The Remedy

Rosenberg usually frets over too many cooks in the kitchen, but she knew she needed an extra hand in the pantry. Below, the five-step plan.

Sort it. The basic organizing structure — the shelves and the door unit—was in place, so the revamp centered on using it efficiently. The first step was to pull everything out and sort it into categories, such as spices, bottled ingredients, and cleaning supplies.

Prioritize it. Next, items were reshelved in zones based on how often they are used. Anything taken out mostly for holidays, like an oversize lazy Susan, is tucked away on the uppermost shelf (not visible in photo) — which Rosenberg can reach now, thanks to a new folding step stool. Other cookware, such as baking pans and serving bowls, is stored on the next two shelves. The bottom three shelves keep essential foodstuffs, like flour and sugar, front and center.

Contain it. Rosenberg, who says she never considered using actual storage containers, would stash odds and ends in empty mixing bowls. Now bins and baskets in neutral colors that don’t clash with the pantry’s contents group like items together and prevent small ones from getting lost. The door unit’s old baskets didn’t take full advantage of the pantry’s depth; new ones, three inches deeper, keep even the fattest cans of tomatoes in sight.

Stand it up. Removing things from the top of her stack of bakeware to get at a pan on the bottom “was like a vaudeville juggling act,” Rosenberg says. Vertical racks now let her slide individual pans on and off the shelf like books.

Light it up. The dining nook’s overhead fixture left the pantry’s corners and top shelves in darkness. With two new battery-operated lights on the pantry walls, there’s always enough illumination for Rosenberg to distinguish the cardamom from the cumin.

The Ideas

Door Organizer: Extra-wide wire baskets on the back of the door keep canned and bottled goods together in one place.

Bakeware Racks: Each pan and muffin tin slides into its own slot on a chrome-coated storage rack.

Drawers: Stackable, labeled plastic drawers keep things like loose tea bags and soup mixes from getting scattered.

Clear Jars: Bulky boxed goods, such as breakfast cereal, take up less space, look more uniform, and stay fresher in airtight see-through containers.

Baskets and Crates: Topless containers keep often-used items, such as spice jars, visible and ready for the cook to grab. Handles make woven baskets easy to slide forward or lift off the shelves.

Rolling Bins: Cleaning supplies and paper goods remain accessible without taking up valuable shelf space when consigned to the floor in tubs on wheels.

Out with the old and in with the new: Cleaning up a closet requires some serious purging, but it also means adding a few things — namely, organizing tools and hardworking storage accessories. For details on six of the products used in the Kupers' closet, see 6 Pantry Organizing Tools.