The Simple Pantry Storage Mistake Too Many People Make

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Taking the time to organize your pantry can be time-consuming, but it's well worth the effort to have everything grouped, visible, and easy to access (just like Ina Garten!) the next time you're pressed for time and need to get dinner made quickly. But whether you have a pantry closet or you're using kitchen drawers to store your nonperishables, you might make a common mistake when it comes to organizing everything: not considering expiration dates. More specifically, not keeping food items that expire more quickly front and center.

For items like cans, you'll want to use the first in, first out, or FIFO, method to keep food from spoiling. That means placing cans that expire soonest near the front, so they get used first, reducing the amount of time they sit in your pantry, as well as the likelihood that they'll go bad.

What you really might not have considered, though, is the shelf-life of some foods is a lot shorter than your canned vegetables. Items like flour, cooking oils, and even grains can expire in as little as four months from the date you brought them home, so if you have issues with "out of sight, out of mind," you will want to store those items near the front of your pantry to keep from forgetting about them.

In addition to storing like items together, it makes sense to organize your pantry space according to expiration dates. If you have, say, a walk-in pantry with lots of shelving and good lighting, where everything is already easy to see, all you have to do is sort your items and put them back on the shelves. If you have a smaller pantry, with limited space, you might want to invest in some racks or shelves that will make your life a lot easier.

For your cans, that might be something like this Simple Houseware can organizer rack, or if your pantry is narrower with lots of unused vertical space, this 3-pack can organizer. Put the cans that expire soonest in the front, and restock new cans from the back. For nonperishables like the aforementioned flour, cooking oils, and grains, which can lose their freshness a lot faster than canned goods, you might not have room to place everything near the front of your pantry. Consider instead installing pull-out shelving so that even if your pricey olive oil is behind the flour and sugar, it's easier to remember you have it by simply drawing out the shelf and seeing it.

If your pantry is darker than you'd like, for a quick fix you can also apply stick-on lighting to the interior to help you see what you have. Puck lights or LED strips are easy to affix and inexpensive.