10 Days to Clutter Free: Pantry Perfect

pantry clutter What's in your pantry?

Want me to go first? We've got the usuals: food, paper towels, tissues. Then we have dog food, candles, batteries, and ... dryer duct. Apparently my pantry doubles as a garage. It's just such a convenient place to stash things -- which is exactly the problem.

Jill Pollack Lewis to the rescue! Her organizing skills were great enough to make sense of even my cluttered pantry on Day 3 of Project 10 Days to Clutter Free. How's it going so far?

You don't have to spend all day cleaning and sorting the pantry -- take Jill's advice and get it done in just a few steps!

Step 1: Stock only what you need and use

What Should Be There:

Unexpired food items
Staples, like flour and rice

Step 2: Throw out, regift, and reassign

What Should Not Be There:

Expired food items
Gourmet food gifts that you'll never use (regift it!)
Stale foods
Garage items like tools, batteries, duct tape

Step 3: Organize, organize!

Use multilevel risers for canned foods or lazy susans to help you see what you have
Repurpose baskets and totes so that you can group like items together: chips/snacks, dried fruit/nuts, etc.
Keep a list inside the cabinet so that you can record which items you're low on -- this will help you know what to buy and what not to buy at the store

Image via Carolyn Will/Flickr