Room by Room: The Pantry

The Proverbs 31 woman is a woman with a team of servants and handmaids. Don’t allow yourself to think this means she’s more capable of handling a home than you are because she had this kind of help. That often turns into a lack of striving. Sure, I could be wise if I just had a bunch of helpers. You do have a bunch of helpers, they’re just machines instead of people. The Pantry is the handmaid of the Kitchen.

For many of us, the pantry is part of the kitchen, or just off to the side. For others, it’s a 2 or 3 part-er with each part being things used less often as we move further away from the kitchen. How we manage this handmaid will directly affect how we manage food and hard times.

Function: A pantry is a storage place set aside specifically to keep food staples and backstock available and organized for ease of use, aid in preparation, and hard times. As the Queen, CEO, and Manager of the Home, the housekeeper (man, I love that word: housekeeper), your pantry should be well managed and well stocked so that it is easy to use. This is for your sake as well as others. Attitude is everything. Don’t make the job harder by refusing to get better at food management because you’re having a rebellious heart towards being the one God uses to provide food for many souls, including yours.

·        Ease of Use: Lists of what to stock in a pantry are a helpful starting point for new HearthKeepers, but we should learn what exactly needs to go in our pantries and how to wisely manage it. Many of our pantries store prepared foods and bigger tools. We want to know what these are, how often we reach for them, and how easy they are to reach for. If we regularly use a mixer but have to dismantle the pantry to get to it that’s not an ease-of-use environment. If our kids can’t get to the things they can do and our husbands can’t get to what they need or want, we need to rethink how our pantries are set up. Don’t be afraid to test things and set up “between” stages before purchasing a higher-dollar item. You can upgrade in stages. Baskets this month. Trays next month. A new tool the month after that. Part of the backstock this month, part next month. It doesn’t have to be ideal today. We just simply need to keep working at making our pantries easy to use.

Personal example: I set up a system of “in use” and “next use.” When the “in-use” item runs out, I move up the “next use” and put that item on the shopping list. Thus I’m restocking my backup instead of running out of something I need regularly. I try to always have on hand the currently being used olive oil, and the backup. I shop the backup first and then buy a replacement backup, not a replacement “in use.” This only works if you’re aware of what your family uses. It can also be two of each or even three depending on your space and income.

·        Aid in Preparation: One of our pantry's biggest jobs is to aid in preparation. We have to prepare food multiple times a day. Our pantries help us stay somewhat sane in this process by storing both tools and food. Without our hardworking handmaid, we’d have to find other ways to store these items. However we manage our pantries, we should aim to be consistent and organized so our daily kitchen dance can keep flowing. Note any hiccups. Adjust so that they aren’t a problem again. If we consistently have to stop in the middle of cooking to run out and buy something, that’s not utilizing our pantries, or letting them help us. We must pay attention and allow this room to serve us so that we can better serve our families.

·        Hard times: Hard times aren’t always financial. They can also be busy days, times of grief, or tending to unexpected events or people. A well-developed, well-stocked pantry allows us to maintain our family’s nourishment when things are unexpected. They also give us some wiggle room to help others at a moment’s notice. If our pantries are bare due to our mismanagement, bad attitude, or lack of foresight, we’re not just hurting ourselves, but the reputation of our husbands and potentially our children and our friends. We’re also creating chaos instead of peace in our homes. Invest some real time into the management of your pantry. Take this job as seriously as or even more than you would an outside-the-home management position. Study, test, and invest. Our pantries are our handmaids. Treat her with respect and she’ll be all in on helping us manage our homes well.

Beauty: No place in our homes gets a pass on being beautiful. Every space should be handled with respect and be clean and orderly. (Remember grace. We fail but we keep striving.)

·        Order: The biggest way to make a pantry beautiful is order. Put like with like in an organized manner. Decanting into matching containers, controlling things with baskets and trays, and knowing our flows are all important ways we keep our pantries beautiful. I’m not good at maintaining order. I’m pretty good at setting it up, but then I get rushed, fatigued, or interrupted, and suddenly I’m just shoving things behind cabinet doors. This is part of not over-committing. When we don’t over-commit we have or should have time to keep things orderly.

Side Note: People are always more important than things, but they can become a form of avoidance and laziness. We must be good stewards of what God has given us, so don’t over-commit in or out of the home. That only breeds chaos.

·        Clean: Just like with the other rooms, cleanliness is vital to beauty. Dirt and grime become heavy burdens on our subconscious. Wipe up spills and crumbs. Wipe down jars and clean up sticky fingerprints. We do this to the best of our absolute ability. Clean is the first step to beauty. We’ve all heard “you can only clean so much.” Let me know when you find something in a busy home that doesn’t need more TLC. I’ll sit here and wait.

·        Fun: Nothing is stopping us from having fun with our pantries. Paint them, add lighting, and hang some art. Buy the pretty containers. Use fun hooks and trays. Think beyond the basics to really fun designs. Be it a humble cabinet or an entire closet off the kitchen, our pantries should be places we like. Don’t feel like this all has to be done at once. We may be only able to do one new decanting jar a month. However we can afford it, let’s make our pantries fun.

We have both the privilege and responsibility of housekeeping placed squarely on our shoulders by our Good God. He must have given all of us women the skills, intelligence, and ability to do the job of keeping the hearth and home. Let’s strive to be good stewards of our pantries. Let’s strive to watch our flows, our backstocks, and our decorating so that we bring order and wonder to the little corners of our worlds. This is no small task. It’s not belittling. It is a challenge and a delight. Order and wonder, Hearthkeepers, order and wonder in all places.