How do you separate your non-refrigerated goods?

[MonkeyFunk]

My BF thinks my system is weird - and admittedly, it has a few quirks. But it makes sense to me.

It wasn't a planned thing - it sort of turned into what it is organically, over time:

I have two cabinets. One of them stores food. The other one stores things that become food.

So cabinet A has canned soups, vegetables, tuna, etc.

Cabinet B has things like flour, sugar, spices, etc. But it also contains teas - because you can't eat tea. You have to MAKE tea.

"Well what about those dried soups in the other cabinet - all you do is add water! Same thing"

"No my dear, it is not. In an emergency, I could eat even dried soups. You can't eat tea. Dried soup is still food. But you can't eat a teabag."

He objects to my peanut-butter designation. I keep it in the "becomes food" cabinet.

"Why? It's food!"

"Not to me. I don't eat peanut butter without putting it on bread or something."

"But in an emergency, you could eat peanut butter"

"Now you're just being difficult - get out of my kitchen."

[malta blue]

1. I have one cabinet for all

the spices, flour, sugar, etc.

Another cabinet holds all the teas.

A third holds all the canned goods.

The fourth holds all the foods that Little MB likes - crackers, peanut butter, fruit cups, cereal, etc. because it is at her level

[MonkeyFunk]

2. Four cabinets!

Well excuuuuse me, Mrs. Rockefeller! :P

[malta blue]

3. OMG

:spray:

I was not expecting that one....

:rofl::rofl:





Nice post, ____________ (insert your favorite strongman here)


:hide:

[mainegreen]

4. We have a walk-in-pantry. Here's our system

Everything is left to right facing the shelves:

Top shelf: Rarely/Uncommonly used cooking items
Special Bakeware - Blenders etc - Waffle iron - salad spinner - lobster pot - misc

Next shelf down: Commonly used cooking items
Glassware - Plastic bowls - pots/pans/bakeware

Next shelf down: Common Foodstuffs
Giant rice bags - Oils - Spices/Sauces - Canned goods - Cereals/Oats - Pastas - Lentils/Barley etc

Next shelf down: Basic(y) Foodstuff
Lightbulbs(yes, lightbulbs) - Box of sauces/spice mixes and flavored rice etc - Tea and coffee box - Baking soda/power etc - flours - sugars

On the left wall are three drawers (cooled by outside air) containing:
Top Drawer:
Potatoes, carrots, parsnips, garlic, onions

Middle Drawer:
Beets, apples, cabbage, cranberries and tupperware

Bottom Drawer:
metal bakeware, cookie cutters, pie tins, etc


:D

[MonkeyFunk]

12. wow

that kicks the shit out of ol' 4-cabinet Malta Blue!

[malta blue]

18. And you called me Rockefeller??

:rofl:

[Gormy Cuss]

22. Bottom drawer can double as littlegreen's kitchen toy chest.

My mother used to encourage her toddling grandkids to explore the bottom drawer of metal cookware and she even showed them how to bang the pans with a wooden spoon. Her children were not amused.:D

[mainegreen]

24. Well, right now the rest of the apartment is one giant toys chest.

No need for him to get in there.

We have made sure though that he has plenty of metal tins and cans to bang loudly. He prefers to sing into the giant tins because it makes his voice all metallic and echoey.

Your mom had the right idea! ;)

[Parche]

5. your system sounds logical....

:hi:

[XNASA]

6. Alphabetically.....

.....according to height.

:hi:

[NightWatcher]

7. I put mine together by food type

for example...all of the pasta and sauces, and olive oil... are together in the spaghetti group. The junk food is clumped together

the fridge is gouped into the beer shelf, the water, tea, and soda shelf, and the leftover shelf

[La Lioness Priyanka]

8. you two are cute.

[zanne]

26. I have one semi-large cabinet with no shelves....

Pipes protrude into it from the wall, hence no shelves. Canned goods, packaged goods, even bread and crackers, all piled up on top of each other. Occasionally, a cat will go in and the whole thing tumbles down. I've kept this system for 15 years. (I don't know why.)

[PeaceNikki]

9. Similar.

But I classify canned and dried soups as stuff that becomes food.

Cabinet A in my house is all stuff I can take out and stick directly in my mouth.
Cabinet B requires some intervention.

[MonkeyFunk]

10. I can see that.

Generally, the stuff that can go right in my mouth is on the counter.

[Aristus]

11. I put them in different corners and tell them to behave or I'll kick their cans.

B-)

[lost-in-nj]

13. I have the

cereal in the cabinet with the bowls, a small cabinet with salt, pepper and all the spices.
A drawer that has the bread, chips, popcorn all the snacks in it.
Then I have a large pantry cabinet that holds everything else, kinda
by guess and by gosh, no real groupings... but I know where everything is :)


lost

[LanternWaste]

14. It's foolproof, I tellya!

One cabinet - bags of food.

Second cabinet - cans of food.

Third cabinet - boxes of food.

Fourth cabinet - things that don't go in cabinets 1-3.

It's foolproof, I tellya!

[azmouse]

15. I just pile similar foods together.

All pastas are together, all boxes of cereal, all soups....

[MrCoffee]

16. I have a well-rationalized, extremely convenient system

I jam whatever it is wherever it will fit.

[TommyO]

29. That's my system as well, for the most part

I have the catch-all cabinet to the right of the stove, however the one over the stove holds all of the pasta and zip-top plastic bags, the one to the left of the stove holds the prepared foods like Amy's Organic White Cheddar Mac and Cheese.

[IndianaJones]

17. thats similar to my system. nt.

[Whisp]

19. I have everything all askew.

no order, no logic.

makes me feel like a hunter. ;)

[Midlodemocrat]

20. I put the spices in the cabinet next to the stove along with

soup mixes, flour, sugar, coffee, etc.

The pantry contains all the single cans or boxes of stuff. The rest is stored outside on a big shelf in the garage. (I do a lot of shopping at Costco)

[Shell Beau]

21. Uh oh! I get what your BF means! The dried soup and peanut butter deal!!

:P

[NMDemDist2]

23. yeah, mine is a bit eccentric too

i have two cabinets and one has chips, flours, sugars, crackers, beans, cereal , instant potatoes ect.

It's kinda like "powders and chips and crackers" pretty much

every thing else goes into the other cabinet. the rice is in the second cabinet, :shrug:

as I think of it, it's tall things in the first one and short things in the second......

[Duer 157099]

25. That's scary - I have almost identical system, but non-intentional

In fact, I didn't even realize it until I read your post! I have two major cabinets for food, and I just intuitively know what belongs where, but I never thought about "why" I put the items where I did.

In one cabinet are the ingredients: the flour, sugars, sauces/dressings, coffee, boxed goods, etc.

And in the other are predominately canned goods, but also cereals, crackers, chips, ready to eat foods.

Wow. So there was some logic to this after all!

My peanut butter is with the ready-to-eat stuff, for what it's worth. But my nuts (which really should be in the freezer) are with all my baking stuff, even though they are also ready-to-eat.

I probably have more cross-over stuff than you do, since I didn't consciously plot it out and so was never rigorous about it.

And herbs/spices have a whole different cabinet altogether.

[Gonzo Gardener]

27. Are your herbs & spices alphabetized?

:rofl:

Your system is not weird! I have lived with or around many particularly peculiar chefs and cooks... each had his/her own system. I have a friend who makes everything from scratch including her own yogurt. She cans and freezes lots of stuff, but you never know what your getting into because she labels nothing! I opened a jar of what I thought was jam to put on the kids toast one morning... barbecue sauce tastes pretty good on toast! :9

I have a pantry for all non-refrigerated foods and a cabinet over the coffee bar for all coffees, teas, hot cocoa, sweeteners, non-dairy creamer. Things like onions, potatoes, squash, apples, bottled water, and extra 2-liter bottled sodas are stored on shelving in the garage

The very top shelf of the pantry is for unopened bottles and jars of jellies & jams, (hot)sauces, salad dressings, pickled things, and small containers of seeds (pepita, sesame, flax, sunflower, etc...).

The next shelf contains all of my baking stuff... sugars, flours, extracts & oils, syrups & honey, chocolate chips, butter flavored crisco, boxed jello, cake, cookie, & bread mixes, dry yeast, and sprinkles.

The easily accessible mid-level shelf holds canned foods, containers of rice (white, brown, wild/mixed), pastas, jars of spaghetti sauce, dried soup mixes, breadcrumbs, and all of the vinegars & oils.

The next one down has all of the breakfast and snack stuff... cereal, oatmeal, Bisquick, pancake mix, croutons, granola bars, rice cakes, dried fruit, crackers, chips & pretzel, marshmallows, popcorn, and peanut butter.

Then there's the booze & mixers, my margarita salt, paper plates, napkins, plastic silverware shelf (because when I'm drinking, I'm NOT doing dishes!).

[Burma Jones]

28. We have a wide pantry that's about two feet deep. We also have three Children

The Children dictate how we organize the Kitchen.

In the pantry:

Stuff the Baby (17 mos) can't open/spill, drop and hurt her foot are on the floor - things like Sparkling Water, Rice and Soy Milks, Vegetable and Chicken Stock, unopened bags of rice.

First Shelf is mostly things the older kids (10 and 7) can have without any parental involvement - Like Breakfast Cereal, Peanut Butter and Granola bars as well as small cans that wouldn't hurt the baby (a lot) if she dropped them on her foot.

As the shelves get higher, the cans get bigger and more "unhealthy" snack items appear. Also, Flour, Sugar and other staples that get used fairly often in cooking rather than out of hand eating appear at a little below my, and a little above my wife's, eye level. Finally, you get to the top shelf where we keep the Chocolate and Booze that we use in cooking, like the Stoli, Jack Daniel's, Baileys and various liquors that often end up in pancakes.....

The good booze and wines are in the Bar Room in the basement. There are three bottles of Grey Goose in the freezer upstairs.

Spices are kept in the cabinet above and to the left of the stove.

Tea and Coffee supplies are kept in the cabinet above the stove.

[hyphenate]

30. Boxes in one, cans in another

I do try to keep all baking ingredients in one area, soups in another group, pasta and mac & cheese, rice and such in another, spices together, and such. I wish I could organize my fridge, as that's a mess you won't believe.

I don't do a lot of "scratch" stuff, but I do continue to use outdated cake mixes (just add fresh baking power, and it's perfect!) until they're gone. (Called manufacturer once some time ago, and he said the cake mixes were perfectly edible, as nothing in them really is dated, but found out the the baking powder in them does fizzle and makes a flat--and I do mean flat!--and heavy cake.)

Regardless, my system works for me. Another category I have is bagged stuff, which doesn't really fit the others. This means all legumes and plain, non-boxed rice, couscous, taboule, and egg noodles and stuff. I put them into a plastic box on the shelf so that they're all together.

[flvegan]

31. I'm with your BF on the peanut butter. If tuna is in Cabinet A, so too should

peanut butter. Unless you eat the tuna right out of the can.

[lost-in-nj]

32. I put tuna cans in

the fridge....

need my tuna fish

cold


lost

[trof]

33. Alphabetically by first ingredient listed on label.

No, not really.
Miz t. likes to put the little cans of stuff (like spices) on the back of the shelf with the big cans/boxes in front.

I don't even TRY to find stuff in the kitchen any more.
If I'm gonna make something I just give her a list of the ingredients I need and let her pull 'em.
;-)

[eyesroll]

34. When it's organized:

Very top shelf I can't reach: Excess bulk purchases.
Top usable shelf: Processed crap my SO moved here, a bottle of Capri Sun blue "juice."
Middle shelf: Cereal, canned goods organized roughly by ethnicity
Bottom shelf: Pasta/sauces, Asian noodles/spring roll wrappers/dried mushrooms, ready-to-eat snacks

Drawer under toaster: Dried herbs
Drawer under microwave Dried spices (yes, these should be away from heat but there's nowhere else)

Cabinet under that, top (short) shelf: Baking powder, honey, vanilla, cocoa powder, salt, other small baking and seasoning ingredients
Cabinet under that, lower (tall) shelf: Flour, sugar, oils, vinegars, non-refrigerated sauces, rice, other large bottles/sacks

On the counter: Bread and peanut butter in the bread box, bananas on top of it. Tomatoes or little packs of potatoes, when we have them.

Hanging in a basket: Onions, garlic.

Top of fridge: Big bags of potatoes, when we have them.

It's not organized now, though.

[KitchenWitch]

35. I have a largish pantry

All of the "staple items" like rice, flour and canned goods are stored in there. One cabinet is devoted to spices, seasonings, oils, and vinegars. Another cabinet is devoted to Thai staples (curry pastes, coconut milk, etc. One cabinet stores small containers of flour sugar, baking needs, etc.