How to Organize Healthy Food in Your Pantry and Refrigerator

If you’re looking for ways to organize the snacks in your pantry and refrigerator, you’ve come to the right place. It can be tough to keep your snacks organized, especially when they are all different shapes and sizes. But it will help you keep track of what’s being eaten so you know to buy more, and the snacks that don’t get touched (so you don’t have to waste your money on them in the future).

It also helps your kids know exactly where everything is so they know just where to go to grab the snack they want.

When it comes to snacking, you might not want your family (or yourself) eating super sugary snacks all the time. While there’s definitely a time for sweets or less-healthy snacks, it’s a great idea to encourage your family to snack on more filling and balanced foods.

In this post, we will give you ideas on how to create an organized pantry and fridge that will make it easy to encourage healthy eating habits at an early age!

Snack Organization

When it comes to organizing snacks in your refrigerator or pantry, there are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind.

First, it’s important to have a variety of snacks that are both healthy and tasty. This way, no one gets bored with their options and everyone can find something they like. Eating sugary snacks, chips, and candy every so often isn’t a bad thing when you’re also snacking on fruits, veggies, granola bars, trail mix, and snacks full of protein and other nutrients.

Second, you’ll want to make sure the snacks are easy to grab and go. This means that if you’re wanting even your younger kids to be able to grab their own snack, you need to keep them within their reach! Here are a few tips to help you with snack organization.

Use clear bins.

One thing I love to do when I organize snacks is to use clear plastic bins. When you use clear containers, you can easily see what snacks are available.

If you have kids who are old enough to read, you can even label the bins with pictures or words so they can easily find what they’re looking for. But using clear containers or baskets means that even kids who can’t read will be able to easily see what snack they want.

Take your snack out of the bag.

I like doing this because, while you can keep the snack in the big bag or box it comes in, I think snack storage looks a lot more organized and uniform when you are using the same containers in your pantry and just filling them with different items.

This also helps prevent the mess that can occur when you’re trying to keep your pantry organized while using containers, boxes, and bags of different sizes.

If you’re putting items like crackers or granola bars in a deep drawer, keeping them in plastic containers will help prevent your kids’ snacks from getting crushed or broken while sitting in snack storage.

Organizing Healthy Snacks in Your Fridge and Pantry

Now that we’ve covered some basic snack organization ideas, here are some tips for organizing specific snacks to hopefully encourage your kids to eat healthier kids’ snacks.

Keep healthy snacks at eye level.

One way to encourage your kids to eat healthy snacks is to keep the healthier snacks on the bottom shelf of your pantry or refrigerator. That way, when they go to get a snack, the first thing they will see is the healthier option!

This doesn’t mean you have to keep unhealthy options hidden, just allow the more filling and nutritious options to be at the forefront.

Prep your fruits and veggies.

When you get back from the store, I’d suggest prepping any fruit or vegetables you bought. So, before you store snacks and just throw them in the fridge or pantry door, make sure you wash them off, cut off any stems or inedible parts, and then put them away.

If your kids are anything like mine, they are more likely to choose a snack option that is ready to go. So if your fruits and vegetables are ready to be eaten right out of the fridge, they are more likely to be chosen than if they still needed to be washed and cut.

Rotate through snacks.

If your kid is likely to get sick of the same snack over and over again, offer some variety! After a month or two of cheese sticks, consider a different food. It could even still be cheese but maybe try a different type. Or try nuts or find healthy crackers that are high in fiber.

This should help prevent your family from getting burnt out on a certain taste or food.

A few final tips…

When creating any organized space in your house – especially one that gets as much use as your fridge or pantry, you want it to work for your family and life.

Buy food you will eat.

Be realistic about the type of snack you will eat. Find healthy options that you and your kids will enjoy. Don’t get something just because you think you should. It will only clutter your shelf and go bad.

Have a variety.

Having some “less-healthy” options isn’t a bad thing. Keep some sweets (or salty options if that’s the taste you prefer!) handy and encourage enjoying a variety of foods when snacking!

Organizing for a Snacking Home

Hopefully, these snack organization ideas have helped you think of ways to organize your fridge and pantry shelf in a way that encourages a balanced, healthy lifestyle for your entire family!