Major Kitchen Pantry Upgrade (and Pet Pantry)

Post published:January 3, 2023
Post category:Organizing your home and life

Organized kitchen pantries can be a work of art. Do you have pantry envy? You might after you see this major kitchen pantry upgrade and pet pantry.

Major Kitchen Pantry Upgrade (and Pet Pantry)

What is a pet pantry? It’s a small closet, only about one and a half feet wide. As the builder left it, with just a tiny wire shelf, it’s a hassle from top to bottom.

But with custom-cut shelves, it’s the perfect place for all things kitty. Food, meds, toys, and litter on the bottom are all easy to see and access.

That’s ok for the pets, but what about the people? I wanted to show you this pantry project in three phases to let you see what a difference organizing can make, and then what a difference a custom shelving upgrade can make beyond that.

Here’s the kitchen pantry shortly after moving in. This is actually a very nice pantry, with lots of bins to gather food types together. But you can just kind of tell it’s going to be hard to keep it organized without a lot of maintenance, right?

Below is the pantry after removing all the cardboard boxes. We created different zones for groups of things like cereal and snacks. And we moved the rarely used items to the very top shelf. But can you see all the wasted space in this pantry??

Here’s the upgraded pantry once the new shelves were installed. You can see right away how having more shelves, and shelves at varying heights, help keep things orderly and easy to find. Also, when you design custom shelves like this, you can have shelving right up to the top. A builder usually stops at about 6 feet high, so there’s a lot of wasted space at the top.

I like the look of these white basket weave plastic bins, but they can become clutter if they aren’t large enough to hold entire food categories, and if someone doesn’t keep them neat. Labeled pantry shelves will work for most families without having to add expense and upkeep of baskets. If those plastic bins aren’t going to last a lifetime, fifty years or more, I’ll pass. I’d rather point you to these metal pantry bins that give you great visibility and durability, and they even have built-in label slots.