The 10 Commandments of a Clean & Happy Pantry

Your pantry — be it a room, a cabinet or even just a drawer — deserves a little love. It’s the commissary of your kitchen. The foundation of your foodstuffs. And it’s all too easy to let spice jars and half-full bags of granola take over.

Instead, make a vow to live by these ten guiding principles and enjoy a happy, healthy pantry for years to come.

The things you reach for together — like coffee and sweetener — should stay together.

The secret to an instantly organized pantry is a whole lot of baskets or bins. Find some perfectly sized to fit 2 or 3 or 4 to a shelf and stick everything in them. I use these cheap Target ones all over my house.

In life, I subscribe to a “march to the beat of your own drummer” philosophy. But in a pantry, you’ll be surprised how much a little uniformity makes everything look and feel amazing.

Speaking of uniform containers, take your pantry staples — the things you run out of and re-up on, like flour or cereal or pasta — and decant them into matching containers like these OXO POP ones.

Your baskets, your containers, everything.

The things you reach for most often should be the most accessible — keep them front and center at eye level.

You can use your pantry organization to help you along on your wellness goals. Put healthy items in front and at eye level, and hide your weaknesses (hi, butterscotch chips) on the backs of high shelves.

If you have deep shelves, stepped shelf risers like this one put everything in reach.

That’s “first in, first out.” Use the oldest things in the pantry up first.

It’s the final commandment, but the number one tip: Take on a weekly pantry purge (set an alarm!) to get rid of expired items and consolidate almost-gone goodies.