The stress-free pantry & fridge

How do you ensure you can prepare meals in a stress-free and organised environment? By having an organised fridge and pantry! This will make accessing everything so much easier, which is important if you are time-poor and/or managing a newborn.

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Now don’t panic and think that you need a bigger kitchen or house all of a sudden, it’s really quite simple if you keep it organised. It is also important to know that the baby and toddler stage won’t last forever, and before you know it the bottles and feeding equipment will be all but gone.

While you are going through the weaning and introducing solids stage, it’s a good idea to dedicate a drawer to bottles and weaning items, storage containers etc. That way, you aren’t trying to fit them in wherever you can, making it difficult to find your other household items.

Also, try not to purchase every single bottle, spoon and fork on the market – keep it simple. And if something doesn’t work for your child, don’t hang on to it unnecessarily, as you will just end up with a drawer full of items you don’t use.

The Pantry

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With the pantry, you’ll need to start off a little section for the baby snacks and food, so again, you can just get a roller drawer or a clear plastic container with a handle, so that it is easy to access. This is where labelling is important as well.

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The Fridge

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A great option for keeping your fridge organised is something called Fridge Bins. These are essentially a clear, perspex bin to keep all of your baby food in one place. Labelling is again important here, so label it with “Baby food”, “Cut baby veg” or whatever you will be keeping in here. You can use baskets in the freezer too, along with dividers if you have a bottom drawer freezer.

The most important thing with all of this, it to keep the fridge, freezer and pantry clutter-free and with a dedicated home for all the things you will need throughout the baby and toddler stage. It’s a good idea to do a clean-out every three months as well. It is within the first three months that you have optimal quality and nutrient retention, so make sure you use a permanent marker to write dates on those little tubs filled with baby food.

After three months, you can go back and throw out any leftovers and start again. You may have whipped up that beautiful batch of Apricot Bolognese, but if your children don’t like it and the rest is just left sitting there (in the hope they will change their food preferences) but after 3 months – it has to go.

You should also set up a place for cleaning cloths. We don’t know if you are going to have a messy eater or clean eater but either way, you will need; face cloths, wipes or antibacterial sanitisers on hand. Like with anything – make sure it’s labelled.

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