Athletes: How To Spring Clean Your Pantry

Time to spring clean your pantry and get it ready for your endurance training and race season with these tips!

Meeting your performance nutrition goals as an athlete is more difficult if you don’t have the right foods on-hand, ready to go.

Spring brings along the perfect opportunity to go through your pantry, organize your non-perishable items, and set yourself up for success. 

Get your notepad ready and let’s get into it!

Step 1: Take Inventory + Clean Out The Old

As the first step to your pantry spring cleaning, go through what you currently have on-hand. Donate anything that you don’t plan on actually using. With most items that are past their best-by date, they are still safe to use, they just are not at their peak in quality.

Don’t forget about spices, sauces, baking items, etc. These often get overlooked and dusty in the back of our pantries! 

As you go through, create an inventory list of the items you throw away that you will need to repurchase. 

Step 2: Categorize Your Needs

Now that you’ve tossed the old stuff out, it is time to categorize your needs to figure out what you have left to buy and restock in that pantry.

Here are some basic categories and ideas of what to include:

• Carbohydrates: grains, pasta, oats, cereals, breads, bagels and quick baking mixes (muffins, cornbread, pancakes, etc.)
• Protein: canned tuna or salmon, canned beans/chickpeas, nuts, nut butters, seeds (sunflower, hemp, chia)
• Fruits + Vegetables: canned tomatoes, canned fruit (in 100% juice), dried fruit, other canned vegetables
• Beverages: sparkling water, teas, coffee beans, coconut water
• Misc items: spices, herbs, cooking oils, vinegars, broth/stock, sauces
• Sports fueling products: hydration mixes, gels, energy chews, protein powder, electrolyte tablets

Add the remaining items you need to your spring clean grocery list. Having the right items on hand is the key to successful nutrition as an endurance athlete.

Here are a few of my favorite items to keep in my own pantry:

• Canned chickpeas: these are so versatile to add to soups, salads, casseroles or just roasting them on their own with seasonings for a crunchy and satisfying snack!
• Dates, mango, and cranberries: just a few of my family’s favorite dried fruits. Dates are a really popular fuel option for athletes too!
• Oats: steel-cut oats, rolled oats, quick oats. I have them all in my pantry as we love to bake with oats and make different types of oatmeal (depending on how much time I have to prepare it).
• Seasoning mixes: I have Italian, Mexican, pork rub, onion soup, and Greek blends all ready to go when I’m limited on time to put together a flavorful meal.

Step 3: Make A Grocery Shopping Schedule

Now that your list is made, it is time to head to the store! I recommend getting on a routine weekly grocery schedule.

Work with your family members in the home to update the “out-of-stock” list when they use up the last of something. That way you know it needs to get added to the grocery list.

This helps streamline your shopping process as a busy athlete.

A couple of ways that have helped me save time:

• Use a grocery list app and have the family members with a smartphone use it to add to the grocery list. My family uses the app “OurGroceries”.
• If you have a grocery store that offers online grocery ordering where you can either pick up or have your groceries delivered, I can’t recommend this enough! This has been the biggest game-changer in my life this year!

For more tips on meal prepping as an endurance athlete, check out my article on four meal planning tips for busy athletes.

Step 4: Organize + Rotate

Once you have all of your new items, it is time to finish your pantry spring clean by organizing! 

Now, this does not need to look like an episode out of Netflix’s The Home Edit. Opt for functional over fancy. 

Here are a few of my organization tips:

• Place items together in categories so you always know where to find them
• Put more frequently-used items in the front or most accessible areas
• Remember the term FIFO: “First In, First Out”
  • Ex: If you buy a new item but still have some left of your old item, place the new container behind the old one so you grab the old one first
• Have a few containers on-hand with tight sealing lids for when you open packages
  • Ex. flours or oatmeals. Putting these items in canisters helps extend their shelf-life
• Consider placing a measuring cup in certain items
  • Ex. Do you always use 1 cup of rice? Add a 1-cup measuring tool to your rice for easy measuring 

Check out these air-tight containers on Amazon that come with a measuring scoop!

The organizational list could go on and on, but these are a great place to start as an athlete learning how to spring clean your pantry.

Remember that getting on a regular schedule is a behavioral habit that is important for reaching your performance nutrition goals.

So, set yourself up for success and try out these spring cleaning tips on your next off-day!

Do you have a favorite pantry cleaning or organization hack? Comment down below.