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Is the sight of your messy pantry stressful?
Pure chaos I know!
The more you look at it the more you want to have a good clear-out because you can’t find anything!
Think of all those ruined meals because you missed items from the supermarket, thinking you had them in the pantry. All that waste and frustration due to your messy pantry.
It’s super exciting to share with you some ideas on how to organise your pantry with printable labels. Putting labels on your food, including expiry dates makes everything so easy and functional.
Labels are one of the most important things in a neat and tidy pantry.
Pantry labels can make your kitchen organised and functional, by:
- putting warning labels on your food so you can tell if the product contains any allergens (such as dairy or nuts) or any other critical info.
- clearly marking food items with an expiry or best before date. Both for safety and to avoid waste.
- Showing the product name so you know exactly what it is. How many times have you wondered what type of flour is that… oh wait is that flour?
- And lastly, it looks great. What’s better than a tidy pantry, with stylish labels?
An organised pantry is the first step to a functional kitchen space.
Achieving this is made easier with printable labels.
OK let’s get started…
Clear-out
Pull everything out and split them into two groups:
- items you use and want to keep, and
- items you don’t use, is old or stale. Then decide whether to throw it away or donate it.
By doing this you’ll create space and are ready to start organizing before moving on to creating your pantry labels.
Oh, while you’re at it, you may as well give the surfaces a bit of a clean.
Categorising
Group items by type, this could be grains, drinks, pet food, baking items, canned goods, soups, snack foods, etc.
Grouping similar items will allow you to give each category its own dedicated basket, shelf, or drawer. You can even print labels for your pantry shelves, drawers, and containers to make sure items are put back in the right place.
By using baskets or other containers, makes pantry items easy to see, grab and oh-so-put-together.
Labelling
Now you’re ready to start creating your pantry labels.
You may be printing your labels or handwriting them. Printing labels at home is easy using A4 sheet labels which work with most home office printers.
If printing them you can create your labels directly in a free label template software like HERMA’s Label Assistant Online, or you might prefer to type everything up in a spreadsheet and use mail merge to print them in one go.
You can use different types of labels for different items:
- Items for the fridge or freezer will need a special type of label in order to handle the cold and moisture.
- For clearly visible items you may like to create appealing labels using creative colour templates.
- Clear labels are a great option for glass jars or stylish containers.
- Hang tags work well for baskets and other hard to label items.
And adding expiration dates can help keep track on what’s about to expire, so that it’s easy for you to know which is which and what food you need to consume first.
Putting it all back
Before you shove everything back, have a think about how best to arrange things:
- Do you want the most often used items within easy reach?
- If short on space, then organise by positioning taller items behind shorter items. That way you can still find everything.
- Maybe you want to keep your healthy foods where you can see them, and those treaty items in harder to get to, or less visible places.
We all like the look of a functional, aesthetic pantry, and it is easier than you think!
Having an organised pantry makes it easier to grab items quickly and know when to restock, and this is essential to reducing waste and having your kitchen run smoothly.
It can also save you money – stopping you from buying an item that you later realise you already own.
At HERMA Labels NZ we have all the printable labels you need plus labels for hand lettering.
From freezer labels to clear labels to high quality paper labels.
Pantry labels can be printed using your existing home office inkjet or laser printer copier.
Use one of HERMA’s pre-made label templates or be creative and design something stylish yourself.