kitchen Pantry Organization

Looking for pantry solutions? We used ledges on our basement stairway to create a pantry.

Our house was built in 1900 (you can read more about that here) and until we moved in, it looked as though no one ever considered using this space for anything other than collecting dust and cobwebs!

In my post, 14 Ways to Make Your Kitchen Look and Feel Bigger, I talked about how sometimes the best answer to finding storage for a pantry is to think outside the box (kitchen).  Our house is old and has many quirky things about it, but sometimes that’s a good thing.  The basement is right off the kitchen and along the stairs is a ledge on two walls.  One is 16″ deep and the other not as wide, but still 12″ deep.  Immediately I envisioned using this space as pantry storage.  All it needed was a good scrub and some paint.  Brent took it one step further and added ship lap like we did in our kitchen nook.  He hung brass hooks on a piece of wood to hang utilitarian items:  A broom, fly swatter and tote bags that we use for everything.  What I love about this space is that it’s in plain sight.  I can see what’s missing (by a hole) or what’s running low in clear glass jars.

We used Montana Jars with Acacia Lids by Anchor Hocking jars.  The silicone seal keeps contents fresh and the smaller jars stack safely on the larger ones.  We used several Weck Jars that also stack, making it possible to store more on the narrow shelf.

Pretty utilitarian items on brass hooks.

Clear glass spice jars on an expandable shelf.

Since we didn’t have a designated space designed for spice jars, we used an expanding shelf to create a space where now they are easy to see. We chose clear jars since they are inside a cabinet and used these chalkboard labels.

We used a combination of Anchor Hocking and Weck glass jars.

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Re-organizing the pantry and moving things around always leads to another project.  Once my pantry was in tip top shape I wanted my entire kitchen to feel that way.  When I go to the grocery store now, it’s a pleasure to come home and unpack the bags. It’s the little things, right?

Plastic bins and galvanized cake stands in the cabinet pantry

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I took a look at every item in my kitchen and used an assortment of these trays that I found at Terrain to hold things in the cabinets.  Is it necessary? No. Does it make me happy?  You bet!  The newest Remodelista book really got me thinking about the “organized home” in a new way.  One take away was to use things we already have to organize.  Well, obviously I didn’t have all these trays, but it did make me consider using things like various pans to hold things under the sink.  It makes it so much easier to keep it clean.  I can just take out the tray and wash it and put it back into an already clean cabinet. I use a loaf pan to hold a roll of trash bags and for the few plastic bags we still manage to bring home I stuff them into a tall Ikea glass jar without a lid.  They are easy to put it in and take out and no more bags stuffed into the cabinet under the sink.

A combination of trays to organize the cabinets

Keep reading for our list of pantry essentials!

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