apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

the ikea 80" high 15" wide pull-out cabinet with 5 drawers is a dream come true in a tiny kitchen. and it comes in a higher and/or wider version!

I had a great walk-in pantry in my last home, a 1000-square-foot cottage in Texas. I ended up ripping out the shelves on the far end for a stackable washer and dryer but I still had plenty of room for my food items and gadgets. I even had a funky colorized photo of an old man hanging in there as the resident spirit of the pantry. The family who lived there previously had scrawled all their phone numbers on the door, as well as kept a running tally of the kids' growth. I added to that with my own son. I miss that pantry SOOOO much! Now I have things stuffed everywhere I can and still don't have enough room for more than a week's supply of food.

I have a butcherblock-topped wheelie cart from target, I don't really call it anything... it's kind of pathetic.

I hear ya on the Target Brand being "Pathetic."
someone told me "Don't make the same mistake twice"
meaning stop buying the low priced crap that bends, tilts, breaks, the rubbermaid things cave in in no time, press board stuff is awful you are lucky if you get a year on that stuff.
After Researching different product lines - I found consumer reports rated this Elfa line #1 (affordability and durability).
I live in Michigan other than a hardware store in Ann Arbor w/ only a few items of Elfa - I found a new Store that carries the line "The Shelving Store" www.theshelvingstore.com
They are owned by a company called Shelving, Inc that has been around since 1960. I highly recommend shopping their website they are super people www.TheShelvingStore.com

My "pantry" is a tall, thin cabinet that's part of a built-in in my rental kitchen. It's about 5' high, 12" wide and not hugely deep. The cabinet is part of a larger somewhat cheap built-in in my rental apartment. Since not much fits in the pantry, I put pasta, spices, flour, etc in glass jars and put them on the shelves near the dishes. We also have tea and cereal squirreled away in other cabinets. Our kitchen isn't that small, but if I'm really going to make it work I think I have to start aggressively culling, and I'm not quite ready to do that yet.

Also, did anyone else read the organized home pantry article? There was a weird emphasis on being prepared to feed your family for weeks from your pantry alone. The basic premise of not running out of toilet paper is good, but I think should armaggedon come to Boston, whether or not I have a month's worth of garbanzo beans may not be my biggest concern.

My pantry is actually decently sized for my kitchen (considering I have next to no counter space). About two feet wide and a foot & a half deep, at least 7 feet tall...It's utterly packed with food, cookbooks, and lesser used appliances. Cookbooks go on the top shelf, appliances on the floor underneath the first shelf.

Until I do some much needed spring cleaning, I probably could feed myself for a month or two solely from the pantry.

To V in Boston,

I completely agree about the Organized Home article. Maybe it's because I live in NYC, but if I get sick, I'm likely to order in take-out that check my pantry for food. Also, they suggest having a backup of every opened item?? I certainly don't have space for that, or even want to store an extra package of red lentils if I don't eat them frequently.

Since I try to eat mostly fresh foods, I just use a couple of cupboards for coffee, tea, baking and packaged items. Things that get used regularly, like salt/pepper and some cooking oils, sit on open shelving close to the stove.

Ottan -- It is because you live in NYC.

I grew up in the suburbs of Seattle, where it was virtually impossible to walk to the grocery store (would take you almost 2 hours, and you have to leap into the ditch periodically as there are no sidewalks). At least a couple times a year, windstorms would knock a large tree across the driveway and/or road, so we really would be stuck. Same thing in Bellingham, where I went to college.

In NYC, no such problems, but as a single mom with a baby, there were a lot of cold-ass winter days when I was just not trying to bundle up the baby for a short walk to the bodega.

Having a backup for EVERY opened item is OCD, but I was generally feeling the article, as I am a little uptight about having at least some pantry food to live on. And there is always a backup box of cheerios, cuz if Jr can't have his cheerios, there will be an armageddon that no canned food can help.