Can Storage Ideas & Solutions: How To Organize Canned Food

Can storage in pantries can be accomplished in lots of different ways, depending on several factors as well as your own preferences.


During the pantry organization challenge quite a number of readers dealt with this exact issue. What follows below is examples of how readers dealt with organizing and storing their canned goods.

Before looking at all the possible ideas and solutions though, make sure that you think of these things for yourself when deciding how to organize your cans:

• Size and space available in your pantry or cupboards;


• Size of the cans you typically store; and


• Quantity of canned goods you normally store.

With those things in mind check out all the possible methods there are for this task below!

In addition, make sure to check out my article with canned food shelf life, safety and storage tips to make sure you're keeping the right canned goods, and decluttering those that aren't good anymore.

Oh, and if what you see inspires you and you tackle this task please share your before and after pictures with me here of what you accomplished and I'll add them to this page!


Top photo courtesy of uberculture

Shelf Can Racks Are Gorgeous & Functional: Help With Can Rotation

by Anna
(Mocksville, NC)

Anna shared these after pictures of her pantry.

As you can see she has utilized canned good racks to organize these items. I think they look both functional and gorgeous.

There are a lot of types of can racks available that you can place on shelves (such as shown), or even some that are so large they are freestanding (not shown).

Here are some of the most popular ones available below. The really nice ones help with can rotation, following the first in first out rule, so you don't forget to use the older can before you use the newer one. That way everything is less likely to expire before you use it.

Shelf Can Racks {Referral Links}

Here's another photo from a reader, Nora, who also has a can organizer system in her pantry. She stated, "This is one of the few things I DO have and keep organized!"

Wall Mounted Can Racks In Pantry

by Jan

Jan at The Crafty Mermaid's Grotto shared this awesome can rack she's got mounted to the wall in her pantry.

She says of the before picture: "Here is a picture of the can racks with everything shoved on them willy-nilly."

She says of the after picture: "Here are the can racks all straightened up. I tossed out old items or things that the food pantry wouldn't take."

Some people may not have this much wall space in their pantry, so a similar idea that is shown on the right is to use an over the door shelving unit, which has shallow wire basket like shelves as well.

You can slip one right on your pantry door and increase your storage space dramatically.

Here are a couple of available varieties of wall and over the door storage:

Wire Racks {Referral Links}

Canned Goods In Pull Out Shelf In Cabinet

If you decide to put your canned goods in a cabinet, especially a deep one, really think about how hard it will be to retrieve some of the ones especially in the back.

If it is a low cabinet this is even more of a concern.

One way to use this space is to install a pull out basket shelf in the cabinet. Then, when you need something instead of having to reach far back into the space you pull out the whole basket, grab what you need, and then push the whole thing back inside.

It can be a real back saver, and make storing things like this more convenient in a space it might not otherwise have worked for you.

Wire Racks {Referral Links}

Photo courtesy of LizMarie_AK

Use Metal Utility Shelving For Either Store Bought Or Home Canned Goods

by Angela

Angela at Confessions of a Craft Addict shared her before and after pictures of how she organizes her home canned goods.

She said: "My canning shelves in the basement were already pretty well organized after this summer. So, I didn't do a whole lot there, just a little straightening and putting away empty mason jars."

I like how she used metal utility shelves in the basement for this purpose. I have found these are very sturdy and a good value.

They don't look "beautiful" for main rooms of your home, but are great for garages, basements, and other utility type rooms!

Helpful hint though - before adding lots of heavy things to a shelf, especially breakable stuff such as Mason Jars, make sure the shelving unit you've purchased is sturdy enough to hold that much weight, so you don't break the shelves and ruin the contents. Ask me how I know! :)

Utility Shelves {Referral Links}

Lazy Susans For Canned Good Storage

If you don't have many cans, but you find it hard to find what you need one possibility is to place them on lazy susans in either your cabinets or pantry.

This allows you to turn the rotator and find what you need without having to shift all the cans around.

Of course, not many cans will fit on each one so this is only a good system if you don't eat a lot of this type of food in your home.

I suggest using one or more of these that are as large as possible but will still fit on your shelves. Therefore, this idea works best if you've got relatively deep shelves, so you can get a big enough turntable.

Lazy Susans {Referral Links}

Photo courtesy of Rubbermaid Products

Mounted Shallow Can Shelves Can Be Great In A Pantry

by Susan

Susan at Camp Slinkard shared the picture of her narrow can shelves.

Many times deep shelves can be helpful, but for cans that can make it a lot easier to "lose" some of them in the back, to be completely forgotten until they've expired.

So, for this common food items shallow shelves can be much more helpful. Yes, you can only place items one can deep on them, but everything is displayed that way.

Plus, deep shelves take up a lot more space than these narrow ones do.

***Update: An HSS101 Reader said: "Great idea. The wall behind the door in the kitchen/laundry room is wasted space . . . but not if you put shelves between the studs.

A sliding door over the shelves cleans up the space, but I like seeing the jars of home canned goods so I don't cover it up." ***End Update

Use A Corner Cabinet Lazy Susan

by Crystal

Crystal from Crystal's Ramblings keeps hers in a lazy susan corner cabinet.

Sometimes people struggle with what to put in this kind of strangely shaped storage area, and this can be the perfect idea.

It is hidden most of the time, but it is easy to access the cans when you need them just by rotating the cabinet open.

This will only work though if you don't have too many cans. It can easily get too crowded if you're not careful.

***Update: I also got this word of caution about this method from a reader, which you should definitely keep in mind! Cans do weight a lot, of course. She says:

"My lazy susan cupboard is made with a plastic shelf. It is not made to handle the weight from can goods. Please don't put so much weight on the shelf that eventually it will break where it attaches to the pole in the center of your shelf. (Ask me how I know this). :0(" ***End Update

Tiered Stair Stepper Platform For Cans On Pantry Shelves

by Tricia

Tricia shared before and after pictures of her pantry after taking Week #3's Challenge.

One of the things she added was a tiered stair stepper platform for her canned goods. You can see it on the right "after" picture.

These can help you see all of your canned foods more easily, especially the stuff in the back where it can be hard to see the labels otherwise.

This wouldn't necessarily be a great idea if you've got lots and lots of cans, but if you just have a few this can be quite useful and effective.

Tiered Shelves {Referral Links}

Added Low Shelving On Pantry Floor For More Storage Space

by Lizzy

Lizzy says:

I needed more room for canned goods, etc. in my pantry so I took a shelf (that was meant to hold shoes) and if you look close you can see the shelves on the floor.

They are only about 27" wide but were just perfect to fit in the space and leave a little room on the side to store garbage bags and a large bag of dog food.

Taylor says:

Great idea Lizzy! Some shoe shelves might not be tall enough to accommodate cans, but it obviously worked well for you.

A similar idea are extender shelves that instead of placing on a shelf, you could place on the floor. Here are a couple of examples:

Shelf Extenders {Referral Links}

Group Like Items Together On Shelves Of Pantry Or Cupboard

by Jennifer

Jennifer at Life of Reilly shared how she organized hers in her cupboard.

The key to her organization was to sort like items together, making it easier for her to find what she needed.

She explained this was her method: "Second shelf: canned goods, sorted into rows from left to right: vegetables, soups, gravy and other misc cans, fruits, and tomatoes."

That way if she needed tomatoes, for example, she could look to the far right and see what she had available, without having to look at each can on the whole shelf!

Have You Gotten Inspired To Get Organized Now?

I hope that seeing all these different ways to organize and store your canned food has gotten your own creativity going, so you can tackle this area of your own home.

If you do this task, I'd love to see how you choose to do it. You can share your pictures and organizational accomplishments here and I'll add them to the page.

Further, I encourage you to join the 52 Week Organized Home Challenge where we slowly, over the course of the year, organize your entire home room by room, item by item.

Some links on this page are affiliate links, meaning that if you purchase a product through them I receive a small commission which helps me provide this information to you for free, plus support my family. My integrity and your satisfaction are very important to me so I only recommend products I would purchase myself, and that I believe would benefit you. To learn more please see my disclosure statement.

Related Pages You May Enjoy

Getting Clutter Free 15 Minutes At A Time Hall Of Fame

Go From Can Storage Ideas & Solutions To Home Page