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Simplify dinnertime with a Capsule Pantry

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Organization · January 3, 2021

How to Organize a Pantry in 15 Minutes

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Organize your pantry in 15 minutes

Organizing your pantry seems like a big job but it doesn’t have to be an all-day affair! I’m going to show you how to organize a pantry quickly and efficiently.

Organize your pantry in 15 minutes thumbnail

Depending on how stocked your pantry is and how long it’s been since you last purged, this might take you 15 minutes, or it might take you an hour.

If it’s been a while, commit to taking 15 minutes a day for the next few days until it’s done. In that case, just take one shelf at a time.

Organize a Pantry Step 1: Empty + Purge

Get rid of everything that is expired. Throw it out.

I know it’s painful to throw out food and waste what could have been. Acknowledge this, commit to reducing your food waste, and move on.

Anything that isn’t expired, and you know you won’t eat, either throw it out or give it to someone IMMEDIATELY (do not, I repeat, DO NOT hold onto it until next Tuesday when your bestie is coming over).

Give it to a neighbor or friend, or even better, donate it to a local shelter or food pantry.

Step 2: Measure

Measure the pantry while it’s empty, all the areas! Then get some baskets or bins today (or at the very least, order them so they come this week!).

See-through containers are the best option to organize a pantry (especially if you’re organizing a small pantry!). You can see exactly what you have in there, and things won’t get lost as easily.


Step 3: Get Organized

Put like things together. I think the most efficient way to do this is to organize it like the grocery store.

And make sure you write them down as you put them away on an Inventory sheet. You can download my Pantry Organization printable for free and use it for Pantry organization, Freezer organization, or Fridge organization:

Free Kitchen Inventory

Pantry Organization Categories

I recommend organizing by the type of food and not type of container. Like, do not automatically put all cans together or all boxes together. That’s NOT going to help you when you are looking for something!

Make your pantry organization categories like the grocery store.

  • Snacks – cookies, chips, crackers
  • Juice & beverages
  • Canned vegetables & beans
  • Breakfast – cereal, oatmeal, pancake mix
  • Pasta & Rice (+ sauces you would use with those)
  • Condiments, oils & spices
  • Baking items
  • Ethnic food
  • Broth & soup
  • Convenience foods
  • Bread & lunch items

Use your spidey sense when putting like things away – if you always make canned tomatoes with pasta, keep it with the pasta instead of the canned vegetables.

Older items go in the front, just like the grocery store does. As you buy groceries, add them to your Inventory sheet, and then they go in the back so you’re always using the oldest things first. Get into this habit and you won’t have to keep purging the pantry.

Step 4: Make a Rescue Meal basket

What’s a rescue meal, you ask? It’s going to be your best friend in a second.

It’s basically dinner that:

  • requires little to no prep
  • takes 30 minutes or less
  • you always have the ingredients for

I personally think the magic number of Rescue Meal recipes is 5. This gives you a few different options when it comes time to make one of your emergency meals.

Go see exactly how to figure out what dinner ideas should be in your Rescue Meal Plan.

Keeping a separate basket for these ingredients (along with a copy of the recipe!) ensures you’ll always have these ingredients on hand. And as soon as you use them, they go on the grocery shopping list!

Hopefully this step by step guide of how to organize a pantry got you started in the right direction and you can have an organized and efficient kitchen!

Free Kitchen Inventory

Organize your pantry in 15 minutes

In: Organization

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The best, true, good love. Nothing can separate us The best, true, good love. Nothing can separate us from it. 
❤️ Happy Valentine’s Day!
Fun fact: I have ZERO poker face. Like none. I’m Fun fact: I have ZERO poker face. Like none. I’m a thinker and have  always lived in my head. It’s the Enneagram 5 in me. 
Bonus: it’s allowed me to be able to talk my way out of any situation. (Except that one time in social studies in 10th grade when a girl was bullying me and I had to fight back. Let’s just say she left me alone after that!😂).
Anyhoo. A friend recently said to me “it makes sense that your face betrays you because you’re so in control of your tongue”. 
My face betrays me 😂 
She’s right, I can hold my tongue pretty well unless it’s something that really gets my goat. 
🐐Fun fact #2: “gets my goat” is one of my favorite phrases ever!
🤢 Fun fact #3: I am not a picky eater and will eat just about anything but don’t you dare make me eat a sandwich with the cheese and Mayo touching!! 
Tell me: are you a thinker too?!? What are some fun facts about you?
One of the most common misconceptions I hear about One of the most common misconceptions I hear about planning for more than one week is that it takes so much time...

But the reason this is such a big misconception is because if you think it take a lot of time to make a seasonal meal plan, think about how much time it takes you to meal plan from a blank slate every week. 
Let's look at it over the course of a year.
1. weekly meal planning 1 hour x 52 weeks = 52 hours
2. monthly meal planning 1 hour x 12 months = 12 hours
3. seasonal meal planning 2 hours x 4 seasons = 8 hours 

And we're not even talking about how much time you're losing by following a weekly meal plan and subsequently grocery shopping. 

Think about how much you're missing out on with your family by spending so much time planning and shopping so often. An hour meal planning + 2 hours grocery shopping every single week is 3 hours a week you could have back to do fun things with them!

I mean, I get it...you NEED to feed your family every day, right? (kinda something we hafta do...).
But you can  do 👏🏼 it 👏🏼 differently 👏🏼
A seasonal meal plan with not only help you spend less time in planning-mode, but also help with your grocery shopping so that you can go to the grocery store less, and stop making emergency trips to the store because you forgot something.

And while you're here, let me tell ya this: avoiding a seasonal meal plan because you don't have TIME is HOGWASH... because I have lots of short cuts and tricks to show you that will maximize your time. 

PS. Stay tuned for tomorrow's post - I'm sharing my newest meal planning formula calendar... It's only around for a few days...see ya tomorrow!

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Meet Karyn. She had amazing results as a customer Meet Karyn. She had amazing results as a customer of ours and I need to share her with you.
 
She bought the Daily Dinner Blueprint calendar, dug right in, and told me she was so excited because she got these results:

📆 her meals are planned until SPRING (and she said it was painless!)!
🛒 a streamlined grocery shopping list!
🥣 an ingredient-based plan that doesn't limit what her family is eating!

She also said how every month "will be even quicker and easier"!

Here’s what she had to say about our business in her own words...
"My husband and I just did our first plan using your system and I wanted to drop you a line to say THANK YOU! Once you wrap your head around the process, and you start using it, it's easy to see how it will streamline grocery shopping without limiting what you are eating!

WOW! I would have to say this was pretty painless! Another benefit is I can see a clear way to categorize my recipes for future use! Each successive month will be even quicker and easier!

Back in the day, Emeril would've said "BAM, kick it up a notch!" I love that my meals are planned UNTIL SPRING! 🙌."

Thank you Karyn for being a customer! 💜
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One of the most common mistakes I see people make One of the most common mistakes I see people make when it comes to meal planning ​is doing it backwards.
BACKWARDS = planning your meals THEN doing your grocery shopping. 
Honestly, I used to teach it this way. 
But I found this doesn't work because:
🕳 you buy single, hard-to-find ingredients that end up in a black hole after you use it for just one recipe (oyster sauce in the back of the fridge, I'm looking at you...)
💰 you overbuy ingredients thinking this is the week your toddler finally eats broccoli, or this is the week you're totally going to cook every night...but end up eating the same thing over and over anyway.
🤷🏻‍♀️ you have too many options and if your plan gets interrupted (which it WILL), you're left staring at a full pantry or fridge wondering "what can I make???" And then end up ordering takeout!

Don't worry, I've got ideas for you. Check out my stories for 3 things you can do instead of backwards planning!
I could tell you so many things about this girl... I could tell you so many things about this girl... 
...my BFF Cara @apurposedrivenmom 
...but I want to focus on how she KILLS it at going after her goals. And loves teaching other busy mamas to do the same. 
She helped me map out an action plan for my goals on Saturday and wow, guys. Just wow. 
So I asked her if she would help my audience with their goal setting for the new year...
...and she agreed! 
Join both of us this Thursday (LIVE!) for “How to Take MASSIVE ACTION on your Goals (without burnout or overwhelm)”.
Sound like something you want to chat about with us?!? Link is in my bio (just click this picture of Cara and I!).
Who else hates throwing away lots of un-eaten prod Who else hates throwing away lots of un-eaten produce at the end of the week as much as I do? 
Focus on an ingredient-based meal plan instead of the other way around. That's what the 2021 Annual Meal Planning Calendar does. Here's this week's meal plan...
🍕🌮 🍔 
‣‣‣Monday: Dinner Blueprint # 51 (A4+B1+C3)
Homemade Pizza Dough & Pizza Sauce (two recipes)
‣‣‣Tuesday: Dinner Blueprint # 33 (A3+B1+C1)
Blackened Tilapia Tacos
‣‣‣Wednesday: Dinner Blueprint # 10 (A1+B3+C2)
Crispy Lemon Chicken & Veggies
‣‣‣Thursday: Dinner Blueprint # 5 (A1+B2+C1)
Santa Fe Double Chicken
‣‣‣Friday: Dinner Blueprint # 40 (A3+B2+C4)
Baked Fish Sticks (+ leftover veggies or salad)
‣‣‣Saturday: Dinner Blueprint # 13 (A1+B4+C1)
Santa Fe Double Chicken Soup (just add a carton of chicken broth to leftovers to make soup)
‣‣‣Sunday: Dinner Blueprint # 3 (A1+B1+C3)
Chicken Parmesan w/Pasta
🍕 
If you're following along on the 2021 Annual Meal Planning Calendar, these are the same Dinner Blueprint #’s for each day. You can use the blueprint to come up with your own dinner idea, or use the linked example recipe.
🌮 
If you don’t own the 2021 Annual Meal Planning Calendar, you can purchase it by clicking my link in bio or if you're seeing this on Facebook, click here:
https://mpb.vipmembervault.com/products/courses/view/1065589/?action=signup
🍉🥬Tell me... what fruit or veggie do you always end up throwing away? (watermelon and fresh spinach here!)
I don't know about you, but I can waste time like I don't know about you, but I can waste time like a CHAMP. Like re-drying the same load of laundry 3 times or scrolling IG like a zombie in bed.
Anyone else?
But I don't like it. 
And I definitely try to be more intentional on the things that give me more time back than what I spent on it. 
Meal planning is one of those things. Spend ONE hour a month meal planning, and you'll gain so many more hours each day (and *bonus* - it's during that dreaded pre-dinner time when the kids are maniacs!)

P.S. Please stop weekly meal planning. That doesn't actually save you time. (you can watch the ✨free training✨ in my link in bio if you want to know how often I suggest!)
Tell me...what would you do with an extra 30 mins each day?
New Month...new meal plan! Take an hour and make a New Month...new meal plan!
Take an hour and make an easy, monthly meal plan that focuses on the ingredients you eat and love - not one that tells you what to make (and then you have to go grocery shopping to get everything!) 
That's a backwards-based meal plan, friend.
Here's a sneak peek at my method:
Make a quick grid of 3 rows and 4 columns.
3 rows: A, B, C
A - main ingredient
B - side dish
C - flavor profile
4 columns: 1, 2, 3,4
Assign each space an ingredient and then mix and match... 
Here is each "formula of the day" for the rest of the week (since Jan 1st lands mid-week). Straight outta the January meal plan from the 2021 Annual Meal Planning Calendar... 
🍕🌮 🍔 
‣‣‣Friday: Dinner Blueprint # 36 (A3+B1+C4)
Parmesan Crusted Tilapia w/butter pasta
‣‣‣Saturday: Dinner Blueprint # 14 (A1+B4+C2)
Greek Lemon Chicken Soup
‣‣‣Sunday: Dinner Blueprint # 23 (A2+B2+C4)
Italian Stuffed Peppers
🍕 
If you're following along on the 2021 Annual Meal Planning Calendar, these are the same Dinner Blueprint #’s for each day. You can use the blueprint to come up with your own dinner idea, or use the linked example recipe.
🌮 
If you don’t own the 2021 Annual Meal Planning Calendar, you can purchase it by clicking my link in bio or if you're seeing this on Facebook, click here:
https://mpb.vipmembervault.com/products/courses/view/1065589/?action=signup
🍔 Tell me... what's on your meal plan this week?
The 9-gazillion chicken recipes on Pinterest overw The 9-gazillion chicken recipes on Pinterest overwhelms me.
You too?
One of the many reasons I love chicken is because it's just so versatile. I mean, it cooks quick and there's sooooo many options out there. Just search "chicken recipes" and you'll come up with tens of thousands. 
(I'm looking at you again, Pinterest...). 
These are way too many options for me, so I created a simple mix and match method to come up with new dinner ideas.
✔️ limited ingredients means I'm not overwhelmed 
✔️ starts with flavors my family already loves to eat
✔️ less options means I can get dinner on the table quicker instead of staring into the fridge hoping dinner will just jump out at me!
Here's a few of these ideas on my meal plan (right outta my Annual Meal Planning calendar...).
What's your family's favorite chicken recipe?
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