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Check out these smart solutions, including bulk food storage containers, stackable shelves, and over-the-door storage solutions. Wooden Utensil Set
Maddy Sweitzer-Lammé is a passionate and voraciously hungry home cook and eater. She's been writing about food in all its forms since 2014 and is a big believer that anyone can and should love to cook.
To find the best pantry organizers, we turned to an expert for some advice. As the founder and CEO of the spice company Diaspora Co., Sana Javeri Kadri is a lover of pantry products and is committed to a beautiful and functional kitchen. Her home is short on storage, and the creative solutions she uses to keep her kitchen organized apply to all kinds of home cooks.
“I bulk shop for a lot of my favorite things,” Kadri explains. “I see bulk shopping as a way to support great companies and get a better deal on some of the things that I eat all the time like rice and olive oil. But that also means I have to get creative about organizing and storing.”
Her approach relies on the simple strategy of keeping her most-used items right next to her stove, with items of lesser importance and less frequent use tucked further away. For items like spices that she uses daily, Kadri says she doesn’t bother to decant them into containers. For big-ticket things like rice, pasta, and flour, she prefers to store them in airtight food storage containers that keep them fresh longer and prevent wasted space.
With Kadri's advice plus our experience with testing a wide range of kitchen storage solutions, we’ve rounded up the best pantry organizers to use at home. Read on for all of our favorite options.
A turntable is an essential tool to avoid losing things in the jumble of a cabinet. Use it to organize sauces, jars of spices, or even canned goods. Kadri says she keeps one next to her stove for easy access to her most-used oils and vinegar. This stainless steel one is easy to clean, can hold 25 pounds, doesn't slide around, and has a smart ball bearing mechanism that makes it turn smoothly.
One of the ways that Kadri makes the most of her limited storage is by taking advantage of vertical space. These shelves allow you to do just that and can even stack on top of each other for particularly tall spaces. Use them as an alternative storage option for canned goods and soda, or combine them with bins to create super-organized DIY shelving units based on your pantry size.
The back of the door is a great spot to store items you reach for often. Flexible fabric pockets are a common tool for this storage style, but they’re difficult to clean, and the pockets are often too small to store many household items. This over-the-door shelving system is sturdy, easy to wipe clean, and can accommodate anything from snacks to cleaning products.
This pantry organizer has six sturdy shelves to store dry goods, cans, or even dish towels and linens. The entire unit extends up to 63.2 inches in height to fit your exact door size.
Large bins help corral food and other items all over your home, but especially in kitchen and pantry storage. These larger plastic bins are excellent pantry organizers, great for holding boxes of pasta, tins of fish, and opened snack bags. If you notice that smaller items are getting lost in the back of your pantry, bins are a helpful tool.
We like these bins because their clear plastic walls make it easy to see what is inside, and they keep the inevitable crumbs and spills under control. They’re easy to hand wash and are dishwasher safe. They can also be used for refrigerator or bathroom organization if you need to focus on organizing other rooms in your home.
Although glass food storage containers work great for leftovers, they're also a compact solution for storing dried fruits, nuts, and snacks in your pantry. Razab’s extra-large glass food storage containers are durable, spacious, and easy to clean. The three sizes are appropriate for family-sized leftovers or cleaned and prepped ingredients, while the lids snap firmly for a watertight seal. These glass containers are fully microwave- and oven-safe, so you can prep food and store it in the same container.
During testing, we liked that these glass food storage containers are stackable and nesting without lids and that they’re large enough for family-sized meals or potluck dishes. We noted that the sleek glass design makes these containers nice enough for serving, which is a bonus.
For storing dried goods like flour, rice, sugar, and more, Cambro’s quart containers are affordable and durable. The container set includes a lid, and this 1-quart size is good for everything from letting dough rise to storing decanted flour and other pantry essentials.
In testing, we found that these containers were great for storing onions and potatoes, bulk leftovers like chopped fruit or cooked grains, and even a sourdough starter. We liked that the containers stack when not in use, and we noted that the markers on the sides of the containers are handy and easy to read.
If you have a lot of unused space underneath high shelves or in your refrigerator, under-shelf storage can give you a lot of extra storage with minimal installation required. These simple metal shelves have one-inch brackets that slide onto cabinet or refrigerator shelves. Tough-to-store things like plastic bags, pot lids, or even small cans of tuna or tomato paste can be stored easily on these shelves.
If cans are the bane of your existence, opt for a can rack that offers buildable storage with easy access. This rack holds 36 cans at an angle, so the cans slide forward as you use them. The stainless steel body is strong and easy to wipe down. We also like that this rack can be stacked for extra storage. This rack fits in a cabinet or walk-in pantry, but can also be used for floor storage or in a garage.
These clear plastic bins are divided into compartments to keep your pantry super organized. If you use lots of smaller items, like tinned fish, soup packets, or seasoning packets, these bins are great for displaying those items for easy access. They’re also good for individual snack bags and pouches that kids can grab on their own.
They’re also stackable which allows you to take advantage of vertical space that can often be lost in a pantry or cabinet. The plastic is easy to clean by hand but is not dishwasher safe.
If your food storage needs are more focused on single-serving leftovers and meal prepping, Rubbermaid’s 10-piece set might be a better fit. The two sizes of containers are meant to hold single portions of leftovers. These containers are made of BPA-free plastic that is designed to be as clear as glass and highly stain-resistant.
When we tested these food storage containers, we liked that these containers were stackable both with and without lids, making the space efficient in the refrigerator and pantry. We noted that the various sizes can be difficult to store, but others liked having different options. We also noted that the lids snap into one another, which makes them easier to keep track of and less likely to go missing in a pantry.
Wooden Utensil Holder Rubbermaid’s commercial bins are great for bulk shopping, one of Kadri’s biggest pantry hacks. These bins are space-efficient and tightly sealed to keep things fresh for items like rice, flour, pasta, and other dry goods that you might buy in large quantities. When not in use, these containers easily stack inside each other so they don’t take up precious storage space. We like the markings on the sides of the containers to indicate quantity. Note that lids are sold separately.