Young House Love

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Adding Extra Shelves And A Microwave To The Pantry

There’s a party in my pantry. And everyone’s invited. Although, it’s not really a party. And the pantry is far too small to host any sort of gathering. Hmmm. This invitation is going over just about as smoothly as Brick Tambland’s.

Steve Carell Pants Party Anchorman

But back to the pantry. See it there, hiding in the back of the kitchen by the fridge?

Pantry Arrow

This is the only “before” I could find of it with the door open. By all the wallpaper and brown trim I could’ve sworn this was from before we moved in, but something about it being stocked with our mess of food tells me this is post-move. #sherlocking

Pantry Before

Regardless of when the photo was snapped, you can see that it was – how should I put it? – lacking in any sort of order and organization. Except for maybe the artfully jumbled pile of bags on the floor. I’ll wait while you pin it.

Our initial treatment of that space was not at all indicative of our excitement to finally have a legit pantry. In our first house we just stocked food in some upper cabinets, and in our last one we had a pretty intense pantry-cabinet contraption that was equally functional and frustrating. So having a standard pantry closet (like the ones we both had growing up) is a welcome change for us.

Pantry Other Houses

And thankfully, over the last eight months of living with it (and getting increasingly frustrated by our lack of function), we’ve come up with a few ideas to make it work a lot better for us. First off, we wanted to move our microwave in there. I know it’s not your usual placement for a microwave, but since removing our hulking over-the-range microwave, we wanted a better spot than on the counter – and we’ve had luck with a microwave that was hidden behind a cabinet door in our last kitchen (we don’t use it very often, and we really liked that setup).

Nelson After Mircowave Area

So because we had a good experience concealing our last microwave, relocating this one to our nice deep pantry felt like the way to go. There would be ample room for ventilation on the sides and back of it – and we’d keep the door open while it’s in use. The only hitch was that there was no outlet in the pantry. Until recently…

Pantry Outlet

We actually got this done about a month or so ago (you may have noticed that the microwave has been MIA for a little while). Right before Christmas we had our go-to electricians swing by one morning and add an outlet right where we wanted it, to the tune of $110. And with that, the microwave had a spot to plug-in, our counter was clearer, and the pantry felt one step closer to being more functional for us.

Pantry Before Microwave Full

We’ve been using it that way for over a month now and it has worked out well. Except that to make room for the microwave, we had to lose one of the existing shelves. Simple solution: reposition the shelves to capitalize on that unused space. But sometimes the simplest solutions take weeks to make it to the top of our to-do list.

Pantry Before Microwave

Yesterday we finally emptied the pantry (a fun task full of exciting discoveries like “I didn’t know we still had cookies back here!”) and went to work adjusting the shelves. Our original plan had been to lower the bottom shelf (with the microwave on it) so that the shelf above it could go back in the same spot. But we’ve since moved our trash can in there too, so we couldn’t go any lower without obstructing the can from opening.

Trash can sidenote: we moved that into the pantry over a month ago on a trial basis with the worry that it could stink up the whole space or otherwise annoy us, but sort of like how a trash can under the sink doesn’t seem to be an issue – especially when it has a lid to seal it – this one has been fine in there. Even with a pregnant wife who currently has a werewolf-like sense of smell. 

Instead of lowering the microwave shelf to make room for another shelf above it, we opted to put the missing shelf back in above the microwave shelf. But by hanging that one a little higher, it would create sort of a half-shelf that’s perfect for cans and smaller pantry items. So I, very technically, used a pasta sauce jar to mark how much space we’d want.

Pantry Mark

The next part was really easy. I used my crowbar to pry off the existing braces (which were just nailed in) and marked level lines where they needed to be re-installed.

Pantry Prying Marking

Then using my level to double-check myself, I screwed them back into place where we wanted them.

Pantry Screwing

The whole thing took about an hour, and most of that was spent emptying the pantry, taking pictures for you guys, and eating back-of-the-pantry discoveries. Once it was completed we were inordinately excited to test out our new small-things shelf. It’s really nice to have a “bonus shelf” for those shorter items that used to get shoved to the back or clutter up the other shelves.

Pantry AFTER Straight

We didn’t bother to restock the whole pantry yet because (as you can probably tell) there’s still more to be done. Primarily: priming, painting, and further organizing those shelves. We’re planning to add a few more systems to keep things organized on those bigger shelves, and might even hang some added storage on the door. Sherry has also been thinking about using some cheery wipeable shelf paper or something, so this pantry party is best described as half-baked.

Pantry AFTER Close

After we’re done painting and everything’s dry we can actually organize it so it looks a bit more appetizing and less like a grocery store mid-looting. And then we’ll be back with the end result.

Pantyr AFTER Full

Man, it looks so nice empty and clean like that. Then again, the rest of the kitchen looks like this, so I guess it’s not really a long term solution.

Pantry Food On Counter

How do you guys have your pantry organized? Do you have certain bins and systems that you love? Have you drooled over those amazing room-like pantries on Pinterest? Sometimes I catch Sherry just gazing at them and muttering things like “magical unicorn pantry.”

Also, let me know if anyone is throwing a pantry party anytime soon. I’ll bring my friend Brick. He’s a hoot.

Comments

  1. Meggan says

    I too am a fan of the magical unicorn pantry. We recently did a kitchen remodel and turned a coat closet into a pantry. Like you, love the closet version of a pantry. However, the closet is so deep, we opted to do a U shape shelf so things didn’t get lost (no lost cookies here!). We can also step in a bit. We painted it “sea salt” with white shelves. It looks so clean and cute! Having something functional that also looks beautiful makes a difference in your day. I mean, you may miss your art installation of “arte de papier sac”, but you could always do a decoupage project with them or something ;)

    Reply

  2. Katie J says

    The garbage in the pantry grosses me out. My eyes locked onto it in that first pic and I can’t let it go. Love the pantry in general, but can’t get pat the garbage…

    Reply

  3. Thais Bessa says

    I am sorry if you explained it somewhere else, but why didn’t you like the pantry in the last house?

    In our new house we have a walk-in pantry, which is a luxury in the UK (where houses are considerably smaller than in the USA). But it still not at its best as we need to remove/add shelves to make it more functional. It is has a cold slab that people used to keep meat before fridges!!!

    One thing we do is we never keep some staples in their boxes. I always put pasta, rice, flour etc in nice jars. It looks nicer, it’s easier to keep track of how much we still have it and it keeps things fresher forlonger. I love Ikea glass jars.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      The issue with that pantry was that in order to access certain things, you had to pull out multiple shelves in front of them (and they could be on the back or the front of a shelf since both sides had storage). So the act of searching for an old can of beans that you knew was in there somewhere turned into a swiss-army-like cabinet formation where they all had to be pulled out so we could look behind things and check the backs of them. It just wasn’t easy to survey what you had at all since everything was layered like a Bloomin’ Onion.

      xo
      s

  4. heather says

    I like the idea of putting the microwave in the pantry. While our current kitchen requires it, I don’t love appliances on the counter. My hope is to have places for all of our appliances except the very most used once we do our renovation. I’m hoping we can buy a really small microwave and keep it hidden behind a custom door in the kitchen when we re-do, but we’ll see. As far as pantry re-organizing, etc. I hear you! I did a post on how I organize mine a while back, and let me tell you – the pantry needs to be reorganized once again!

    http://www.likeacupoftea.com/reduce-reuse-organize/

    http://www.likeacupoftea.com/reduce-reuse-organize/

    Reply

  5. Olivia says

    I love the idea of putting the microwave in the pantry! Our house has a built-in shelf underneath some cabinets for the microwave (does that even make sense?), but putting it out of sight is intriguing. I grew up in a house with no pantry, so it was definitely on the list of must-haves when we were looking for a house!

    For your over-the-door storage, I’d highly recommend something like this: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JkZ4vAg1hME/UPQIGR8CoAI/AAAAAAAAUkg/CDcTgDAw_ZM/s1600/organized+pantry_6535.JPG, from the blog “Sew Many Ways.” It’s not my blog, and she has no idea who I am, but this is a great example of the type of storage we found in our pantry, and we LOVE it. It’s actually screwed into the door, so there’s no chance of anything shifting, and I swear it has doubled the amount of space in our pantry!

    Reply

  6. Brenda says

    We’ve always had both our trash and our recycle bin in our pantry. We have always had large dogs who like to see what the magical can holds to it works well for us we haven’t had any odors. I have big plastic bins in my pantry for everything except cans. That way I can pull the whole bin out and bring it to my counter to get something. It makes spot cleaning easier as well.

    Reply

  7. Becky says

    Have you considered adding any lower shelves back in for the long term to keep snacks within reach for Clara as she gets older and more independant? We currently have the same issue with our pantry items being too high to reach for our 3 year old but as he gets older I’d like to figure out a solution such as a snack drawer or something within his reach.

    Reply

  8. Krista says

    I have a simlar looking pantry (to your original that is). Except more jumbled. I think its time to clean it out and the idea of putting my garbage can in there never occured to me but its an awesome idea!! I will need to remove a bottom shelf but my kitchen is so small that I am always fighting with where to put my garbage can. The only suitible nook also has a baseboard heater… Garbage + baseboard heater… bad news! I have tons of upper cupboard space that I rarely use so it won’t be hard for me to relocate the baking supples currently on that shelf. I am so excited to get home and start at it now!

    Reply

  9. Kelli says

    Ikea has great tall slim clear containers for flour, sugar etc. my pantry is tall but my shelves are shallow and before I was using big round tubs for storage but could only fit one or two per shelf. Switching to the ikea ones made a huge difference! If you have a family membership I think they’re currently discounted :)

    Reply

  10. Emily says

    Ooh, I spy Trader Joe’s Tomato and Roasted Red Pepper soup– my favorite! So yummy, especially on a cold winter day…

    Reply

  11. Caroline says

    This is our first house with a pantry and I’m in love. I organize it by category- all breakfast together, baking together, snacks together, etc. I have a basket filled with kiddo food so my 4 year old can help himself (after he asks for permission). It also makes it fast to pack lunches since all kiddo approved stuff is in one place. I’ll go ahead and pre-portion goldfish, animal crackers, etc when we buy a large container so I choose what the serving is and how much he’s getting.

    I have a rack that we found at lowes to go on the door that holds foil, clear wrap, etc.

    We had to use cabinets at our old house and my husband built a shelf to go between the fridge and counter (about 5 inches) which helped but didn’t solve all our issues. Love a closet pantry!

    Reply

  13. Alison says

    My husband and I built shelves in our pantry this weekend and had many of the “uhh…why do we have so many of _____ in here?” moments. It was so refreshing to see it all done though!! :) Pinterest killed me in the planning process because the pantries were SO PERFECT. Like, you can’t really live like that, and if you do…come organize my pantry and live with us so that it can stay like that. haha. http://thewholedamnhouse.com/2014/02/10/pantry-done/

    Reply

  14. Kris says

    When we built our house, I spec’d an outlet in the pantry and everyone thought I was nuts. Why would you need an outlet in the pantry they all thought, even my husband. I had intentions of putting in a mini-fridge in there so it then made a little more sense to all but the men were still all “okay, whatever crazy lady.” Now that mini-fridge is downstairs and we have a pizza oven in it’s place. We now also have our wireless printer in there. No more eyesore on the desk. And hubby says I was so smart for putting that outlet there :)

    Reply

  17. Lesley says

    I bought a back-of-the-door wire spice rack from Container Store for our house a few years ago and I LOVED it. The bigger “shelves” could hold things like olive oil or spaghetti sauce while the smaller ones were perfect for spices or baby food or taco seasoning packets.

    My husband is in the military so that house was actually three houses ago. When we moved, I left a few weeks early with the kids and he stayed to oversee the movers. As we were unpacking in the new house, I screamed, “Where’s my spice rack?!?” Alas, it became a bonus for our renters.

    Reply

  18. Elle says

    We have our trash and recycling in our pantry, both without lids. Several years in it hasn’t been a problem – if it’s stinky enough to make the pantry unpleasant, it’s probably stinking up the whole kitchen and needs to go out anyway.

    Having the microwave in the pantry sounds like a great idea!

    Reply

  20. Meredith says

    Have you considered converting a lower cabinet to a trash/recycling pull out? i have done this in two homes using the Rev-a-Shelf line. Their website has options to $800 but this $75 r so at Lowe’s plus the extra conversion kit to add the cabinet door to the front makes for $100 very well spent. I gladly gave up a single lower cabinet in each of my kitchens for this option. Just think how much you could relocate from one cabinet you give up to that pantry on multiple lower shelves if the trash wasn’t being a space hog.
    http://www.lowes.com/pd_278250-1214-RV-18PBC-5_0__?productId=1078999&Ntt=rev+a+shelf+trash&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNtt%3Drev%2Ba%2Bshelf%2Btrash&facetInfo=

    Reply

  22. Kate says

    I’m so excited to see what you do because I have a similar jumble mess of a pantry (except with wire shelves and no microwave or trash).

    Reply

  24. Jill says

    We just moved and have out first “legit” pantry too – and I, by nature, am not organized… but I am trying very, very hard. One of my new go-to pantry storage solutions is mason jars… in all sizes! I just found huge ones at Michael’s and I got the plastic lids from Amazon. Perfect for nuts, pasta, crackers, dried beans etc… makes everything look uniform and neat, with a little vintage flair! Plus, glass isn’t going to leach any weird things into our food. And at just a couple bucks each, they are way cheaper than any food storage containers found at kitchen supply stores. Love your blog! :)

    Reply

  26. Jessica says

    We, too, had an outlet added and moved our microwave out of sight into our pantry cabinet. No looking back!

    Curious how you are finding needing to cross the room (i.e., when working at the kitchen counter), then open the pantry door, and then step on the trash can to open it… seems like at least one too many steps to take to throw out trash, between the non-central location, a regular (full) door to open, and a trash can that requires opening, too. Though perhaps it just becomes the new normal in your kitchen habits…

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yeah, I think it’s just normal to us since the trash can used to be out (on the side of the peninsula), so it’s in the same part of the kitchen, just more tucked away. We like the step-to-open mechanism so much, we’re reluctant to stick it under the sink or in a pull-out cabinet, so I think for now it’s nice in there for us.

      xo
      s

  27. Julie says

    We moved from our house with a HUGE walk-in pantry with floor to ceiling shelving to a small closet with shelves. I use plastic storage bins to organize our pantry — a bin for dried fruit/nuts/jerky, one for rice/pasta, one for breakfast (Belvita-, Nutrigrain- & oatmeal-like things), etc. The bins double as small drawers, making it less likely to lose track of things stacked behind the front row. Elfa makes an awesome pantry door organizer that I store spices in (no-drill option). I also throw in a turntable or two for the jars of things. Target sells a modular Rubbermaid storage system (OXO makes one too) that works great for dry goods and baking supplies. And finally for canned goods I use a tiered rack, so I can see the things in the back.

    As much as I like my trash can out of the way, I would suggest moving it out of the pantry. That way if you forget about chicken or something, you don’t trap the smell in with your fresh food.

    Reply

  29. Lori says

    Funny post! Can’t wait to see what you do to the pantry. John….you are quite the handy man…I think I’d figure out a way to add some rolling shelves. The door may present a prob…but I know you’d figure it out. Sliding shelves are life changing. No more cookies getting lost in the back.

    Reply

  30. Traci says

    I try to keep my pantry organized but it consists of only one, though large, two-shelved cupboard. Basically I’m just looking forward to moving on to one day having an ACTUAL pantry. :]

    Reply

  31. Roeshel says

    Sometimes it’s those ‘before’ images that do get pinned! Be careful what you wish for! LOL! your pantry is looking good! We just moved our microwave into our (new open) pantry area too. It’s probably used once a day, if that, so I hated that it took up valuable counter space in the kitchen. Although, we did just have a 5-year-old to our house for the first time and he let his parents know that our house was “weird” because we had a microwave in the pantry. haha!

    Reply

  32. Jackie says

    We just moved into our new house on the 1st of Feb and I’m less than thrilled with our pantry… but have NO idea how to improve it yet. I’m planning to live with it for a few months to decide what I dislike the most about it. LOL. This gives me a good idea though… shorter shelves would be a good use of space.

    Reply

  34. Erin @ The Impatient Gardener says

    God, I love an organized pantry. After I do it, I open up the doors just to stare at it in wonder. When we redid the kitchen last year I had custom L-shaped cabinets made that store a ton of stuff. Then we had areas built to store the dog food, recycling, etc. I can’t believe how much stuff we get in there. And I am a huge fan of the microwave in the pantry. We rarely use ours but it’s handy to have when we need it, but I HATE looking at that thing. I mean, microwaves have to be the ugliest kitchen appliance.

    You can see how ours ended up in a picture about halfway through this post:
    http://www.theimpatientgardener.com/2013/06/the-kitchen-is-finished-look-at-new-digs.html

    Reply

  36. Lauren says

    It’s hard to tell what height the microwave is at (pictures on the internets!) without you guys standing next to it for reference. Is it at about counter height? It seems a little lower, like you’d have to bend down to use it?

    I keep my trashcan in the pantry too… works very well!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      It’s not too much trouble but you do bend a little to take things out. It’s probably easier than the one in our last house which was in an upper cabinet (you had to stretch up to use that one) but we don’t use it very often so it’s not a big deal.

      xo
      s

  38. Courtney says

    I agree with everyone else, John’s sense of humor is hilarious. Giggled at my desk all the way through this post. I’m gonna have to steal his sardonic “I’ll wait while you pin it” line in the future haha!

    Reply

  39. Dawn says

    I have been wanting to put my microwave in my pantry too. But I am scared that the electrician would have to cut holes in the kitchen wall to get an electrical outlet in the closet. What was your process?

    Reply

  40. Emily Mc says

    We got lucky when we bought our house as the previous owners had a full-length wire rack on the back of the pantry door like this: http://www.homedepot.com/p/ClosetMaid-72-in-x-18-in-8-Tier-Ventilated-Storage-Rack-8044/100189220

    I store my ever-growing spice collection (those little containers are so hard to store!), mixes, and baking supplies there and LOOOOVE it! Although it you have to push to make the door latch because of the hooks but we are in it so often (our trash and recycling is in there too) we don’t ever need to. If you have the depth for it, I highly recommend one. And our trash and recycling are both in there un-lidded and as long as I take it out after I put meats and such in there, rarely does it get stinkyville.

    Reply

  41. sarina says

    I so need to get into a pantry/cabinet reorganization. I moved into my place about a year ago and just sort of stuck things in cabinets without a big thought to how it would work out in use.

    I have a big wall of cabinets that includes basically 6 36 inchers (wide).. the bottom 4 have a shelf and the 2 top ones don’t. This is in addition to my 4 upper and one big lower and a drawer stack below (not counting the under sink). Maybe having too much room let me kind of stick things away willy nilly.

    I really think I would prefer the food to go into one of the cabinets in the “wall”.. right now they are in a top/corner cabinet.. which means things get pushed back out of my reach and sight.. That corner cabinet would be better for things that I don’t use much like serving platters. Oh.. and I have the tangle of plastic/paper grocery bags taking up 1/2 the lower cabinet that would be great for all my pots/pans.

    Maybe this thursday will be a good day to work on this considering we are going to have a snowmageddon event!

    I think it’s hard to go into a new space and know exactly how you will use it. I actually do use my microwave regularly to heat water and defrost/reheat leftovers.. so It wouldn’t work tucked away as well. But it’s easy to get into a jumble of appliances out on your counters!

    Reply

  43. Kaesey says

    We have a butler’s pantry between the kitchen and dining room. It’s in need of a major facelift (so no pics on my site, sorry!) but it houses most of our small appliances, all the non-perishable food, dishware and serving pieces, etc. The shelves withing the cabinets are big but are spaced far apart, which is great for tall cereal boxes but wastes a lot of space otherwise. I bought a handful of these http://www.containerstore.com/shop/kitchen/cabinetOrganizers/upperCabinets?productId=10016997&N=185 for canned goods, snacks, tea and coffee containers, boxes of pasta, etc., and they work like a charm. I can shift them as needed as the pantry stash changes, too.

    Reply

  44. Joules (from Pocketful of Joules) says

    When I did my great pantry organization project I stared at all the options at the Container store like pantry porn. I love the little half-shelf makers, because that way you don’t have an endless mess of stuff blocking other stuff. I also got some pretty shelf liner that just makes me feel so fancy. =)

    Reply

  46. Maureen says

    Our 1956 cape cod has blessed us with a really decent sized pantry (As well as a myriad of oddball stuff that the original owners from then blessed of with). It’s almost too big, though, because it is very deep. As deep as our base cabinets. So, organizing is a huge challenge actually. We really could benefit from pull out drawers, but there are so pricey. I have been slowly delving in to my disaster of a craft/hobby room and I have a couple of Ikea Antonius storage systems up there that I would love to somehow build in to my pantry to make it a bit more functional. I’m downsizing and trying to get most things in a closet so that I can get those emptied and in the kitchen. But, for now, we keep a really organized pantry by not over-stuffing it.

    Reply

  47. Brenda Mueller says

    This entire post and the thing that caught my attention the most: Forgotten cookies?? There are people that can forget about cookies? Maybe if I were one of those people I wouldn’t be sitting here with my pants unbuttoned..

    Reply

  48. Melissa@TheChicDream says

    I really like the idea of keeping the microwave in the pantry. Our shelves are too shallow and our microwave is mounted over our stove so that won’t work for us. I am going to be jazzing up our pantry in the next week or so. I am still deciding what colors I want to use for the walls and shelves but I know I will be organizing it with labeled canisters and baskets. I am so excited! It’s kind of sad to be so excited about pantry…

    Here is some pantry inspiration:
    http://www.thechicdream.com/2014/02/i-mentioned-yesterday-that-i-was.html

    Reply

  49. DKL says

    Three tier pantry shelves are an awesome addition by the way. It allows you to see the cans in the back. Very helpful for keeping track of lost cookies. I also added a back of the door organizer.

    Reply

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