rechelle's lifelyrics

Even if you never have the opportunity to design and build your dream pantry, I have a few tips you can use to make your space more efficient and organized. But before we talk about what gets stored in a separate space from where you are actively cooking, let’s consider what items get the honored spot of “most important” to have as handy as possible while working in your kitchen cook space.

When I was pregnant with our 3rd child, I became a Tupperware consultant in order to purchase my own maternity clothes (instead of having to borrow from relatives and friends who recently had babies). I quickly began to specialize in “Modular Mates” and to teach women how to create more efficient spaces in their kitchens. The first concept I would focus on was how to define and create “centers” in their kitchen by asking lots of questions about how they normally use their space. For example, someone who does a lot of baking is going to have things arranged for minimal travel from one end of the kitchen to the other by having the mixer, baking staples, and measuring supplies all together where they do their baking.

On the other hand, someone who does a lot of stove top cooking would want to have oils, spices, seasonings, and other cooking liquids along with skillets and utensils as close to the stove top as possible.

In either situation, the things that are less frequently used would find their new home in the pantry, or distant set of cupboards that are used as the “pantry” space.

If you have a chance to create shelving in your pantry like I did here, I would suggest shallow shelving for things like canned goods.

This eliminates things getting lost at the back of the shelving because you can’t see what’s there. My “can” shelf is deep enough for 2 1/2 cans and allows for 2 normal size cans to be stacked 2 high and 2 deep. So I can essentially unload a box of diced tomatoes from Costco in two rows. It also allows for larger cans, jars, or boxes to fit where I can see what I have (or what I’m running out of) and I’m not having to move items around to see what is hiding at the back.

A set of larger, deeper shelves is great for large cookware, bulk paper goods, or even baskets that can be pulled off the shelf to get to a group of small items easily.

One of the clear bins on my shelf has all sorts of household handy items like felt pads for the bottom of chairs, command hooks, shelf pins, self-adhesive buttons to protect cabinet doors, etc. If you make a habit of grouping things together in deep storage, it’s easy to remember what things you are storing behind other large items in front. It’s really nice to not have to pull everything out of multiple cupboards when trying to find that one thing you haven’t used since last year.

You don’t have to have a huge or customized pantry to use these ideas. I have applied the same concepts of organizing my work spaces for the best efficiency possible when we had 4 kids in a 2 bedroom condominium with a tiny kitchen, 5 kids in a 3,000 square foot home with a huge kitchen, and even when all 7 of us were living in our 31 foot motor home for the first several months after we relocated from the big house in California to Oregon!