Having a healthy pantry is essential for making quick, nutritious meals. To follow is a shopping list of pantry staples. Print it out, and use the list as a guide when you're at the market. But first, clean out your pantry! Here's how:  

1. Remove everything from your pantry. No exceptions.
2. Throw away the junk food, the processed food and your old, expired packaged goods. Just get several big trash bags, and go at it! (You can always donate the canned goods you don't want and which haven't expired.) Mystery items in bags? Chuck 'em. Old spices? Send them to the compost.
3. Next, clean the shelving well with a sponge, mild detergent and wipe dry.
4. What remains has made the cut.
5. Personally, I like to put flour, sugar, beans and grains in clear glass containers. It makes them easier to use and more sanitary than keeping them in the paper or plastic bags they come in. So, transfer your dry goods into sturdy containers where they'll look better, too.
6. Once that's done, group like items together, beginning with items you don't use frequently. For example, on the floor of my pantry, I keep "bulk" items such as paper towels and bottles of water, club soda and tonic water.
7. The next shelf includes all baking goods (i.e., flour, chocolate and carob chips, baking powder and soda and so-forth. Again, ingredients like chocolate chips, raisins and marshmallows work well in glass containers.)
8. The middle shelf includes all of my ethic items, and I have them grouped by region (i.e., Japan, Morocco, Italy, etc.)
9. Since I use grains nearly every day, I have that on my most accessible shelf, and everything is in glass jars. I've labeled the Basmati rice and the Jasmine rice, so there's no confusion. Just do so with a Sharpie and a mailing label. Easy! Also on that shelf are lentils, beans, peas, quinoa, couscous, pasta, oats, barley, spelt and farrow. Just like a supermarket. Try that approach! It works!
10. The next shelf is divided in half: crackers and cereals on the left, canned goods on the right. I used to be the Queen of Crackers, having every variety imaginable, but when I realized that their shelf life was so short, I began stocking three types, and that was enough. Party time comes? I buy more.
11. On the very top shelf, I keep my rice cooker, Lazy Susan, Fondue bowls, jars of bulk spices and salts and picnic supplies.  

Again, that's my system, and while you may have cabinets vs. a large closet type pantry, the organizing principles are the same: dump, clean, convert, arrange.

Now, pour your favorite beverage, put on some tunes and show that pantry who's boss!