There’s a little celebration happening in my pantry — at least in spirit — and everyone is invited. Not that it’s a real party: the pantry is far too small for gathering, and the chaos inside makes hosting impossible. Still, it felt right to give this overlooked space some attention.
See it back there by the fridge, hiding in the corner of the kitchen?
This is the best “before” shot I could find with the door open. Judging by the dated wallpaper and brown trim I assumed the photo was taken before we moved in, but the presence of our food makes it obvious this was after we settled in. #sherlocking
Either way, the pantry was seriously lacking in organization. Apart from a proudly messy pile of bags on the floor, everything else was jammed in with no real system. Our first instinct wasn’t impressive: despite how excited we were to have a true pantry — a luxury compared with the makeshift storage in our previous homes — we didn’t take full advantage of it at first.
Over the eight months we lived with it, frustration slowly turned into ideas. The biggest change was deciding to move the microwave into the pantry. It’s not a conventional location, but after removing an over-the-range unit and remembering how nice it was to hide a microwave behind a cabinet door in our last kitchen, the deep pantry seemed like a great alternative. There is plenty of ventilation space on the sides and back, and we planned to keep the door open when the microwave was in use. The only problem: there wasn’t an outlet in the pantry.
We had an electrician add an outlet in the pantry for about $110 right before the holidays, and that gave the microwave a home and freed up counter space. After using this setup for a month or so, it’s proven functional and convenient. The trade-off was losing one of the shelves to make room for the microwave, which meant we needed to rethink the shelving layout.
Repositioning the shelves seemed like a simple fix, but even simple projects can take time to climb to the top of our to-do list. Yesterday we emptied the pantry — a surprisingly fun task that yielded discoveries like “I didn’t realize we still had cookies back here!” — and started adjusting shelf heights. Our initial plan was to lower the shelf supporting the microwave, but we’d also moved our trash can into the pantry on a trial basis, and lowering that shelf any further would block the trash can lid.
Quick trash-can note: we put the trash inside the pantry a while back, worried it might stink up the space. It hasn’t been an issue — the can has a lid and behaves like a trash can under a sink — even with a pregnant wife who’s extra sensitive to smells.
Instead of lowering the microwave shelf, we reinstalled the missing shelf above the microwave shelf and hung it slightly higher. That created a half-shelf ideal for cans and smaller items that used to get shoved to the back. To measure the spacing, I used a pasta sauce jar as a makeshift gauge.
Then I pried off the old nailed-in braces with a crowbar, marked level lines for the new positions, and reattached the braces with screws. I double-checked everything with a level to make sure the shelves would sit straight.
The whole job took about an hour. Most of that time went into emptying the pantry, snapping photos, and enjoying the little rediscoveries. The result is a handy “small items” shelf that keeps shorter packages visible and accessible instead of buried behind taller items.
We haven’t restocked everything yet because there’s still more to do: priming, painting, and organizing the larger shelves. We’re planning to add storage systems to keep things neat and may attach additional organizers to the door. Sherry also likes the idea of adding cheerful, wipeable shelf liners. In other words, this pantry party is still a work in progress.
Once the paint is dry and everything is back in place, we’ll organize the shelves so the pantry looks appetizing instead of like a grocery store left mid-looting. We’ll share the finished result when it’s all done.
There’s something satisfying about seeing the empty, clean space — even if the rest of the kitchen is still messy. We’ll get there.
How do you organize your pantry? Do you use bins, labels, or other systems that make a big difference? Have you admired those room-like pantries on Pinterest and dreamed of having one? Sherry sometimes stares at them and calls them a “magical unicorn pantry.”
If anyone’s hosting a pantry party soon, tell me — I’ll bring Brick. He’s always good for a laugh.