Ree Drummond's Organization Tip Will Declutter Your Messy Pantry

When you're in a rush to find the all-purpose flour to make a quick batch of pancakes for the kids, an organized pantry makes cooking an absolute joy. However, most of us don't have Insta-worthy cuddies with oodles of space for storing canned goods, snacks, and spices, which is why they can easily become jumbled. A simple way to declutter your messy pantry, according to cookbook author Ree Drummond, is to start small and break the job up into manageable sections.

While an all-or-nothing mentality can be useful in some situations, attempting to clean a fully-loaded pantry by pulling everything out at once is a recipe for overwhelm. Instead, Drummond recommends working area by area until the entire task is complete. For instance, you could begin by arranging the canned goods first and ignoring everything else for the time being. Once that's done, you can handle all the condiments or create specific zones for sweet or savory products. Dividing pantry staples into categories ensures there's a dedicated home for every ingredient and makes finding them later a whole lot easier, too. Plus, the minor wins stack up and provide an impetus to continue, creating a snowball effect. Humans are naturally hard-wired to follow the path of least resistance, so if you make the job smaller and easier, you're more likely to get it done.

Of course, the way you organize your pantry items should be customized to your household's needs and meal ideas. For example, if you're certain you only ever use coconut milk for making Thai curries, you might like to store it with your curry powder and spices so you can grab everything you need in one fell swoop. Similarly, flours, baking soda, vanilla extract, and sugars can be placed in a single zone if you like to whip up a batch of cookies each week.

Selecting specific areas with enough headroom for dry goods, seasonings, and countertop appliances is another clever way Ree Drummond customizes her pantry shelves (a ladder makes it easy for her to grab items that are higher up). She also has a small workstation inside her pantry that moonlights as extra worktop space for prepping veggies or carving meat. This considered design ensures there's a home for all of Drummond's must-have pantry staples, such as jarred sauces, dried pasta, condiments, and spices.

Struggling to keep your pantry neat after organizing it? The one-minute trick for keeping kitchens tidy every day can be employed in your pantry too; simply wipe down a dirty counter, fix the lid on an open jar, or close open packages in the time it takes for your coffee machine to make a cappuccino. These small daily moves will keep your pantry looking pristine all year-round.