Creating Pantry Space

This post is inspired by my dear friend Jann. She recently shared a project creating pantry space for back stock items by rehoming some infrequently used stuff.

Jann said her hub had a great idea to move her bar stuff out of the pantry and into their dining room buffet.

She then gained an entire shelf for her back stock groceries.

Since we (by which I mean hub) are big Costco shoppers, we have a lot of back stock canned goods and items we stock up on when on sale.

For instance: Dunkin Donuts coffee which comes in giant containers, of course. After all, what’s a Costco product if it’s not in a giant container!

Little Used Space

So, since we inspire each other, I got to thinking about the little-used space I have in my kitchen. The cupboard next to the stove is where we keep our oft-used spices. But other than that, the shelves housed things I rarely used.

Which is basically okay since the shelves are pretty much out of my reach.

As you can tell by the fact that I am on the top step of the ladder cleaning off the shelves!

I consolidated everything in this cabinet by purging out some shelves in my dishes cabinet and making room.

Now there is a perfect amount of room for large containers of protein and drink mixes we don’t use on a daily basis.

Pantry Reorganization

It seems I spend a lot of time organizing and reorganizing the pantry. As in a never-ending cycle. It’s not as satisfying as it should be.

But, oh well. This time, I took the opportunity to wipe down the shelves and move things around a bit.

There is still room to bring more into the bottom shelf, but for now, it’s working fine and no need to crowd things.

Pantry Must-Haves

You might spy a couple things I have mentioned before and consider must-haves in the pantry.

The fire blankets we purchased for our cars and the kitchen leaves me feeling secure and praying we will never need to use them.

It should be a law that all large closets come with nice lights. Right? Hub has put motion sensor battery lights in all of our closets and it has made such a difference.

The lights we have under our kitchen cabinets are my favorites. They don’t take batteries, they recharge with a USB.

If your closets are not lighted, try putting an inexpensive battery light in and see what you think.

Wrap Up

Jann’s story ended a little more glam than mine did. She found a nice bottle of gin during her project and celebrated with a beautiful martini!

I hope this inspires you to rethink some of your spaces and see if you can use them better. I’m still churning some ideas around and I’ll share if I come up with anything worthwhile.

Have a wonderful week, my friend!