Simplifying Your Pantry: The Difference Between Cluttered And Well-Stocked

A cluttered pantry can lead to food waste. Save your hard-earned money by simplifying your pantry and stocking staples you use and love.

My decluttering frenzy has moved to the pantry, spurned by an invasion of the dreaded pantry moth. I thought my supplies were well defended but those pantry moths can infiltrate a sealed jar easier than a spy passing through enemy lines.

It’s war.

And as I waged a strategic assault on my pantry, I noticed I had no less than seven (!!) types of rice: white, brown, Arborio, basmati, medium grain (in both white and brown), and wild black rice.

90% of the time, we eat either white medium grain or brown rice. 

That means all those other seldom-used varieties lurking in the dark depths of the pantry are easy targets (despite being in sealed jars) for pantry moths to slip in unawares and colonise. 

Before I knew it, occupation was complete.

My pantry was no longer well-stocked; it was cluttered. Cluttered with rarely eaten foods now being happily consumed by moths and needing to be thrown away. A waste of food.

Identifying a Cluttered Pantry

Just because a pantry is full of food, doesn’t mean it’s cluttered.

So how do you know if your pantry is cluttered or just full?

I love this definition from Small Notebook with three identifiers of a cluttered pantry.

A pantry is cluttered when:

Your pantry is full of food, but you look in there and decide “you have nothing to eat.”

Your pantry is full of food that you would rather not eat as long as there are other choices available.

Your pantry is full of food that is “good to have,” but your family doesn’t eat it, and you won’t use it in a normal week.” [source].

The Difference Between a Cluttered and a Well-Stocked Pantry

A well-stocked pantry will save you money.

It will mean you always have a meal to whip up at the last minute, saving you a trip to the store or drive-thru.  It can keep you fed in times of disaster.

A well-stocked pantry is one where you have an ample supply of foods you regularly eat on a weekly or fortnightly (maybe monthly) basis. A cluttered pantry is full of foods you rarely eat.

If you choose to buy in bulk, it’s worth only stocking up on just those few foods you eat on a regular basis. This way, you know you’ll cycle through your supply regularly, meaning less waste. And you’ll be able to keep a close eye on it.

How to Declutter Your Pantry

Decluttering the pantry is something that needs doing on a semi-regular basis. At least twice a year if you can, once a quarter is idea.

If you can’t find things, if you find you’ve got three jars of nutmeg (true story), when things fall out when you open the door (also a true story), then it’s time to declutter.

Here are some tips that I’ve found useful.

1. Evaluate Your Current Pantry Situation

A minimalist pantry isn’t just about getting rid of stuff; it’s a mindset shift towards mindful consumption and organised simplicity to reduce waste and save money and stress.

I love the sentiment of the above sentence, but it’s an aspiration, not necessarily an everyday reality – at least in my experience.

To declutter the pantry, it helps to go old-school and pull everything out – this is how my parents made us clean our rooms. It’s brutal, but it give you clarity, Marie Kondo style.

So step 1 is to pull everything out and put it all on the kitchen counter or dining table, or the floor if you’re short on room. Then look at what you have on hand and try to organise it into piles of like with like. 

Do you have doubles of stuff?

The last time I did this cleanout, I found three bottles each of sesame oil and teriyaki sauce, hiding in the back of our annoying corner cupboard. Oops.

Are there items that are past their used-by date and need throwing away?

Once you’ve sorted through your pantry staples, decide what items are worth restocking so you can maintain a simplified pantry moving forward. 

For example, for us, it’s worth storing white and brown rice in the pantry but not restocking the other varieties (see note in the next section below regarding variety).

How should you decide what to stock in your pantry and what not to?

If you’re not sure which foods (like spices) you use regularly, you can go through your family favourites master list of meals.

What is a master meal list?

It’s a list of meals your family likes to eat on a regular basis and meals you feel confident cooking. This list makes meal planning super quick and easy, as well as helping you grocery shop and stock up on specials and pantry staples. I now keep my family favourites master meal list in Notion and refer to it when I meal plan each week.

When planning your minimalist pantry, look at the meals you make the most and stock the pantry items for those meals. 

2. Simplifying your Pantry

Once you’ve decided which items to keep stocked, give it a good cleanout.

Get rid of any foods that are out of date, and consolidate any duplicate packets if practical (check used-by dates first).

When replacing items in your pantry, it’s better to put everything in its own sealed container (see intro re pantry moths Containers are cheaper than wasted food!).

I used recycled jars for many years, but as they failed to keep the pantry moth out, I stocked up on food storage containers over time when they were half-price (yes, I have a mishmash of different types from different places to keep the cost down and spread the cost out – it’s not an Instagram-pretty pantry). 

Rectangular containers will save you space in the panty. The important thing is to get containers that seal tightly and are big enough to fit a whole packet of food, so you avoid half-empty packets in the pantry.

Finally, to use up ingredients you don’t want to keep stocked in your pantry, create a menu plan that uses up all these ingredients. That way, you can enjoy the variety without the waste.

Speaking of variety…

Eating Diversely While Keeping a Minimalist Panty

Eating a wide variety of foods is healthy – it provides you with a wider variety of nutrients.

How does this mesh with a minimalist pantry?

The trick to avoiding eating the same thing every day while keeping a simple pantry is to use your menu plan to plan a wide diversity of foods and only buy what ‘specialty items’ you need, in the amount you need, from week to week (of course, if you find yourself eating it every week, stock it in your pantry in bulk and save).

You can buy many staples in specific quantities from bulk bins in the supermarket, health-food stores, local bulk-food stores, or farmer’s markets. It’s not as cheap as buying things in larger bulk quantities, but if you end up reducing waste, it’s more cost-effective in the long run than buying in bulk. Store the amount in the fridge until needed.

Managing a Simplified Pantry

It’s easy for the pantry to become unruly. 

Not going to lie – you can often find me shoving things into the pantry willy-nilly on shopping day so I can get on with other stuff already.

And if something is on sale and I’ve stocked up, the combination of a messy pantry and sales prices means I end up with three bottles of sesame oil. 

So efficient pantry management also has to include a bit of thoughtful organisation and maintaining inventory occasionally to avoid waste.

Some organisation tips that help me include:

Managing Use-by and Best-Before Dates

Another aspect of pantry management is keeping an eye on expiration dates and adopting a rotation system to reduce food wastage. This is especially important for items you stock up on.

For example, we stock several cartons of long-life cream. It’s great to have on hand for desserts or cream-based dishes, and we don’t have to worry about it going off like fresh cream. 

To ensure we use it before it goes off, we use the FIFO method – first in, first out. That means we rotate our pantry staples and use the older items first by simply putting the newer ones behind the older ones. 

Rotating pantry items doesn’t eliminate the need for a pantry audit every now and then, but it does reduce the number of things that get forgotten at the back of the pantry and thus waste. And a simplified pantry makes the process of rotating stock and keeping an eye on dates much easier.

Two other tips for expiration date management include:

Doing an audit and meal-planning recipes that incorporate items nearing their used-by date can reduce waste. 

Blank Pantry Checklist to Keep Track of Your Staples

The staples you keep in your pantry will depend on what you like to cook. One person’s honey might be another person’s agave.

For this reason, I’ve created a blank pantry checklist that you can put your own staples on. The checklist is useful for restocking and stocking up on staples. You can download it by clicking the image below.

A simplified pantry is a lot less overwhelming than a cluttered one. Less clutter means less waste and an easier time meal planning and meal prepping. A simple, minimalist pantry doesn’t mean an empty one. However, it is one where the stocked items have been carefully chosen and deserve the title ‘staple’ as opposed to once-in-a-blue-moon food.