Prevent Sticky Pantry Shelves Once And For All With This Simple Item You Already Own

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There's nothing worse than opening your pantry to grab a bottle of maple syrup for your morning stack of pancakes or cooking oil for your recipe only to realize that some of the bottle's contents dribbled all over your pantry, leaving you with a sticky mess to clean. You can try as you might to swipe up any drops on the outside of the container before storing it to avoid making this pantry storage mistake, but there's no promise that your pantry will stay neat and dribble-free — until now. 

You can prevent sticky pantry shelves by putting coffee filters on the bottom of your bottles. This creative way to use coffee filters is super affordable, too; you may already have some leftover filters lying around, just waiting to be put to use. There are two ways to use these filters. You can either attach them to the bottom of your containers using a hair tie or elastic band, or invert the containers on their lids and attach the coffee filter there (kind of like a party hat). The filter will catch any residual dribble and will ensure that your pantry shelves stay mess-free. 

Even if you don't have coffee filters, you can still prevent sticky shelves by attaching some sort of liner to the bottom (or lid) of your bottles. Cupcake liners, for one, are the key to storing sticky honey and syrup. The cheap liners will fit the bottom of most bottles and can be easily replaced when they start to look gross. If you prefer to be as low-waste as possible, consider buying silicone cupcake liners (like these affordable ones from Amazon Basics) and toss them in the dishwasher when they need to be cleaned.

One of our personal favorite hacks to mitigate pantry spills is to line the shelves with bar mats. These no-slip mats come in all different shapes and sizes and can easily fit in your pantry. While it does mean that you'll need to pull out all of your bottles when it's time to clean it, it'll just give you another opportunity to reorganize your pantry to optimize space and throw out any expired products that you don't use.