Part of rotating food in a pantry is to do exactly like the grocery stores when they stock their shelves. They pull the oldest stock out front and put the newest stuff behind. Also for a family pantry, you have to buy the things your family will and does eat so it becomes automatic to be using your stock. There is no point stocking 10# of dried beans if no one in your family eats them.
You also have to have a viable reason for you and your family for why you are keeping a pantry stocked. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm disabled and live in an area with heavy snowfalls. I stock up my pantry especially well in the late fall so we don't run out of things during the middle of a blizzard while I'm also having a flare-up. I also use my pantry to take advantage of sales on items we use. I also use my pantry to keep ingredients on hand to make meals out of the canned and packaged goods (easy meals when I'm not feeling well). We keep dry milk powder and canned evaporated milk so that we have alternatives to fresh milk when cooking. Also things like spices that we use frequently we always try to have a spare bottle. When we open the last package of say cocoa powder, I make sure it goes on the list to buy more. A while ago there was a great sale on walnuts which I use a lot in baking. I think I have 5-6# in the freezer and know they will be good for the next couple years unless I use them too quick and run out.
Some things I try to keep at least a 6 month supply on hand such as toilet paper (I have a phobia about running out). You know you are going to use it so if you get a chance, stock up. I also stock up on detergent, soap, toothpaste/brushes, etc.
Part of my 'pantry' also involves baking when I'm feeling up to it and freezing baked goods in small batches to pull from the freezer as needed when we want a treat or muffin and I'm not feeling up to making them. Quicker and cheaper than running into town for a donut and the other 10 things that find their way into your grocery cart during a quick trip. I also try to keep chocolate treats on hand and feel I have more control about eating them now that I 'allow' myself to have them in the house as opposed to feeling like I was sneaking them.
To help get a grasp of what kinds of things I wanted to stock up on, I found the pantry/shopping guide in the book Dining on a Dime Cookbookby Tawra Keelam invaluable. It reminded me of all those odds and ends that I used to forget to buy. I also keep an ongoing list in the kitchen and write down what I need when it is getting low or I used the last one. Much easier than facing grocery day without a list and your head goes empty.
Most of all try to be organized. Keep all like things together instead of 2 cans of tomato soup in one cupboard, 1 in another and another one still rattling around in the trunk of your car because it fell out of the bag and you forgot it. Rethink your places for where you store stuff. If you have a black hole in your kitchen, think about something else that can be stored there like old tax files and find a new place for food so you will see it and use it. At one house I lived in the pantry was in the garage so I would basically go shopping in the garage and bring stuff into the kitchen as needed. Most of all try to develope a system that works for you.
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