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Find Food Fast!: 5 Tips for Organizing Your Pantry by: Stacey Agin Murray Be prepared for mealtime...ANYTIME It can be a cupboard in your apartment, a shelving unit in your garage, or a separate room in your house. Whatever it looks like, a pantry acts as a functional space for storing canned goods, baking supplies and anything you just HAD to buy during that last triple coupon offering at your local supermarket. If you need to prepare meals in a jiffy, it's time to stock up on non-perishable food items and create an organized area for them. Here are 5 easy ways to get your food pantry organized... Use Helper Shelves. Helper shelves double the horizontal space in your pantry, offering more space for canned goods, boxes, bottles, etc. They often come in 3-4 different widths and heights. Some are even width-adjustable. Helper shelves can be found in the same aisle as other kitchen organizing products and purchased at general stores like Target or in specialty stores such as The Container Store. Helper Shelves = Saving Space Group 'Like-Foods' Together. Group foods/products by type, brand, or ethnicity for easy retrieval. For example: Put all canned fruit in one area, brownie mixes on another part of the shelf, and all spaghetti sauce jars and boxes of pasta on a shelf separate from the other two. Now go to your pantry and gather ingredients for tonight's lasagna dinner. How quickly did you locate the pasta and sauce? Probably, pretty darn fast since they're now grouped together in one place... Grouping 'Like-Foods' Together = Saving Time Keep it Neat and Orderly. Place cans/jars/bottles on shelves with labels facing front. Line up boxes with their 'spines' facing front (like library books) or facing forward depending upon your space limitations. This way you can scan the shelf quickly and find what you need in a matter of seconds. Disorganized shelves are a big time, money, (and food) waster. Orderly Shelves = Saving Time and Money Take inventory. Before you go to the supermarket, take inventory of your pantry shelves. Helpful Hint: Line up your cans/jars/bottles from the back of the pantry shelf to the front edge with labels facing forward. Depending upon their size as well as the size of the shelf, you may be able to line them up 3-4 deep. When you need a can/jar/bottle, take it from the front. When you see you have one left (hugging the back wall of the pantry), it's time to put that item on your shopping list. Taking Inventory = Saving Money Rotate Your Food! How many times have you found cans or boxes of food languishing behind an extra large cereal box? You don't know how long it's been there and you're not planning on serving botulism for dinner, so that old can of peas you unearthed is money down the drain. Whether you line them up one in front of the other or stack them, it is important to rotate your boxes/cans/packages of food. If you usually buy cans of tuna in bulk and stack them 6-high on your shelf, don't pile five new ones on top of the bottom can. Put that sixth can in the fridge and stack the new ones behind the old stack. You can take it a step further and date your canned/boxed goods. It takes a bit of work but it's worth it. Even non-perishables can perish... Rotated Food = Saving Money About the Author Stacey Agin Murray, professional organizer and owner of Organized Artistry, LLC, transforms mess into masterpiece with patience, organizing know-how, and a sense of humor. For a free e-list of Top Ten Tips for Organized Living, or to order your copy of 7 Steps to an Organized Wedding Thank You Note please visit her web site at http://www.organizedartistry.com.

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