Edel Beattie is founder of The Happy Organiser , and has a creative knack for crafting beautifully organised spaces to help others reclaim happiness in their homes.
Before becoming a professional organiser, I had a career in retail buying, where I learned a lot about visual merchandising and its importance for optimising the consumer experience.
By making our own spaces more ‘shoppable’, we can begin to really take satisfaction from everyday tasks such as packing away groceries to selecting ingredients for our new favourite recipe.
However, as you glance towards your current food storage areas – be it the pantry, cupboards, fridge or freezer – the question springing to mind is how can it be done?
Here are a few steps you can take towards a pantry space you can ‘shop’ from.
Remove everything
Much the same as remerchandising space within a store, when it comes to reorganising any space, it’s important to start with a blank canvas. This will allow you to gain a clear perspective on the space and get creative.
Discard old items
Discard old items and anything that is unlikely to get used. Be realistic – if there is an item that has never been used and the expiration date is coming up, it’s best to just throw it out. Remember, if this is your pantry ‘shop’, do you want to give space to items with a low return?
Categorise your ingredients
Start by grouping ‘like items’ together, which is something that you’ll often see in stores. Items such as spreads, oils and cereals can be grouped together. Storing items by category means you’ll know exactly where to look for the thing that you need.
Plan out your space
Deciding what will go where depends a lot on how often you plan to use it. Frequently used categories such as cereals or spreads will go in the most accessible spaces (eg. shelves between waist and eye level), and the most infrequently used things might get relocated to the top shelf.
As an example, if you’re someone who rarely ever bakes, do you really need those cake ingredients taking up prime real estate in your pantry?
Spruce it up
Make your pantry look even more delicious with the addition of some practical organising products, like turntables for oils and spreads, and deep pull-out baskets to hold individual categories. You can also create a more stylish pantry by decanting dried ingredients into airtight containers.
Label it
Just like the shelves in the grocery store, add some labels to any baskets or key locations within your pantry. This will help keep everyone in your home accountable for putting things back.
