How to Create a Minimalist Pantry You’ll Love Using Every Day
No matter the size of your household, the kitchen pantry has a way of becoming one of the most chaotic spots in the house. In our home with two teenage boys and a pre-teen girl, it’s a revolving door of snack runs, lunch packing and dinner prep — sometimes all at once. Teen boys really know how to eat!
A messy, disorganized pantry makes all of that so much harder than it needs to be. That’s exactly why creating a minimalist pantry was a game changer for our kitchen. Not a perfect, magazine-worthy pantry — just one that’s organized, easy to navigate and actually works for a busy family on a daily basis.
The good news is it’s simpler to set up than you’d think. Here’s how to create a minimalist pantry you’ll love using every day.
What a Minimalist Pantry Actually Looks Like
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.
feeling inspired for a more minimalist home?
Grab the 100+ Item Simple Home Declutter Checklist – a list of easy items to let go of around the house
The Benefits of 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 organizing quote (and one of my favorites) “outer order, brings inner calm.” This motto applies to all areas of the home – even hidden ones!
How to Set Up Your Minimalist Pantry Step-by-Step
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 ready for 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 know 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.
- 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.
Pantry categories
- Spices and seasonings
- Breads (sandwich, buns, tortillas, bagels)
- Snacks (multi-pack snacks, chips, granola bars, dried fruit)
- Oils, vinegars and condiments
- Pastas, rices, grains
- Canned goods
- Health and wellness items (vitamins, protein powders, hydration supplements)
- Sweets, candy
- Baking supplies (sugar, flour, baking soda, baking kits)
- Coffee and tea
- Pet food and treats
- 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.
How to Maintain 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.
- Buy in bulk
- Meal plan weekly to reduce waste
- Use recipe substitutions – don’t buy every single ingredient as this clutters your pantry
- Avoid complicated recipes
- Clean out your pantry and refrigerator monthly
- Use the ‘rule of one’ – you don’t need three types of jellies, or pastas or nut butters – keep what your family truly enjoys and only rotate new options when one is used up
- Avoid overbuying food – only buy what you need
- Eat leftovers
- Regularly check expiration dates
- Look up “minimalist dinner ideas” (i.e., Jamie Oliver’s 5 Ingredient Cookbook)
Simple 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 – use to hang aprons, reusable grocery bags, dishclothes with loops for hanging
- Over-the-door rack – in place of hooks, this can hold a variety of items and maximize space when shelves are limited or full
- Bag holder for grocery bags – use a basic box or storage bin to hold reusable grocery bags
- Pantry bins – contain items by category to keep them organized and easy to find
- Spice rack – keep all spices together so you can find what you need for cooking and meal prep (one that revolves is the easiest to use)
- Sealed food containers – store pantry essentials (sugar, flour, rice) and food that goes stale easily (chips, pretzels, cereal) in air-tight containers
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A Minimalist Pantry Is Worth the Effort
A minimalist pantry doesn’t have to look like it belongs on Pinterest — it just has to work for your family. Pantries are hardworking spaces and they won’t always look perfect, especially with a busy household coming and going all day. That’s okay.
What matters is having a system that creates the benefits discussed above: saves you time, reduces stress and makes everyday cooking and snacking easier for everyone. Once you set it up you’ll wonder why you waited so long. Your kitchen — and your family — will feel the difference.
