How to Create a Minimalist Pantry in Your Kitchen

Inside: Steps for how to create and maintain a minimalist pantry in your kitchen.

In our homes filled with clutter and excess stuff, oftentimes the kitchen pantry becomes an overstocked, messy space.  This could be because our kitchen is such a busy area of the home, as we must eat and feed our family daily!  The pantry can also be a “catchall” of random things since the kitchen is one of the main rooms of the house. 

However, having a messy pantry is counterproductive to the needs of the kitchen.  Messy pantries cause food waste, time waste and overall frustration, especially when you are trying to get a meal on the table.  The concept of a minimalist pantry offers a refreshing approach to organizing and simplifying your kitchen. 

What exactly is a Minimalist Pantry?

A minimalist pantry focuses on quality over quantity, encouraging you to invest in high-quality staples that can be used in a variety of dishes. By carefully curating your pantry items, you not only save space and reduce waste, but also make meal planning and preparation more efficient.

With a minimalist pantry, you create a sense of calm and order in your kitchen, allowing you to easily access the ingredients you need without being overwhelmed by too much. No matter if you’re cooking for a large family everyday or just preparing simple meals for yourself, setting up a minimalist pantry can streamline your cooking process and inspire creativity in the kitchen. Plus the benefits of saving time, money and stress!

A minimalist pantry is one that contains only the essentials, eliminating unnecessary or duplicate items to create a cleaner and more organized space.  A minimalist pantry is meant to be clean and tidy, allowing you and your family to find food and utilize the kitchen in a meaningful way. 

Benefits to a Minimalist Pantry

Reduces food waste

A minimalist pantry allows you to see what ingredients and supplies you already have.  Basic cooking supplies such as soup stocks, grains, spices, baking supplies, etc are visible and easy to inventory, thus providing less trips to the grocery store and less repeat buys of things you already own.

Saves money

When you buy duplicates at the grocery store or extra items “just in case” you unnecessarily spend money.  Save your money with a minimalist pantry so you know what you have and how much of it is left.

Saves time

When the contents of your pantry are visible and you know where things are located, less effort is spent looking for items; thus saving you time.  Getting dinner on the table or packing lunches for the day won’t take nearly as long when you know where the sandwich bread, pasta or canned tuna is.  

Saves mental energy

How many times have you pulled items out of your pantry, poking around the shelves, trying to find something you just know you have, looking for a hidden ingredient?  This annoyance adds to our exhaustion and mental load.  It is a smoother, less complicated process of preparing meals when you can find what you need, when you need it.

Saves space

Having a minimalist pantry pushes you to utilize this storage area in a thoughtful, intentional way.  When items are organized, it creates more space allowing you to contain other pantry goods or remain open space for a more pleasing visual.

Better aesthetic / less overwhelming

From a sheer visual perspective, a minimalist pantry is much nicer to look at than a messy one.  Having your pantry items housed in an organized fashion with storage containers is much easier on the eye and less overwhelming. Remember Gretchen Rubin’s quote (and one of my favorites) “outer order, brings inner calm.”  This motto applies to all areas of the home – even hidden ones!

Steps to Setting Up a Minimalist Pantry 

It is not difficult to set up a minimalist pantry. The priority is to clear out all unnecessary items first with a thorough declutter and organize what you have left in a functional way that works for you. There is no one way to set up a minimalist pantry, your goal is to simply have it clean, organized and set up for proper use that works for you — not a mess of half empty chip bags, expired canned goods and random items taking up space.

1. Declutter Food

Step one is to remove food you don’t need. This includes expired goods and food items you will not eat (even if they are still edible, you must be super honest with yourself).

Perhaps your family’s dietary needs have changed or certain food likes/dislikes have evolved as kids have gotten older. It is okay to remove perfectly good food that you know will not be eaten and donate. Ways to donate usable food is to a community food bank or homeless shelter, pass along to your neighbors or church kitchen, or offer it on your local Buy Nothing Facebook Group.

Food items to toss

• Expired canned goods (please note food banks will not take expired food)
• Stale chips and crackers
• Items that have been open for too long (causing staleness, infestation, loss of taste)
• Poorly contained baking staples (flour, sugar, baking soda — infestation can occur with unsealed goods)
• Dried out/expired spices and seasonings
• Dried out/stale bread
• Items you admit you will not use (i.e., chickpeas for homemade hummus just isn’t going to happen)
• Old baking kits
• Holiday baking decor (i.e., old sprinkles, icing, decorative edibles, food coloring)

2. Declutter Non-Food Items

We often keep more than just food in our pantries. While some items are related to this category and (if you have the space) can be stored inside a minimalist pantry; you still need to purge what you are not using.

Use the list below as a starting point of items you may be holding unnecessarily (and are often stuffed inside a kitchen pantry). A rule of thumb is to donate or recycle/toss what has not been used in a year or more.

Non-Food Items to Toss

• Grocery bags (ones you get from the store can be recycled; also, you don’t need 50 reusable grocery bags). Keep one or two large “freezer bags” and six to eight standard grocery bags. My favorite’s are from Trader Joe’s.
• Kitchen linens — tableclothes, napkins, aprons, dishclothes, cleaning clothes
• Paper supplies or party supplies that are no longer needed
• Decor items you no longer need
• Cleaning supplies that are empty or no longer needed
• Kitchen gadgets, small appliances or utensils that are never used

3. Remove Non-Pantry Items

After purging food and non-food pantry items, take everything out that does not belong in a kitchen pantry at all (for example, I have actually seen Halloween masks located in people’s kitchen pantries before!). The pantry is not the place to store random stuff.

Create a minimalist pantry by keeping it’s contents focused on kitchen and eating-related essentials. Remove all items that don’t belong in a kitchen pantry and place them in their proper places. Struggling with where to put things? Utilize drop zones for everyday use items.

4. Clean The Pantry

Now that you’ve decluttered the pantry, give it a good cleaning. Wipe down shelves with a damp rag, clear cobwebs, wipe down the doorframe and inside walls, and sweep/mop the floor.

5. Consolidate What’s Left

At this step you should be left with only what you need in your minimalist pantry and it is clean, ready for organizing. Start by consolidating all contents into categories so everything is stored together by use/food type.

List of pantry categories

1. Spices and seasonings
2. Breads (sandwich, buns, tortillas, bagels)
3. Snacks (multi-pack snacks, chips, granola bars, dried fruit)
4. Oils, vinegars and condiments
5. Pastas, rices, grains
6. Canned goods
7. Health and wellness items (vitamins, protein powders, hydration supplements)
8. Sweets, candy
9. Baking supplies (sugar, flour, baking soda, baking kits)
10. Coffee and tea
11. Pet food and treats
12. Non-food items (aprons, grocery bags, table linens)

6. Decant Certain Items

To decant or not to decant? This is question (LOL) that pro organizers often debate. What does this even mean? Decanting, in relation to the pantry or kitchen, is the process of moving food from its original packaging into another container, such as a canister, jar or plastic container.

For example, pouring flour from the bag into a plastic container is decanting. This strategy is helpful in creating a minimalist pantry because it removes bulky, odd-shaped boxes and bags and all food contents go into more streamlined containers.

I recommend decanting at least some of your food, particularly baking supplies such as flour, sugar and baking soda, as those original containers can be difficult to keep well sealed. Decanting crackers, chips, pretzels and the like is helpful in prolonging the shelf life of these perishable items (especially if you have family members who never close a box or bag properly :).

7. Use Bins and Containers

After organizing your pantry content into categories and decanting what you wish, use containers to hold items all together.

Google “pantry containers” and hundreds of items will populate. There are so many options! You may use clear bins, wire baskets, wicker baskets, sealed jars and plastic containers, whatever look you prefer. I recommend these type of clear bins, as they help you see what you have, versus baskets or solid containers that you have to poke around to find things.

Also try using containers you already have around the house to corral items. Tupperware/food storage bases, mason jars, zip loc baggies, and other miscellaneous containers can be useful to hold category items in a minimalist pantry. It doesn’t have to all match and look perfect. The goal here is organization, not a magazine-worthy set up.

8. Use Labels

Once you decant and organize pantry contents, use labels when possible for identifying what each container or bin holds. Chalk/reusable labels such as these are convenient so you can change contents as needed.

Tips for Maintaining a Minimalist Pantry

Take a step back and admire the work you have done!  Know that you have a minimalist pantry in place, you want to keep it that way. Maintain your pantry’s organization by utilizing the tips below.

1. Buy in bulk
2. Meal plan weekly to reduce waste
3. Use recipe substitutions – don’t buy every single ingredient as this clutters your pantry
4. Avoid complicated recipes
5. Clean out your pantry and refrigerator monthly
6. Use the rule of one – you don’t need three types of jellies, or pastas or nut butters – stick with what your family truly enjoys and only rotate new options when one is used up
7. Avoid overbuying food – only buy what you need
8. Eat leftovers
9. Regularly check expiration dates
10. Look up “minimalist dinner ideas” (i.e., Jamie Oliver’s 5 Ingredient Cookbook)

Best Storage Solutions for a Minimalist Pantry

Below are my recommendations for the type of storage solutions you’ll find helpful in setting up and maintaining your minimalist pantry.

• Wall hook rack (mount on wall of pantry to hang aprons, reusable grocery bags, dishclothes with loops for hanging)
• Over-the-door rack (if you don’t have a wall inside pantry to mount a rack, place one over the door if possible)
• Bag holder for grocery bags (use a simple box or open storage container to house grocery bags…or get a little fancier with this one).
• Pantry baskets (these are multi-use)
• Spice rack (one you can mount, or a tiered rack you can place on the shelf for easy access)
• OXO seal tight containers (these are the best for decanting and preserving food)

Conclusion to Setting Up a Minimalist Pantry

Creating a minimalist pantry in your kitchen does not mean it must look beautiful, just well organized. Pantries are a hard-working area of our homes…they will not always look perfect! Remember the goal is to save you time, money and mental energy. An organized system that is easy to maintain will accomplish these goals.