Store home canned food on a pantry shelf.
A pantry is a place in your kitchen to store everything from food to cleaning supplies and helps keep your kitchen uncluttered and organized. Tuck a pantry into a seldom used space; design it to be out in the open or behind closed doors. The size of your pantry depends on the size and layout of your kitchen; even the smallest kitchen can feature one. Does this Spark an idea?
Butler's Pantry
A butler's pantry, a separate room adjoining the kitchen dedicated to storage, food preparation and cleanup, may be your dream pantry. Butler's pantries often feature open shelving for food storage and to keep everyday items close at hand, large cupboards to store appliances, paper goods and linens and hutches for storing china and crystal. Some butler's pantries are large enough to contain refrigerators, microwaves and dishwashers.
Closet
If a butler's pantry is not in your future, consider making use of a smaller space like a kitchen closet. Retrofitting an ordinary closet with shelves, built in drawers and over-the-door storage makes an ordinary coat closet an efficient pantry with a door to hide the contents when things get a little disorganized. Design the space yourself or install a closet organizer unit you can buy at any home improvement store.
Cupboard
Stand-alone storage is an option for your kitchen pantry. Consider making use of an antique canning cupboard. These vintage pieces are already outfitted with shelves designed to hold home canned foods. Why not put them to work storing your canned goods, baking supplies and dry goods? Hoosier cupboards, popular in the 1930s, featured cabinets for storage as well as a work area for food preparation and are as efficient today as they were back then. Store your baking supplies in the top and prepare something sweet for your family on the built-in counter.
Cabinet
A kitchen cabinet makes a perfect mini pantry. Set aside one or two to hold foodstuffs. A cabinet pantry is small, but organizing it properly will make use of every inch. Step shelves, graduated shelving units designed to fit into kitchen cabinets, provide storage for things like spices and keep everything in plain sight. Cabinet organizers like stackable storage containers and lazy Susans help you maximize storage in a small space.
Shelves
Open shelving is another option. How large your shelves are will depend on the amount of space you have to spare in your kitchen. If you have a large kitchen, install floor to ceiling shelves in a corner or along one wall. In a smaller kitchen, hang shelves above your stove or sink or build them from the ground up and top them with a countertop. Build your own shelves, buy a stand-alone shelving unit, or purchase separate shelves at a home improvement store. One drawback to open shelves as pantry space is that everything is on display. Keep them organized to avoid having your kitchen look cluttered.
Tags: your kitchen, baking supplies, butler pantry, food preparation, home canned, home improvement
