Often times a client will say, "I bet your house is really organized." As my mind pours over the images of laundry, dust, and yes, *gasp* some clutter in my house, I'm always quick to answer, "well somewhat, but I'm human too. And the old adage applies that the dentist's kids always have the worst teeth."

While it's true that I'm always ahead on taking care of my clients but not as ahead on taking care of my own house, there are many areas that are organized well. The weekend's restocking from the grocery inspired me to post about my pantry. This is how it looks today: 

Does it look like this all the time? Actually, most of the time yes. How? Here are my top 5 tips for keeping your pantry in shape:

1. "Packaging adds clutter." Just like a dry cleaner's cover on our clothing adds clutter to our closets, boxes and bags that contain individually-wrapped items add clutter to our pantries. Baskets can hold snack cakes for packing lunches. A simple drinking cup can hold drink single packets. Added bonus: time savings! If you open the box one time and empty the items into a storage container like these, you save the time spent having to open that box each and every time in the future.
2. Assign your shelves "zones." Breakfast items together, canned goods together, pastas and rice together, etc. not only look nice, but make it very easy to find what you're looking for at any time. It also helps to save money wasted on purchasing items you already have, and it makes it easier to know when you need to add an item to the grocery list for your next shopping trip.
3. Tiered shelving is great for making canned goods more visible. (My inexpensive ones were purchased at WalMart; you can also find them at The Container Store).
4. Once a month, check dates. Impulse buys that sound delicious at the store have a habit of disappointing us at home. I just tossed a bag of macaroni-n-cheese flavored chips yesterday that had expired.
5. Cereal containers are our friends. I buy family-size boxes of cereal. The problem with cereal boxes is that, once opened, you can't tell by looking at them how much is still in them. Depending on if you have teenagers, many boxes of cereal end up back in the pantry with the tops open which contributes to the cereal going stale. Bonus tip: After I pour the cereal into the container, I cut the name of the cereal out of the box and tape it to the container for fast visual scanning of the types of cereals.

Still wish to have the help of a professional organizer? Call us today and let us help organize your pantry's chaos!