The Affordable Item Used In Martha Stewart's Household For A Cleaner Pantry

As the seasons turn, so do our priorities and areas of focus when it comes to our homes. While summer brings us out and into the garden, winter and early spring draw us indoors and often elicit the itch to get clean and organized. Celebrities are governed by the seasons, too, including Martha Stewart, who carries out spring cleaning at Skylands — her estate in Maine. In a blog post, Stewart reveals the household item she and her staff use while spring cleaning in her butler's pantry to minimize dust — freezer paper.

Martha Stewart has long been known for offering tips on keeping our households clean and tidy, like replacing everyday kitchen essentials on a weekly basis. In her blog post detailing her pantry cleaning project, she explains the process her team takes to line the shelves with freezer paper, protecting them from dust and spillages. They remove the items from the shelves (in this case, china dishes) and dust the shelves thoroughly. Stewart's assistant rolls the freezer paper out on the counter and measures and cuts pieces to the length of each shelf. She notes that her assistant holds the freezer paper down with natural rocks to prevent it from moving while measuring and marking. Finally, they line each shelf with the cut freezer paper and place the china back (after washing each piece, of course).

Not everyone resides in Martha Stewart's style of historic home that's traditionally equipped with a butler's pantry, although they're appearing in more and more modern renovations. What's more common in homes is the traditional walk-in pantry, which is smaller — less of a staging area and more of a storage space. While the two have different setups and serve slightly different functions, they can both benefit from Stewart's tip of lining the shelves with freezer paper. This budget-friendly staple is something most people will already have in their homes, making it an easily accessible hack. It works well as a protective layer for your shelves, but the wax or polyethylene coating on freezer paper also makes it easy to keep clean. Dust is less likely to settle on this shiny surface compared with regular paper, and any dirt or dust that does find its way onto the freezer paper can be easily wiped away.

In addition to the freezer paper hack, the best trick for organizing a pantry of any type is to store ingredients in an organized fashion. Arrange things like canned goods, soups, and sauces by expiration date, with the soon-to-expire ingredients front and center. When it comes to dried goods like flour, cereal, pasta, and rice, airtight clear plastic containers or glass mason jars are the way to go for keeping things fresh for longer. If you're looking for a fun way to get started by clearing up some space, we recommend taking the pantry challenge.