This Hack Will Help You Clean Your Pantry In Half The Time

Pantries are an efficient storage space for all kinds of food items and other kitchen wares. As a result, it's likely that in addition to your organizational efforts, your pantry has built up a thick layer of loose pasta, bread crumbs, and all manner of other stragglers from routine cooking and storage tasks in the kitchen. Through the process of removing or replacing items in the pantry, it's only natural that things will fall out of their containers and scatter across your shelving sections.

Unless you routinely deep clean your pantry (which Pro Housekeepers notes you should do every month), it's likely that you won't notice this build-up until it's become a serious issue. Of course, you should clean your pantry on a regular basis so that this doesn't happen; however, life can easily get in the way of these more in-depth cleaning tasks.

Because the pantry is often lower down on the list of priorities when it comes to cleaning your home, or your kitchen more specifically, the value of a time-saving hack is even more apparent in this space. With this approach to cleaning your pantry, you can dramatically reduce the time it takes to take everything out, clean the shelves, and then replace all of your pantry items and move on to other chores or even relaxation time.

The vacuum cleaner does essentially the same job as the process of wiping away dirt and debris and then clearing any remnants with the whisk broom off the floor. This hack revolves around the use of your vacuum cleaner to speed along the process of removing any sort of buildup that may be present throughout your pantry.

Instead of wiping your pantry shelves with a cloth or sponge and trying to catch any debris that falls off the end with your hand, simply using your vacuum's mobile attachments to place the suction equipment directly in contact with the pantry shelves will remove this debris much faster and with incredible efficiency. Instead of having a secondary space to clean up once some of this junk inevitably hit the floor, using your vacuum clears away the entire volume of build-up (and much more that may be lurking in this and other spaces) without incident.

Of course, if you don't have a versatile vacuum cleaner that can perform this function, you might want to think about upgrading your existing vacuum or adding a secondary, smaller vacuum that can accomplish these types of tasks. The modern vacuum cleaner is no longer a cumbersome piece of equipment that must be plugged into the wall and heaved around the room (like olden models, according to the British Science Museum). If yours still performs in this manner, it may be time for an upgrade regardless of the cleanliness level that you experience at home.

This hack is part of a larger mindset. Instead of wiping your pantry shelves first, vacuuming them will clear away debris and give you a clear surface to scrub down. Breaking this task into two sections might sound counterintuitive, but what you're really doing is removing the existing second phase of the cleaning task that requires you to bend down to the ground. Similarly, when debris falls on the floor from your pantry it will often scatter across the floor. This makes the secondary task of finishing the pantry cleaning a much larger job than it really has to be.

Vacuuming falls into the same category of cleaning tasks such as sweeping before mopping a tile floor, which is something you should always do, according to O-Cedar. Providing yourself with this blank slate will allow you to quickly and easily cleanse the area with vinegar, dish soap, or any other cleaning solution that you rely on. Then, all that's left to do is replace the items that belong in the pantry and your work is complete.

It's also worth remembering that within this mantra of working smarter, you should work from top to bottom rather than the other way around. In the event that you do knock debris off the shelf, if you start from the top, there's a better chance that you will simply move any stragglers down to a lower level that you haven't yet cleaned.