Be sure you don't miss a thing! Subscribe to receive updates by email. Or if you use a feed reader, subscribe to my RSS feed! Thanks for visiting!

source: mtsofan

By far, the most common answer to this week’s poll question – “How organized is your pantry?” – was:

“I usually reorganize my pantry and/or stockpile every few months, but it rarely lasts.”

So how do get our pantries, freezers and stockpiles organized and keep them that way?

Staying On Top Of It

Taking a few minutes to “reorganize” every week is an important part of staying organized. It doesn’t mean you have to spend a lot of time doing this. In fact, it really shouldn’t take more than 5-10 minutes each week once you get organized.

You could do this while you’re making your grocery list or wait until you get home with the new groceries, whichever you think will be easier.

7 Steps For Staying Organized

1. To start, look at the food in the back or on the bottom shelf of your pantry, because this is where food usually goes bad.

2. Pull anything that may be approaching its expiration date to the front.

3. Look for empty or almost-empty boxes or containers that can be used up or refilled.

4. Throw away anything that has gone bad.

5. Give away anything that you really aren’t going to use, despite your best intentions when you purchased it. Pass it on to a neighbor or friend, or donate it to a church or food bank. Don’t hold on to it until it expires just because you feel like you should use it!

6. Move anything that is on the “wrong” shelf back to its place.

7. Restock your shelves, making room for the new groceries rather than just shoving everything in haphazardly.


Staying organized is the key to getting the most out of your pantry. It also means you shouldn’t have to do a completely pantry overhaul in six months because things have gotten out of hand. Again. 

You may find that staying organized gives you a better idea of how you’d really like things to be, and you may end up reorganizing anyway to make it work better for you, but it’s much more fun to reorganize because you want to than because you need to!