How to Organize a Pantry with Wire Shelves

An organized pantry not only looks neat and pleasing to the eye but it can save you money. How so, you may wonder? 

When you can see all of your groceries on a shelf, you know exactly how much you have, so you’re not going to buy more than you need. 

And you can keep a decent rotation system, like at your local grocery store, where you can keep your oldest purchase at the front, new stock at the back.

Wire shelves are an economical, practical choice for your pantry and they’re easy to keep clean. But when you have such a diverse range of containers and boxes, how is it best to store them? Fortunately you can read on to learn how to organize your home pantry.

Installing Wire Shelves in Your Pantry

The first thing to do when organizing your pantry is to install the wire shelves you need. You can either get someone to fit them for you or you can install wire shelves in your pantry yourself. Wire shelves are a cheap and versatile option for your pantry.

Think about the space you have and how many shelves you need in your pantry. You could install them on a back wall but maybe also continue them on an adjoining wall to give you a corner shape. 

Also, do you want white coated wire shelves, stainless steel or perhaps a color? So have a look at available styles and whether your pantry is often on show. This will influence the finish you’re looking for.

Let’s Start at the Very Beginning

To go from a messy pantry piled with cartons, bottles and containers to neatly organized wire shelves there are a few rules you’ll need to follow.

The first is to get everything out of the pantry. Take all your packets and move them onto a kitchen island, clear countertop or kitchen table. Then clean down your existing shelves and assess!

On your table or countertop, put similar items together in the way you think you’ll find most useful. So, you may want to put baking goods together. Or you may like to put sacks of dried goods together, for example, flour, rice, lentils. Use the system you think will work best for you.

Organized Wire Shelves

The next thing to do with these kinds of sub-categories is to organize cartons into size. So put cartons of the same size together, cans together, and smaller loose items together. 

Then check all the dates and throw away out of date food. Keep a note of those with short dates so you can be sure to use those items more quickly. And get rid of or give away ingredients you know you never really use. 

Smaller items like, for example, bottles of food coloring or packets of dried cooking sauces can be grouped together in a labeled basket. 

You can find natural woven and rattan baskets, either with smooth or raised surfaces. And you can make labels in pretty colors or to match your kitchen. It’s all about ease of use of the food in your pantry when it comes to labeling. Whenever you’re cooking you want to easily grab any ingredient. 

Plastic Bins to Organize your Pantry

Wire shelves are not so great for very small items as they can fall through. As well as baskets, plastic bins are a good idea for storing loose products. You can even buy bins with the product name printed on them, and some are good for stacking.

Alongside these bins, you can also buy plastic shelves to go on your wire shelves that are staggered in steps, so you can see all your cans at once. 

You might also want to put your oldest purchase at the front, newer at the back so that nothing goes out of date and has to be thrown away.

To Decant or Not to Decant?

While there are some products it’s useful to put in canisters so that you can see what you have, you may prefer to leave others in the box. Putting packet items in plastic will keep the products fresher as they’ll be airtight.

It’s said the British royal family have their cereals in plastic containers so you’d be in good company if you choose to put your dried oatmeal in a plastic box! But if cereal is something you use a lot of, it may be easier to keep your fruit loops in the carton they came in.

Or perhaps you make your own jellies and pickles so you’d like some mason jars on your shelves. These will look attractive as well as being accessible.

Get the Rustic Look

If you find you’re losing things through the gaps of your wire shelves or you just like a rustic look in your pantry, you can modify the shelves by simply adding a wood surface.

Using a mix of fabric, woven and metal baskets, as well as glass jars and canisters will make for a truly neat olde worlde style pantry.

Freestanding Wire Shelves

For a small space in your pantry, you can add a freestanding set of wire shelves. Putting larger items at the bottom, like food processors and sacks of food will make sense.

Then in the middle, put the cartons and packets you use the most in cooking so that they’re easy to reach.

And how’s about this for a handy tip if you have put items into plastic bins or tupperware? Use a paint pen to write on the item description. This is so useful but in your neatest handwriting looks great too.

Over the Door Wire Pantry Storage

Making the most of the space in your pantry, especially one that is say an under stair closet, you can hang an over the door storage organizer.

This is great to store spices in bottles and jars, and other smaller items. Easy to access when you open the door and totally out of sight when you close it. A neat idea!

In Summary

You’ll need to roll up your sleeves and get stuck in to organize your pantry! After clearing it out, you will need to group items together in size and cooking category.

Then for the fun stuff, you can write labels and attach them to woven storage boxes or write with paint pens onto plastic bins to remind you of the smaller items you’ve stored within.

Older food goes at the front and dried food can be sealed in airtight containers. Put large items on the bottom shelves and your regularly used food in the middle. 

Keep canisters grouped together and baskets dotted about which will look attractive. Think about your aesthetics as well as the practical side of your pantry.

Wire shelves are cheap and versatile for pantry storage and can be customized in the way that best serves your kitchen. Feeling motivated? It’s time to get organized!