Pantry Inventory

I decided to take inventory of the pantry. I wanted a system where people can know what we have and be able to find it themselves, instead of shouting, "Does anybody know if we have more ketchup?" or "Can someone please help me find the cocoa?" . So I decided to take inventory and list the items along with pictures for people who haven't a clue what it looks like.

Our first step was organizing and cleaning out the pantry. Do this with a piece of paper and a pen. Take your paper and divide it into columns. My pantry has four shelves, so I had four columns. Make sure your columns are labeled with each shelf number. 

Anything that you will be placing back in the pantry gets written down under the correct shelf and with the quantity. 

Once you have your list, open an excel document on your computer and list your items skipping a few rows between each item. (I did one page with the first 2 shelves and the next page with the last 2 shelves.)

Find pictures from Google images that match the foods in your pantry. Save these images in a folder on your computer. Next to each food name, insert the picture that matches. If you have more than one of the item, put that many pictures. 

For example: If you have 3 Droste Cocoas on Shelf 4, it would look like this.

Shelf 4

3 Droste Cocoa    

You can resize the pictures to fit on your page. The quantity number is optional. 

*It's okay if not every item has a picture.

Once you finish, check that nothing is cut off in print preview. You may need to print out more than one page. Now even your little one can find something in the pantry. 

Now let's say you finished up one of your Droste Cocoa, just make an x over it and if you decided to change the quantity, just update it. 

Now, just tape it inside your pantry door.

You can use this same idea, but print out the food items as stickers or as my wonderful editor suggested make a velcro one, every time you finish one take it down, and when you restock put it back up.

I hope this has helped you.

What organization systems do you use (for any area in your house)?