I Need Minions > Kitchen Pantry

Fresh start, clean slate, beginning of the year.  


It's January, yup that's right - the slate is clean.  Maybe it's that resolution thing that people do (not me, but other people) for New Year's.  For me there is something about taking down the Christmas decorations and starting the New Year fresh.  I have to admit that I've been known to still have my Christmas decorations up in mid-January.  Not this year though.  Don't start congratulating me on my promptness, the only reason I have them down and put away is because I knocked my tree over Christmas morning and broke the stand.  When your Christmas tree is leaning against the wall like a drunken sailor there is some motivation to put everything away.  


January seems to be the month for organization, cleaning and fresh starts.  All the January magazines have articles about it and all the stores have an awful lot of organization/storage paraphernalia on sale.  The January Good Housekeeping magazine has an article titled "Hey, y'all, I need some help!"  Paula Deen's kitchen is a disorganized mess and she needs some help.  Don't feel too sorry for her because her kitchen is huge.  Everyone knows that if you have too much stuff for your space that's where you get into trouble and I have the smallest kitchen known to man.  I've seen bigger kitchens in hotels with kitchenettes.  You think I'm joking but the Future Mrs. 2Wicked's brother was over the other day and when he walked into my kitchen he said, "Wow, your kitchen is really small!"  You know it's small when a non-gay guy comments on the size of your kitchen.  

My kitchen is about the size of Angela Glossy Flossy's pantry - 

actually I think her pantry might be bigger.  You know that saying, "You can't have everything - where would you put it?", well I don't have everything but I still need somewhere to put all that extra Costco size stuff, and the supplies that I'm getting close to running out of.  If you don't have a pantry like the one below, I have some ideas for you.

The only real "free" space I had was in a small corner of my laundry room. So we got creative and took an Ikea closet unit that happened to fit perfectly and used that as my pantry.

I chose the shallow shelf version vs deep for two reasons:  I was only storing grocery type items in it and if the shelves are too deep the items seem to get lost and I would not have been able to open the doors all the way with the deep one because of space.  Why the clear doors? I personally don't like to see everything on my shelves and I like the way the closet doors give the room more of a finished look.

Some tips before purchasing a pantry:  

Measure your available space.

Decide how you want to use space.  Are you using it for food or are you using it for storing appliances?  If you are storing appliances (mixers, crockpots, chafing dishes, etc., I would definitely get a deeper closet or storage unit. 

Don't forget to use your vertical space, especially in small spaces. 

Needing some extra storage space of your own but don't have a whole lot of space like me? There are tons of ideas out there for unconventional pantries, here are a few to get you started:

Armoires:

Wire shelves:

Bookcase:

And the last idea - and I'm not making this up - there is a site selling these.


The Convertible Pine Box Book Shelf "Casket".  This is a direct quote from their site:  "For the customer who wants to help their loved ones by planning ahead, the Conversion Caskets are the answer.  The casket can be available until the time it is needed, but be used in the meantime as a living room bookshelf, a kitchen pantry. . . "  Now that is a conversation piece.  I can hear it now, "I like to keep my Bisquick in my casket, doesn't everyone?"  I'm pretty sure if I saw that in someone's living room I would be beating feet out of there.

www.longarmwranch.com

Just hoping no one wants to help me plan ahead!


Happy New Year! or Happy Fresh Start!


-Laurie