Pantry Backstock

Every Organizer’s Dirty Little Secret

You bought the cute bins, you bought the lazy susans, you bought the labels, you bought the canisters and decanted to your heart's desire… and now, you're left with all the leftovers. Half-empty snack bags, extra spice jars, and various odds and ends rattle around your kitchen drawers. Where do they fit in your now-perfect pantry?

Don’t panic–there’s a hack for that.

Allow me to introduce you to every home organizer's dirty little secret: back stock. Back stock is all the doubles, extras, or leftovers you keep handy in your storage cabinet for when your daily-use canisters run low. It’s the perfect solution to keeping your most-used kitchen ingredients easily accessible and fully stocked while avoiding clutter. While organizers typically don’t show photos of their back stock storage on their perfectly-curated instagram feeds, I can assure you that every professional organizer makes use of them.

For example, say you make quinoa a couple times a week. You’re likely to have a cute container handy in your most central shelf so you can grab it while you prep dinner, but you go through so much of it that the canister often runs low. The solution? Keep a large bag of quinoa in your backstock and refill the container as needed. That way, you always have what you need but you don’t have to store multiple boxes or a giant bag of quinoa in your prime kitchen real estate. 

If you’ll be keeping your spare items in a pantry, the best way to do it is to place heavier items on the bottom shelves while lighter items are stored up top. Because you’ll only need to access your back stock once a week or every couple of weeks, they don’t need to be as easily accessible as, say, something you’d use every day or multiple times a day. Those things can go on more central shelves. 

For the bottom of the pantry I love these Elfa Mesh Drawers. They’re lightweight but have high sides that hide the backstock and give your pantry a clean and organized look.

Elfa Mesh Drawers

The Everything Organizer X-Large Multi-Purpose Bin Clear

For the top shelves of the pantry, I like to use the bins I use in the rest of the pantry and just continue them upwards. However, sometimes my clients need a larger option that will hold more and in that case I like to use the The Everything Organizer X-Large Multi-Purpose Bin.

If you don’t have a pantry and are using your kitchen cabinets to store extra supplies, you can use the same bins that you used on your lower shelves–just be sure to designate them exclusively for back stock so things don’t get messy. Don’t forget to label the bins backstock!

If you and your family are bulk-buying, Costco-loving grocery shopping aficionados and are facing a space shortage, consider using your garage or a storage room for any overflow. Having well-stocked pantries is great, but there’s nothing worse than ending up with four opened bags of the same snack. That’s why it’s important to put your extra stock away in a designated area, whether it’s your pantry, a designated kitchen shelf, or your garage / storage room.

The eye-level shelves in your pantry should be for your everyday snacking and eating needs and shouldn’t include doubles. Storing extras in a separate space will help you avoid waste and keep things well-stocked and organized.

Happy Organizing!

Xo, Chan