Food cupboards a mess pic included.

[Getitdone247]

How do I organise my food cupboards they are in a real mess. I have included pictures because visual helps me explain better.

I can't reach the top shelves. And I can't reach the cupboard with the spices in. Well I can reach the front of it if I over stretch. So it's not great. As its in the corner above work top.

I feel like im not seeing food that can be used. I opend the cupboard and go blind

Is it worth me add some type of storage or something. For the crossants etc . I need them to be in sight thought . When I use a bread bin we forget anything in it and it gos moldy.

It can be that you make better use of space by adjusting shelves to different levels.
So if can perhaps make a tall shelf for bottles etc, a shallower one for cans and jars, a shallower one still for spices in baskets etc

I have always used baskets - makes it an easy clean out as well and you can do it in parts over time. You do have alot of stuff so I would go through and see if some of it can't be ditched e.g. out of date etc. The door spice racks sound like a good idea for you too

I echo the "use a step" suggestion.

Put enough croissants for a couple of days in the bread bin, and the rest high up. The same with packets of cereal or spare boxes of teabags or the packs of biscuits etc - keep 1 open one at working level and spares in the less useful space. Keep more of the easily accessed space for things you use on a daily basis.

I have put things like rice, pasta, cereal etc into jars - full sized for ones I use a lot (pasta, easicook and basmati rice, porridge oats etc), and half sized that can stack on each other for less used (risotto rice, couscous cous, etc). Mine are Brabantia stackable cannisters, and square shape.

And I have a spice rack on my countertop for herbs and spices and small jars (anchovies, soy sauce, vinegar, salt and pepper grinders) and a tub of stock cubes. But that works for me as I like to use them a lot.

I have one of these in one half of a low shelf, it doubles the space you can use for short things. I keep jars like honey & peanut butter on top and salt & garlic underneath. www.lakeland.co.uk/24405/caddy-stack-food-cupboard-organiser-shelf

Definitely put a spice rack on a spare bit of wall or inside a cupboard door. If you find one deep enough you can keep slim bottles & packets in it too.

I hated trying to sort my corner cupboard so I only put little used utensils, pots etc in it and all my tins etc are in a more convenient place. Why the heck I didn’t do this years ago I have no idea!

Sorry if it's already been mentioned but try to get into the habit of having all the labels facing outwards so it's easy to see what things are. It's no wonder you feel you "go blind" when you look into the cupboard as things are.

It would help to give each shelf a category & purpose, wherever it makes most sense. So oil & flavourings nearest to the hob, tins & packets you use for cooking just above, snacks & food to grab somewhere that’s not in the way of cooking area, etc. then it won’t all feel so overwhelming. You could watch a few episodes of Sort Your Life Out on IPlayer for inspiration!

@k1233

nosy question.. why so many fry pans??

😂 I'm the opposite. I have 1x frying pan , a large sauce pan . And a milk size pan

Ikea have a great selection of fittings for cupboards to make space more accessible pretty reasonable

Does anyone actually do this? I'm not being facetious, honestly! A system like that would break down in 2 minutes in our food cupboards

I love your food pantry. Was it made to order?

Hi OP, there's lots of good ideas in this thread but here is what i do to maintain tidy cupboards. i don't have a big pantry press and instead have 5 small-medium upper presses and a half of a low down corner press for food so i think similar to what you have.

1. put like items with like. I keep all breakfast items in one place except bread. So above my microwave i have a press with 3 shelves (narrow press). Shelf one has a large jar with Branflakes www.ikea.com/ie/en/p/foervar-jar-with-lid-glass-aluminium-colour-00030262/ , a jar with Porridge, jars with Granola, chia seed, raisins and other toppings for porridge. Shelf 2 has tea/coffee and other hot drinks. Top shelf has extra's. i keep the larger boxes of cereal and porridge in the corner base cupboard as i don't use them every day. i top up the jars with these.
2. I keep all condiments etc on one shelf. Salt, sauces etc
3. Ive a spice rack on the inside door of an upper cabinet.
4. All pasta and dried goods are in jars in another cabinet. Pasta is beside Pasts. The 2 rices i use are beside each other. Keeping them together means they have a place and they get returned to that place.
5. All sauces, gravies jars and tins are in another cabinet and grouped together.
6. Use inaccessible storage for storing overflow items and put them in clear bins so you can have an idea of how much you have without having to get everything out.

I use the bottom of old biscuit tins to hold things in groups, so all my oils in one, all vinegars in the next, flours in another, sugars in the next etc then for smaller things eg stock cubes, spices, baking stuff ( so vanilla essence, nuts, chocolate chips) I use old ice cream tubs. It makes cleaning the cupboards so much easier because you can just lift out, and also it's a lot simpler to see at a glance what you have and what you need more of.

These would be handy and save on space

I have seen them a few times . I think they waste space though ?

Thanks for this thread. I was stirred to clear out my food cupboards. There were for too many jars of harissa paste, with 2 completely out of date. I also discovered individual packets of biscuits from various places, most broken/ squashed as well as being years old. I've now got an idea of what not to select for next week's shopping.

I had the same problem....so many bloody duplicates of things as I couldn't find what I had already, so I kept buying in more of the same thing. Definitely glad that it's got all sorted now. I hated that I had to chuck out so much stuff, but it needed doing....and I should have bit the bullet a LOT sooner!

Haven't read all the replies, but just wanted to say that I would love to come into your house and sort that out 😂

Not nosy at all LOL My favourite colour is red. A number of years back I spotted fry pans in the "correct" red, so I accumulated them. They're actually 3 different sizes, plus then there's a wok, crepe pan and grill pan. I've also got a stack of red utensils from the same time.

Yes, it is lovely and big. But you can see the bottles are all in lazy susan type holders. Quick twirl and you can see everything. Shelves are about 30cm wide, so if yours are deep you could have two set up diagonally so you can easily see front and back, and then store less used things in the gap at the back if there is one. It would keep things visible for you. Plus the spice one is a double decker for smaller bottles etc.

The vertical holders can be used for stuff other than fry pans eg keep your breads tidy.

Below the fry pans I've got the glad wrap, alfoil, sandwich bags on a great little two shelf. There's another one up top left so I can see the different types of unopened pasta I've got.

It's all about easily seeing what's in there, which is why I got the clear turntables.

I'd suggest in your upper cabinets four turn tables in each for the bottom two shelves. The narrow one you could have the vertical holders so you don't have to lift things up.

Depends if you're an organised stacker! If you stack identical items on top of each other, then I agree, they're a waste, but if you want to store, say, 6 different types of tins of soup and be able to see all of them, they're great.

I have stepped storage things for spices, so I can see them all easily on the shelves. My shelves are very narrow though.

This Ikea turntable is popular - https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/snurrad-storage-turntable-transparent-90506104/

The round ones are great, but it does leave some unusable space around them.

It was from M&S - about 10 years ago though!

I use the shoebox/basket method in my one deep food cupboard. Slide each box out when you need that category.
pasta and rice
baking and packet mixes
spices
tins
condiments
teas
onions and potatoes
and a lift-out basket for daily breakfast needs.

Nothing is on show so I just use klippits on the original packaging. Decanting would add extra stress that I can live without (Am I putting old on top of new? Will I have too much and end up with half empty packets left over? Nah!).