had adjustable
shelves, pull out pot and pan organizers, lazy susan's in the corners,
and most importantly, NO CENTER SUPPORT BAR. That was the biggest
difference when we began unpacking the kitchen boxes - recognizing that
these butterscotch-colored 1974 models had that horrid center beam
between the doors making it very difficult to fit large items like
crockpots, toaster ovens, food processors, pots and pans, and other
"small appliances". Even the dinner plates required angling and
McGivering to get them in and out. And the out is most definitely more
difficult than the in.
I've gotten used to the shimmying of everything in my cabinets as time has gone on, but I won't be the least bit sad to see those small and dated cabinets go when we remodel the kitchen. After a few weeks of cooking in our kitchen I had made a few minor tweaks and shifts to get things in the most useful places. What I really want to focus on today though is about how and where we store our food more so than our kitchen wares. So here goes.
A huge plus to the new house is having a true laundry room, which also doubles as a mudroom and pantry. Not only do we have nice, tall cabinetry that handles all our dry goods (many of which I buy in bulk at Costco) but we also have our deep freezer; something I had been eagerly awaiting for years. My days of "one poultry, one fish, one fruit, one veggie" limitations are over. That reference was regarding the fact that prior to the deep freeze I often would be annoyed that due to space constraints it was impossible to have the variety I would prefer. Nowadays, you can find at least 3-4 cuts of chicken, 2-4 varieties of shrimp/seafood, 3-4 veggie options, 5-6 frozen fruit choices, 3-4 muffin flavors, plenty of homemade broths, stocks, and soups, as well as extra bread, milk and additional miscellaneous perishables stashed in the freezer at all times. Some of you may think I'm absolutely crazy (let's be honest, it's probably been thought before), and others are you are like "YEA! That's awesome!" There are a few key reasons that I like to keep a well stocked pantry and freezer, and a few more reasons I find keeping them organized is a huge stress relief.
- Having this type of space accommodations allows me to buy in bulk, therefore saving money.
- Variety (especially when it comes to meats and seafood) prevents us from eating the same boring meals all the time.
- Having a well stocked pantry and freezer makes meal planning SO much simpler.
- Because I am buying in bulk, I only grocery shop 2-3 times a month at most. This saves time, gas, and extra money by not being tempted to add those impulse buys each time I am at the store.
- Having it organized makes cooking more enjoyable because I don't spend time frustrated and digging to find something saying "I know we have it!"
- Keeping it organized helps prevent food from going to waste because it expires or gets buried until the end of time.
- It means "we have nothing to eat!" is rarely spoken in our house.
So HOW do I organize? There are many ways to organize, and as I mentioned before, you have to find what works best for you, and sometimes that comes through trial and error. The first time my father in law saw that I had baskets with labels neatly corralling my spices, he literally laughed. So you know I had to razz him a little when their new kitchen remodel led my mother in law to implement baskets for
her spices. Sometimes you don't know a good idea when you see it, am I right? haha!
For the freezer, I have chosen to utilize the wire basket that came with the unit for most of our chicken cuts, bacon and Jason's quick grab-and-go option of burritos. I used stacking plastic crates (see the left hand side of the photo) to keep like items together while making good use of the depth the freezer offers. I use one for all the bags of frozen fruit that would otherwise be a giant avalanche constantly falling over and the one on bottom stores frozen broths, soups and tomato juice, which are items I need less frequently. The inches left between the crates and the back wall of the freezer are the perfect size for half gallons of milk or the large ice packs we use in our cooler. For our muffins, I freeze them first, then once solid I toss them into a gallon sized Ziplock bag labeled with flavor and date. From time to time I will do this with things like cookie dough also, but I scoop and freeze solid on a sheet tray, then consolidate for easy baking later. Bags of items such as these then go in plastic storage tubs that have locking lids (seen toward the bottom right), which allows me to, again, stack them for maximizing space. The freezer that is in conjunction with our refrigerator gets plenty of attention too, and houses things like smaller bags of frozen veggies, cans of homemade pesto, and also items that need to lay flat such as frozen pizza crusts, tortillas, pitas, and the like.
In the pantry, I try to keep like items together, while also considering weight distribution on each shelf. Heavy items like bulk sugars, flours, rice and other grains go on the bottom, along with other baking items that I don't use as regularly like chocolate chips, cocoa, and some specialty spices or ingredients. Let me take this opportunity to mention that the containers you store in do make a huge difference. As you can see, once a bag of something has been opened, it usually gets transferred to an airtight container. Not only does this keep the product fresh for significantly longer, it also allows for better utilization of the shelf space as well as allowing you to stack if need be. Now that we've covered that... let's proceed.
Another shelf houses things such as seeds, dried fruit, oats, cereals, chips and crackers. There is a shelf for pastas, noodles, and specialty grains, and a shelf for canned goods such as beans, tomatoes, pasta sauces, peanut butter, etc. The idea behind using baskets is to corral similar items so that you aren't constantly moving ten things to get to the one you need. For example, if I am needing the egg noodles for chicken noodle soup, it is much faster and easier to grab the basket that holds those noodles, along with rice noodles, brown rice, quinoa, wild rice and Amish style noodles than it would be to have those items mixed in and blocked by the pasta product such as macaroni noodles, lasagna noodles, spaghetti, linguine, farfalle... you get it right? Simple and easy to find. That's the name of the game. And then there's a clipboard that hangs on the inside of the cabinet door on a command hook. This is where those of you who thought I was crazy before are groaning, "oh good lord woman, you are straight nuts now." But let me tell you, these four sheets of paper make grocery shopping SOOO much more effective for me! It's straight out of culinary school 101, and any one who has ever worked in a professional kitchen knows the importance of inventory. They may not take that principle home with them, but to each their own. And you know I love lists and command hooks. Independently, paired together... doesn't matter. Love.
I go to Costco on average once a month. This inventory list includes every single item I buy from Costco, as well as the items I buy at Aldi but that aren't necessarily purchased every single trip. You'll find all our Costco items on here (meats, seafood, eggs, butter, cheeses, flours, sugars, nuts, nut butters, frozen produce and even things like dog treats, paper towels, toilet paper and more) as well as Aldi items I don't need all the time, but don't want to run out of either (milk, bread, potatoes, onions, spices, etc.) We've all done it - you get to the store and can't remember whether you already have something at home, so you buy it to be safe. When you get home, you go to put it away and realize you must've had that "buy it to be safe" thought the previous three trips to the store because now you are the proud owner of four bottles of mustard. If you go through mustard at an incredible rate, then no biggie (and mustard is fairly inexpensive). On the contrary, there's that annoying feeling of getting home from errands and realizing you don't have something you need because you only have to buy it maybe 2-3 times a year, yet this was the time and you didn't realize it. But the point here is by knowing what I have on hand, I am able to purchase more accurately without over buying by accident. The day or so before I am going to Costco, I take 5 quick minutes to inventory all the items on the chart, and anything we are low on gets added to my shopping list. It is quick and painless thanks to everything being easily accessible, and makes certain we get exactly what we need when we need it.
I'd love to hear your input! How do you organize your kitchen or food storage area? What type of products do you find hardest to organize?
