Getting Your Pantry Started

Sorry, you have homework now

Before we begin, I want to reiterate that this work will always be free. However, I do have a ko-fi page set up (thank you to all of you who have donated so far!!), and on that page is a Subscription option! If you would like to help consistently support my work, you can choose a pay-what-you-can monthly subscription option over there. This helps me better estimate potential income for this project on a monthly basis, and is hugely appreciated. I know for many of us, one time donations work better, which is more than understandable. And if you can’t pay, I appreciate you being here as well!

---

In our pantry series so far we have talked about getting your priorities straight, paying for your pantry without going into debt, and making food storage work without feeling like you live in a grocery store. We’ve laid a pretty solid conceptual foundation for building a working pantry.

For this post, I’m going to boldly assume that if you are still tracking with me, you want actionable advice. That you’re ready to dive in, get started, and take small steps towards creating your ideal pantry.

So, without further ado, let’s get into it.

Step 1: What Do You Already Have?

It doesn’t matter if your current food storage is one cupboard or an entire walk-in pantry, you need to go through and see what you already have on hand.

Create Pantry Categories

Start by pulling all the food (except fridges/freezers) out of your cabinets and cubbyholes. Begin sorting things into broad categories.

If you don’t know where to start, the categories I gravitate towards are:

1. Vinegars & Alcohols

2. Cooking Fats & Oils

3. Spices, Seasonings, & Salt

4. Baking Ingredients

5. Nuts, Seeds, & Fruit

6. Grains

7. Beans

8. Commercially Canned Foods

9. Home Canned Foods

10. Dehydrated Foods

11. Convenience Foods

These categories are completely arbitrary and need to work for how you cook. If your family drinks a lot of tea, you may have an entire section of your pantry devoted to tea and hot beverages. If you are into gluten-free baking and keep a host of specialized ingredients on hand for it, you might need a category for that. Nothing is set in stone, adjust as you go until your groups make sense, but try to keep the categories broad.

I would also recommend trying to group things together that are easily interchangeable. For example, all my cooking fats are grouped together. If I run out of olive oil, I know what other fats I have available to take its place without having to buy a specific ingredient.

Throw Out What Is Expired

Unless you are a master of your pantry already (in which case, I love you, but why are you reading this?), there will be expired food and dusty cans in the back of your cabinets. As you’re sorting and pulling things out, throw away anything that is no longer good. Don’t beat yourself up about it, it happens to the best of us.

Step 2: Try Out Cataloging Options

Part of staying on top of your pantry is keeping tabs on what you have, so you don’t buy unnecessary duplicates or run out of things. As an incredibly Type B person, this is the hardest part of a working pantry, in my opinion. Here are some options to consider, as well as my current system.

Spreadsheet

The very obvious answer here is a spreadsheet. I actually even made a spreadsheet template (just save a local copy to your Google Drive and have at it!). The upside is you can see exactly what is in your pantry from wherever you can access a Google Sheet. It’s also great for helping track storage goals.

The downside is, you have to keep it all up-to-date. Every time you pull or add something, you need to be diligent about marking it down or your spreadsheet isn’t very helpful. I stopped using a spreadsheet about two thirds of the way through my last pregnancy because I couldn’t stay on top of maintaining it.

Physical List(s)

Some people keep a whiteboard or chalkboard on their cabinet or pantry doors. When they add or remove things, they just note it on the board. If they’re running low on something, they add it to a list right there and start their weekly grocery list based on that. It’s straightforward, conveniently located, and hard to forget.

The biggest downside to this is, if you have small children, no surface is safe. If I had a physical list my kids would color on it and/or erase it every five minutes. This also requires you to be in your kitchen/pantry space to know what you have on hand.

Photo Album

Fair warning, if you are a list person, this section is not for you and will spike your anxiety, but this is what works for my brain.

I store absolutely everything possible on open shelves and in glass containers. When I get back from grocery shopping, I take a photo of the shelves after I have put everything away and save it in an album on my phone. Then, as I’m cooking throughout the week or if I come across a really good sale, I can just look at the photos to see what I have available.

When I go to make my grocery list for the week, I do the same thing. I take quick pictures of the shelves, delete the old ones from the album, and add the new ones. I use those pictures and the weekly ads to make a grocery list. When I’m out shopping I can reference the list AND the pictures to make sure I’m not buying duplicates I don’t need.

Is this system the most efficient or accurate? Nope. But it is the least amount of effort for a (mostly) accurate result.

Now, Start Your Catalogue!

There isn’t a foolproof pantry organization system, because all of us cook and think differently. Now that you have everything in loose groups, you can decide what method you’re interested in trying out.

Take photos of each group, start a list for each category in the spreadsheet, make a physical ledger, do something to document what you’ve got. Over time, if the system you start with doesn’t seem to be working for you, don’t struggle needlessly. It’s supposed to work for you, not make your life harder. Adjust as you go.

Step 3: Put it All Away

Identify Storage Locations

Now that you have things divided by category, think about where you could potentially store each category as a group. A particular shelf? Add a shelf in a hallway? Clear out a poorly utilized closet? A certain cabinet? For now, you may need to find temporary locations, and that’s ok.

Start to imagine what your ideal storage solutions are and where they will be located. These goals don’t have to be super fancy, metal brackets are not terribly cost prohibitive and can transform an empty hallway wall in a few hours. Thrifted furniture from FB Marketplace or Habitat for Humanity Restore or even the side of the road can change your entire kitchen flow. Make a list of things you’d like to do in your house to accommodate more robust food storage, either on your phone or somewhere else you’ll be able to easily reference, and start making incremental steps towards those goals.

Try to store categories you use most frequently as close to where you’ll use them. Give yourself as much room to expand as possible. And most importantly, get creative with it!

Put One Group Away At a Time

At this current moment, most of us are looking to create resiliency and back stock in our pantries. Now that you have everything laid out, you might be able to see patterns or gaps. Based on what you actually eat and what is actually in front of you, list what items are your most used, and that you’d like to store in larger quantities. (You can do this right alongside your storage location goals, so you can begin to picture what might go where as your pantry grows.)

Don’t worry about prioritizing or organizing your goals yet; just collect the data so you can refer back to it in the next step.

If this is overwhelming, just take it one category at a time. As you go through your cooking oils and fats, for example, think about which ones you use most often. If you use almost exclusively olive oil, the oil you should have the most of in your pantry is…olive oil. Is that your pantry’s current state?

Step 4: Organize Your Priorities

Once each category has been put away, look at your goals and gaps you’ve written down, the fledgling inventory system you’ve set up, and take a deep breath. You have just collected a ton of raw data that will help you create an actionable plan to build a pantry that works for you. That’s a lot of work, and you did it! If you need to take a break before this next part, that’s ok!

Prioritize Your Category Goals

Take your list of category goals, and instead of just grouping them by category, start to rank them from most to least pressing. Not to pick on olive oil again, but if you only cook with olive oil and you have half a bottle left I’m guessing that will rise towards the top of your list. This ranked list will give you a place to work from, an idea of what to look for on sale, and you can start punching things off.

If you’re unsure of quantities or storage solutions at this point, that’s ok! I’ll have a post about each of my categories that goes into detail about them (and there are tons of sources on the Internet already if you want to get a jumpstart). But just having a list of your most used ingredients that you’d like to keep on hand is a huge step forward towards creating a focused pantry that works for you.

Prioritize Your Storage Space Goals

At this point, you know what you have on hand. You’ve started to imagine where you’d like to expand. You’ve started looking around your house for places that make sense to create new pantry zones.

Now, you need to figure out which storage solutions will give you the biggest bang for your buck. Create a ranked list of storage solutions, considering cost and impact. For example, when we moved into our house, the first thing I did was ask my partner to put up shelves in an underutilized hallway for me to use as pantry storage. It doubled our food storage space for the cost of brackets and 2x4s. Identify your most important goals, and go after them!

Now, Go Forth!

Congratulations! Your brain might be fried, but you now have actionable goals to start working towards. You’ve identified key pantry staples, where you want to expand, and have begun to track what you have. As you go forward, you’ll be able to identify more specific quantities of your key items and storage projects you may want to consider. But for now? You’re miles ahead of where you started.

Take each goal one at a time so you don’t burn yourself out. Always be willing to pivot if something isn’t working for you. But for now? Be proud of yourself. You’re doing the damn thing!

---

Posts on Deck:

I don’t commit to a consistent posting schedule, because I have four kids, a house to run, and this newsletter is donation-based.

However, these are my upcoming planned posts. Each one will discuss a category of food with the appropriate storage requirements and the specific items I keep on hand. I’ll circle back and link them here as they are published:

• Pantry Rules, pt. 1: Well They’re More Like “Guidelines” Really…

• Pantry Rules, pt. 2: Big Goals in Small Spaces

• Getting Your Pantry Started

• Pantry Rules, pt. 3: How to Use It All

• Top Shelf: Vinegars & Alcohol in the Pantry

• Cooking Fats & Oils: Why I Don’t Use a Lot of Olive Oil

• Spices & Salt: Keeping Things Interesting

• Dehydrated Foods: It’s More Than Just Orange Slices

• The Big Four: Long-Term Storage Rules

• Baking More Than Just Bread: Categories to Consider

• Nuts, Seeds, Butters: A Complicated Storage Situation

• Grains: The Ultimate Filler

• Beans: What I Keep and How I Store Them

• Shelf of Shame: Why You Should Have a Shelf of Convenience Food

• Canning: When Is It Worth It and How to Not Die

• Freezing Food: What Is Even In There?

• Why You Should Be a Couponer: Paper Goods, Cleaning Supplies, & Toiletries

• $40 Grocery Challenge: My Bare Minimum Grocery List

• The Kitchen Equipment Edition: Essentials and the Back-Up Team

---

I’ll be sharing more practical details about how I stock my pantry going forward, so subscribe if you want those newsletters in your inbox.

This work will always be free, however…

…this newsletter does take time and if you would like to support my work financially, I have a ko-fi set up. Every dollar goes straight towards keeping my family afloat while we work to pay down debt and raise four beautiful, wild kids.

And at the end of the day? I’m so glad you’re here. Keep moving forward, friends. There’s always hope, but it takes work to keep that hope alive. You’ve got this.