One Of The Best Pantry Upgrades You Can Make Is Also One Of The Cheapest

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Keeping your kitchen stocked with pantry essentials, from canned meats to cereal grains, is vital for maintaining a cost-effective and efficient home cooking operation. It also presents a tricky organizational puzzle, especially if you're storing food for the whole family in tight spaces. Learning how to optimize pantry storage space and avoid common mistakes takes some trial and error, but an easy, inexpensive, and life-changing trick to help you get there involves making just one simple change: adding light.

Usually, the problem with pantry space comes down to clutter and disorganization. Unless you take a thorough inventory of your pantry before every shop, you can end up purchasing items you already have, creating a vicious cycle of food waste and storage chaos as older items get pushed to the back. Luckily, it's easy to combat the dark void that seems to swallow up your pantry goods just by illuminating it. You can opt to add cheap, battery-powered, easily attachable fixtures like puck lights, or install lights that connect to a power source and come with cool features, like an automatic switch. Either way, the effect will dramatically improve the functionality of your pantry spaces, especially those with extra-deep shelving, and keep you from losing those pesky pantry staples you could swear were there yesterday.

Before you start installing lights willy-nilly, consider what will best suit your space and your needs. Every kitchen's storage spaces look a little different; some might have large, walk-in pantries, while those of us with smaller kitchens or kitchenettes may only have a few cabinets to work with. Whether you're looking to illuminate these smaller kitchen storage spaces on a budget, or simply want to avoid the hassle of complex installations, purchasing battery-powered puck lights will be your best bet. These Amazon Basics LED Puck Lights can be installed using screws or double-sided tape, which means that adding extra illumination to your cabinets, pantry, or closet could be as simple as sticking one of these bad boys on the top panel and pressing to turn it on.

Another option, especially for homeowners or long-term renters, is to install LED light strips or other, more permanent types of light fixtures. These Pandery's COB LED Strip Lights come with adhesive for easy wall or shelf application, and though they do need to be plugged in, they are controlled via a remote which allows for lots of different settings (in case you want your canned goods to look particularly dreamy with warm lighting). Some crafty home dwellers choose to install lighting with automatic switches or motion sensors in their pantries or cabinets, like the DiDiSky LED Motion Sensor Lights, so that they don't even have to think about turning the lights on. Whatever your needs and budget dictate, additional pantry illumination is an investment you won't regret.