Martha Stewart's Clever Pantry Clutter Solution Uses Shelving In The Smartest Way

A successful kitchen doesn't actually start in the kitchen — it starts in your pantry. Most often used to store extra kitchen items, your pantry provides a home for spices, dried foods, cereals, baking ingredients, snacks, and sometimes even animal food or kitchen tools. Yet the number of items stored here and their frequency of use means it's extremely easy for your pantry to get cluttered, and a cluttered pantry means a less efficient kitchen. How you can make the most of your small pantry closet, or even a large one, will come down to your own organization. Thankfully for us all, the GOAT of the kitchen space, Martha Stewart, has a simple yet valuable solution when it comes to pantry clutter — and it's all about working smarter, not harder.

In a clip from a 1998 episode of "Martha Stewart Living" that surfaced on Instagram, Stewart points out that correct shelving is the foundation of an uncluttered pantry. It's about knowing what you need and when you need it, then storing it with that in mind. Put simply, this means that your most frequently used pantry items should be placed on shelving that is the most easily accessible. Less frequently used items can be stored on the shelves that are hardest to reach. If you store items on your shelves based on this thought process, you'll be setting yourself (and your pantry) up for success.

Martha Stewart's shelving habit might sound obvious, but you'd be surprised how many pantries become unusable because items have been added in a haphazard manner. And we get it — sometimes you're in a rush and just need to get those groceries put away. However, taking a few extra minutes to organize your pantry can make a real difference on those busy nights when dinner needs to get on the table.

The first step toward creating a no-fail kitchen pantry is to determine the items you use most. This will depend on your own personal eating habits, obviously, but the items in question might include a variety of kitchen pantry foods you should always have on hand, like canned tomatoes, dry beans and rice, pastas, cereals, and certain snacks; place these items on easy to reach shelves. Other items, like baking ingredients or cooking tools, can go on the higher or less accessible shelves.

Another helpful pantry tip suggested by Stewart is using uniform, labeled, see-through containers. Categorized labeling will help you quickly put things where they belong and locate them just as easily, while see-through, uniform containers will efficiently store items, allowing you to identify when they need to be replaced. With the helpful advice of a kitchen guru like Martha Stewart, we all can have the organized pantry of our dreams!