How to make the most of your pantry and under counter cabinets

Most of us can benefit from more storage in every room, but the kitchen, being the heart of the home, deserves special consideration. Once, food storage, cookware, and appliances large and small were all a kitchen provided for the only cook in the house. Counter space was also important, but not as important as it is today. Now the kitchens serve as entertaining areas as well as food preparation and dining areas. Now, too, there can be several cooks in the kitchen.

Great storage, therefore, is even more important to today’s homeowner. Old-fashioned kitchen cabinets for food storage are more outdated than ever and have been replaced by pantries and pull-out shelves, which are much more practical.

What do you do if your current kitchen doesn’t have these conveniences? Start with what you have, basic cabinets; lower cabinets will be much more efficient with pull-out shelves. Most homeowners can retrofit cabinets without spending a lot of money. The great thing about pull-out shelves is that you can buy them one or two at a time as your budget allows. Having pull-out shelves allows you to use the full 24-inch depth of your lower cabinets, without having to scramble to reach whatever has slid back.

Once your lower cabinets are in order, focus on the upper cabinets; for many of us, they are too tall to use more than one or two shelves effectively, so make the most of what you have. Using the hard-to-reach top shelves for rarely used items or large serving pieces makes the most sense. For shelves you can reach, try clear, vacuum-sealed containers; They come in a wide variety of sizes for all your dry storage needs. These are great for cereal, rice, crackers, and pasta; and you can easily see how much you have on hand, allowing you to make quick work of your shopping list when it’s time to restock.

You may want to keep your baking materials in one place; Vacuum sealed containers are also a must, whether they are clear, stainless or ceramic they work great. Smaller items like baking soda and powder are fine in their commercial containers and fit well in the space. Since you’ll likely use salt often, you may want to store it in an easy-to-pull apothecary jar for convenience.

Adding stackable wire shelves to cabinets or a pantry shelf helps with cans and jars like soups and tomato products. Once these items are facing forward and in order, it will be easy to see and access them and record what is needed for the next stop at the grocery store.

If you’re lucky enough to have a real pantry, keeping the ideas above in mind will help you keep your pantry well organized. If you have a cupboard nearby, and I am referring to the kitchen, you can easily outfit it with some of these ideas. Relegating a makeshift pantry to an entry hall closet is less than ideal; but remember that a refurbished cabinet will be about 24 inches deep, so the same rules would apply regarding shelves that are too deep to access items in the back of the cabinet. Having removable shelves would be the most beneficial. Having cut-to-size shelves that are about 12 inches deep works, too. The lower shelves in a makeshift cabinet turned pantry can be deeper to store large appliances that are rarely used, such as a slow cooker, 40-cup coffee maker, or small appliances.

All of these ideas are simple enough for most homeowners to achieve a high level of success and a tidier, more efficient kitchen space.