The end of the year was a whirlwind for me, with 20 hour days in the kitchen and frenzied shopping for ingredients. Lack of time, and lack of patience, brought on by lack of sleep, left my kitchen in a state of disarray. It was technically clean. Scrupuously so. But when you get hit on the head with falling items everytime you open a cupboard, and you don’t have anymore canvas bags because you couldn’t fully unpack the groceries from the prior trip, it’s time to regroup.
I have a decent sized kitchen by New York City standards, and I have extra storage for serving pieces and sets of dishes. I even have an extra refrigerator, which is a godsend during busy times. Yet, my kitchen itself lacks a real pantry. With the need to always have stocked quantities of flours, sugars, nuts, dried fruit and assorted forms of chocolate, being organized so I can actually find what I need is a must. Once I started buying flour and sugar in 50 pound bags, I knew it was time to retool my kitchen storage.
Canisters:
Canisters from Bed Bath and Beyond
I was still using the set of terracotta cannisters that I got as a wedding gift. They were not only too small, but they weren’t airtight. Flour and sugar was constantly spilled on my shelves, and grimy fingerprints were visable, even if they were properly wiped down each night for hygiene purposes.
The fix: Large stainless steel canisters with latched lids now hold all-purpose flour, sugar and brown sugar. I will be returning to the store to get medium sized ones for wheat flour, and confectioner’s sugar. They sanitize easily, seal tightly, and are big enough that I am not lugging a huge bag around to refill them every hour. I can also get a large measuring cup into the canister to make scooping and measuring a breeze.
Wire bins:
Wire bins from Bed Bath and Beyond
I buy dried fruit and nuts in quantity, but often in small bags from Trader Joe’s. Those bags were all over the place, no matter how hard I tried to keep them organized.
The fix: Simple and inexpensive wire bins are the perfect size to hold all those bags, as well as boxes, and bags of chocolate. I can just reach in, or pull the whole bin out to find what I need. A piece of parchment as a liner allowed me to coral a selection of small items used for decoration, such as food coloring, sprinkles and candy melts.
Glass jars:
Glass jars for everything!
Open bags and oversized boxes can spill, or take up valuable space.
The fix: Pouring things into appropriately sized glass jars allow me to store things like spice blends, chocolate shavings and small, usable amounts of various salts and specialty sugars. They are reusable, free of BPAs, and easy to clean. The fact that they are transparent, makes it easy to see what is inside.
Labels:
Not my kitchen! But a girl can dream, right?
Is it seasalt, or kosher salt? What percentage of cacao is that chocolate? Marking the jars and canisters makes it easy to tell.
The fix: While you could get nice labels to put on things, I have found that the chef’s trick of using tape works fine for me. Often, restaurants label foods in the refrigerator with blue tape to not only mark what is inside, but to note the date it was prepped to ensure freshness. I like plain old masking tape and a sharpie to mark my containers. It peels off easily, and provides a broad surface to write on.
My kitchen won’t be winning any design awards, and nobody will be saving photos of my cupboards on Pinterest. But they are now very organized and servicable, and got that way with a very meager investment.
Not my kitchen either. This person doesn’t really cook. I’m sure of it! But their pantry does look nice!
Now, if I can just keep it this way, I’ll be in good shape~
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Tags: bed bath and beyond, canisters, kitchen organization, labels, organization, wire baskets
Indigo jones 
January 13, 2017 at 9:20 am |
That photo of all the glass jars really is a dream pantry!! Exciting to hear that you’re moving into bulk flours and sugars and that you are expanding and expanding the baking business!
January 13, 2017 at 9:20 am |
That photo of all the glass jars really is a dream pantry!! Exciting to hear that you’re moving into bulk flours and sugars and that you are expanding and expanding the baking business!
January 14, 2017 at 8:22 am |
Absolutley a dream pantry.. and not at all what mine looks like! Starting with the pantry part.