Hello Everyone, Angie from Architecturally Organized here! May has arrived… flowers are blooming, bees are buzzing, it is warming up!! I love it!!  So – to keep in touch with the Springtime fun stuff… Last month we tackled spring cleaning and garages… Well today we are going to take a look at our pantries.  Why??? Well, it just so happens that May 14th is when the 30th Annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive will be held.

What is that?? In 1991 a small food drive was conducted by the National Association of Letter Carriers.  It did so well that they decided on making it a nationwide event.  In 1993 they chose the Second Saturday in May to hold the Food Drive, with one goal in mind – for at least 1 of the NALC branches in each of the 50 states to join in.  It was a big success and collected over 11 million pounds of food!  You can visit the NALC website to learn more about the history! And- Food Donations are tax-deductible (The food is given to non-profits) (Read more here).

What does the food drive have to do with Organizing?? Well – if that isn’t a kick in the butt to clean out and organize your pantry, I don’t know what is!!!

So let’s do it!!!

Ok… so “Pantry” is a loose term here… Not everyone has a pantry… So we are cleaning out pantries and cabinets and any other space where you keep bagged, boxed, and canned food.

Perfecting your Pantry

Tackle one area at a time… be it a cabinet, a shelf or what have you.  There is no reason to get ourselves overwhelmed (remember, baby steps!)!

Purging
We will start by removing the items from the space that they were stored in.
It is during this time that you will be reviewing the item.
Is it:

1. Expired? Toss it
2. Something you don’t really eat anymore or something someone gave to you that you will never use? Donate it!!
3. Is it something you do use – but have a few extra of them and want to help out people? Donate it!!
4. Is it something you are keeping? Then keep it.

See – that wasn’t so hard!!  Yes-you have a mess now, but you can’t organize your things without making a mess first – not if you are really diving in and doing a thorough job of purging and paying attention to what you have already.

Cleaning
Once we have emptied out our space we are going to clean the space out.  Wipe it down.  You do not want to put things back into a dirty/dusty/etc. Drawer, cabinet, closet, etc…

Categorizing
So-your space is cleared out and cleaned out.  You have purged out the things that you do not want/are expired/etc and you are surrounded by piles of your food items – now we can start the process of organizing!!

Start categorizing your food and separating them into separate piles.  Baking Goods, Canned goods, boxed goods, kids snacks…. You get the idea.  You can’t start organizing until you can actually see what you have and how much of it.  You can have as many categories as you want.  Have fun with this – have categories that suit your style of cooking and kitchen use!!

Organizing
So now that you have the piles laid out before you – you can actually see what you have a lot of and what categories are small, this will:

1. Allow you to know how much shelf/cabinet/drawer/etc space you will need to hold each specific category.
2. Allow you to know what size storage containers you will need/see if storage containers you already have will fit.
3. Allow you to make a simple inventory of your non-perishables (which you can then update on a regular basis)

Now you can start putting things away.  Some simple rules:

1. Location, Location, Location!! This term not only applies to Real Estate-but to Organizing as well.  Think about your Room, Closet, Pantry, Shelf as Real Estate and decide what is prime real estate vs not.
   • Things that you use the most – should be the easiest for you to access.
   • The things you use the least-should be in less accessible areas.
2. Don’t forget vertical storage possibilities.
3. Put heavier items in lower level areas.

Remember – you are organizing for YOU.  Just because you saw something in a magazine/show/online/etc and fell in love with it-doesn’t always mean you need to do the same thing-as that may not work in your space, however-you can always use the concept and adapt it to your individual needs!!

Now that your pantry has been cleaned out and organized and you want to participate in the food drive….you have a box of donatable goods but are unsure what to do…simply place it near your mailbox and your mail carrier will pick it up and transport it!  It’s really that easy!!

Till Next time!!