The Easiest Way To Prevent A Honey Mess In Your Pantry

Honey is not the easiest thing in the world to handle. It's viscous, sticky, and always ends up finding its way into places where it doesn't belong — like the shelf surfaces in your pantry, for instance. Whether you've got a capped bottle or a full blown honey jar, the fact remains that somehow, some way, the stuff ends up everywhere. Luckily for you, there is a very simple way to prevent this in the future.

Here's the solution: put a plate under your honey jar. It should be about double the diameter of your honey vestibule and preferably have a rim that tapers upwards. What the plate does is act as a barrier between any honey seepage and the surfaces of your pantry. And, if the plate happens to get sticky, all you have to do is wash it, and the honey jar, with hot water before returning them to the pantry.

This is an easy, no-nonsense fix to a problem many of us have had. However, knowing how to clean up a honey spill is just as important and knowing how to prevent one. Honey is not a difficult thing to clean, but it does require a decent amount of elbow grease.

To begin your clean, remove everything from the shelf where the spill occurred. Also clear the shelf beneath, in case any of the honey managed to drip down. Next, grab a sponge, a bowl of very hot, nearly boiling water, and rubber kitchen gloves to protect your hands. Soak the sponge in the hot water then squeeze the water out over the honey spill. Sit the sponge down and allow the hot water and honey dilution to be reabsorbed into the sponge. Repeat accordingly depending in the size of the spill.

You could also soak a bath or dish towel in boiling water and leave it for several minutes atop the spill. Just as honey dissolves into a hot mug of tea, so too will the honey spill dissolve in the hot water and absorb back into the towel. If there is any sticky residue left over, wipe it away with soap and a sponge. 

While honey is not a difficult thing to clean up, it can be time consuming, which is why it's best to keep honey in properly sealed jars, and to put that catch plate underneath for safe measure. That way you'll have less honey wasted by spilling, and less time spent cleaning it up.