Scroll through Instagram for a couple of minutes and you’ll come across a reel of someone pouring pasta into a beautiful jar. It feels like it’s a hot trend for people with lots of time and enormous pantries, but is there any real substance behind decanting and should you be doing it in your kitchen?
Short answer….yes!
We’ve seen our fair share of kitchens and, no matter how large, decanting can be the functional magic trick you need to create more space, to keep food fresh for longer, and to help you keep track of what you have in your cupboards. It’s the perfect mix of form and function!
Keep reading to find out how decanting ingredients in your kitchen can transform your kitchen into a well-oiled machine that makes cooking, tidying and shopping-list-writing simple.
Maximise your space
One of the key reasons to decant ingredients in your kitchen is to create more space. Stacking packets of pasta or flour on top of each other is a wobbly jenga-like challenge, that’s at risk of collapse at a moment’s notice. Removing the bulky packaging and mis-matched shapes of packets and boxes, and replacing them with the right jars saves a ton of space, and instantly looks neater, calmer and less cluttered.
Find what you’re looking for
Decanting into clear glass or plastic containers means you can see all of your ingredients. No fuss, no digging around with look-alike packets – everything is right there in front of you. Pop a label onto the container and you’re set!
Reduce your shopping bill
Not only does decanting mean you can easily find what you’re looking for, but you can see exactly how much you have. This is the number one goal for an organised kitchen. If you can easily see how much you have of something you reduce the risk of overbuying and of your cupboards becoming overly full of things you’re not using. Hands up if you have ever had 2 (or 3!) open packets of the same thing because you couldn’t find what you needed so opened a new one?! Not only does that take up more space than you need to, but there’s every chance you’ll end up with at least one of those open packets going out of date before you use them up.
Keep things fresh
A good container with an airtight seal will keep your food fresher than if it’s sitting in an open packet. This isn’t a problem if it’s something you’re using really regularly, but less used flours, sugars grains can become stale or worse, attract bugs!
Keep things tidy
We’ve all had a bag of flour or pasta that’s split when it was opened. Need I say more?!
Hopefully you’re a convert to the idea of decanting by now, but if you’re ready to make the switch which containers should you choose?
By choosing the right jars, you can use the full height of your cupboards and create more available space. If you have a large pantry, there are lots of options available for you and you can choose something based on your style. If space in your pantry or pantry cupboards is less abundant, functionality needs to come first. Square-based options are most efficient in terms of space, and ones that can be stacked are ideal.
Make sure you choose something with a deep lip on the lid so the stack is really secure and there’s no risk of things being knocked over or tumbling out. Choose see through options so you can easily find what you need without relying only on labels, and make sure the seal is airtight to keep your food fresh.
If you’re worried about ditching the packaging for your ingredients and loosing the cooking instructions or expiry dates, just cut them out from the original packaging and either put them in the jar too, or stick them on the outside. Or grab a chalk pen and scribble a quick note of the expiry and cooking times on the bottom of the jar.
Yes, it takes a couple of minutes more than just unpacking the shopping directly into the cupboards, but if you’re struggling to keep your kitchen organised, the benefits of decanting make it time well spent!
