If your kitchen pantry always feels jam-packed and difficult to navigate, you’re probably overdue for a cupboard cleanout. Once you’ve gotten rid of expired canned goods and less-than-prime spices, you’ll want to think about how to keep your newly edited storage space nice and tidy. With such a variety of bags, bottles, cartons, and cans, it can be a lot to manage without help from some key organizational pieces.
To help you find the pantry organization shelves and bins for your home, we tested them side by side and evaluated each on its design, capacity, durability, ease of cleaning, and overall value. Lots of produce, snacks, soda, spices, and more were stored on counters and in pantries, fridges, cupboards, and drawers in order to to make sure the bins and shelves were truly the best.
If you’re ready to tackle a kitchen organization project, you’re in luck: We’ve rounded up the best tools for kitchen and pantry organization below, according to our tests.
If you prefer a clear plastic bin for your pantry organization project, this versatile organizer from The Spruce’s Home Organization Collection is an excellent choice. Generously sized at 14.5 by 8 inches, it can be used to hold fresh produce, packages of dry beans, juice boxes, and other pantry items in a base cabinet or deep-shelved pantry. It is also great to use in the fridge or freezer to create an additional drawer for containing loose fruit or corralling containers of yogurt and pudding.
The bin is made from durable clear plastic, allowing you to see what’s inside, and can be easily cleaned with soap and water. Testing found that it used pantry space the most efficiently when filled with bagged or loose items. We could fill it with bags of flour, sugar, chocolate chips, raisins, and other baking supplies and then set the whole bin on the counter when baking cookies. Because it is meant to be all-purpose, you can use it anywhere in your home that needs organizing—not just the kitchen.
The rigid plastic handled a heavy load of cans, and the tall sides kept all sorts of oddly shaped bundles in place. Because there’s no lid, we could fill the bin above the rim but would only recommend double-stacking flat cans. It also held a large volume of fruit, onions, potatoes, and other produce. Things with fixed shapes tended to leave dead space in the bin. It held seven standard-sized cracker boxes and ten 15-ounce cans, but another box or a couple of extra cans could fit in the same space if they were just stacked on the shelf.
These baskets are super versatile and can definitely be used in and out of the pantry—they’re gorgeous enough to keep on the counter to hold loose fruit, onions, or other produce. That said, they don’t have a non-slip grip on the bottom, so the exposed metal feet could potentially scratch a fragile surface. For that, we suggest keeping them on a wooden buffet or table. They were a little too large to fit into cupboards with the label facing out—the feet hung over the edge of the shelf—so we positioned them parallel.
These stackable wire baskets have a rustic, farmhouse feel and add a decorative touch while providing ample storage for snack-size chips, cookies, and more. We found them perfect for storing loose and bagged potatoes and kids’ snacks. The baskets are lightweight and have handles, so it was no problem to move them from the pantry shelves to the kitchen.
Made of bronze metal wire, these durable baskets will stand up well to wear and tear and can be wiped down with a damp cloth to remove any dust. The convenient handles make them easy to transport or lift, and the handles flip over to allow you to stack the baskets on top of each other. Each basket also has a label holder so you can write the contents on each bin for reference.
If you’re blessed with lots of vertical space in your pantry, these sturdy shelves will help you get more storage by creating surfaces where there previously was none. This set comes with two nesting shelves that can be stacked to create another tier, or they can be used separately wherever you need additional vertical storage.
These shelves are made from durable steel, allowing you to store cans and jars without worrying about stability. The perforated top provides a more stable surface than other shelves that are made with wire. The two-pack comes with one shelf slightly larger than the other, which allows the smaller one to fit flush under the larger one for compact storage. They have rubber grips on the legs, which provide extra stability on shelving.
During testing, we used these shelves to separate and organize dinnerware and were impressed by how they transformed the kitchen cabinets by doubling the amount of vertical storage and shelf space. The legs are very skinny, so we couldn’t use them on pantry shelving, which is metal and has gaps. However, the shelves did fit easily into the kitchen cabinets, allowing the expansion of storage space for dishes and drinkware—and the ability to organize mismatched bowls and plates. We also discovered during testing that these shelves allowed for the storage of smaller appliances—we fit a yogurt maker underneath and a small waffle iron on top.
If you have too many soup cans or spice bottles and are running out of surface space, it’s time to go vertical. Adding shelves, tiered lazy Susans, stackable bins, hanging organizers, or drawers can really help maximize the space you do have.
