Pantry problems

[Mushe]

Hi H&F! I don’t think I’ve ever posted here, but poking around and thought you’d have good ideas for me.

We’ve been in our house three years, after not realizing it had no pantry until we’d closed. 🤦‍♀️ We have a really large garage, so for now, we keep extra goods on wire shelving there. I also have a treadmill, which during the months it’s not used turns into food storage too. There is a large understairs closet right by the kitchen too, but the front part is a coat closet.

My husband has been campaigning to buy a freestanding pantry cabinet, and wants it to be giant. I hate the idea of this huge piece of furniture, and keep sending smaller options.

Any ideas for me? Cool links on storage options? Here’s what he wants to buy:


www.homedepot.com/p/HOMESTYLES-Americana-Pantry-in-White-5004-692/203182555

[nicolewi]

Can you convert the existing closet and move the coats?

[hocus2]

I think putting that cabinet in the garage would be great (not sure about while in a garage but that is a separate matter)

If you don't want a free standing pantry in your kitchen I think redoing the closet so it can hold both coats and extra items would work too.

[Mushe]

He’s so stubborn, it’s insane. Our son (8) likes to play in the far back portion of the closet, and we also store things there. Since it’s half height at the back, he says it’s too hard to go in there to get stored items. He’s also not willing to take the coats out. Aaaaand he wants the food to be stored inside, not the garage.

I’m so frustrated at this point, because he’s dug in his heels about having a freestanding cabinet.

[Mushe]

I’m trying to resign myself to a cabinet, but hopefully minimize the size. I think something as tall as he’s wanting will overwhelm the room. It would go at the threshold between kitchen and family room, and all of the furniture downstairs is short.

[circa1978]

Store the coats on the treadmill - isn't that what treadmills are for anyway?

[lessel]

Where would the free-standing pantry/cabinet go inside? Is there space in your kitchen for it?

[ssmjlm]

I think a pantry cabinet can work if it's done right and you have room. Would doing something built-in that's a similar style to your kitchen cabinets be possible?

[simpsongal]

Just weighing into to say be careful what you store in the garage. We keep some excess supplies there but we had mice get into oatmeal, cereal, and other items.

[k3am]

simpsongal, just curious, but were the things the mice got into still sealed? We don't have a pantry and keep a ton of food in our garage, but only the sealed stuff. Once it's open, we move it inside. I know we've had rats and mice and other critters (no one can get rid of them here), but so far, nothing that's gotten into the food. (knockonwood)

[simpsongal]

May 19, 2020 15:07:43 GMT -5 k3am said:

simpsongal , just curious, but were the things the mice got into still sealed? We don't have a pantry and keep a ton of food in our garage, but only the sealed stuff. Once it's open, we move it inside. I know we've had rats and mice and other critters (no one can get rid of them here), but so far, nothing that's gotten into the food. (knockonwood)

Yes they were sealed - I guess we got lucky for a bit. But about a year of storing things in there and then I started seeing droppings and found anything that wasn't canned or in heavy plastic (e.g., peanut butter), was nibbled

We also found some snake skins b/c of course they followed the furry food....

[k3am]

simpsongal, that is not the answer I was hoping for!

[hamster]

We keep all of our food in the garage. We try and keep the canned food in a cupboard, but we've definitely had mice get into stuff on occasion.

[lolalolalola]

Do you have pictures of your space? Is there another piece of furniture that can be used? We store seldom-used kitchen items in our living room built -ins.

[Velar Fricative]

We do not have a legit pantry in our house either, nor do we have a garage. We just use kitchen cabinets in one area of the kitchen for pantry food and all bulk/extra food is on a large wire pantry shelf we found at Home Depot a while ago in the storage area of our basement.

Before you buy a whole new pantry cabinet, see if there are existing kitchen cabinets that can be dedicated to storing pantry items you use more regularly.

[orval]

We had a small pantry and limited storage. When we got new countertops, I was able to add a "Pantry Cabinet". It is tall - from the floor to the top of our other cabinets- one small door on top, long 5 foot door on bottom. We found doors at Lowes so similar you can't tell the difference between that one and the others. It is also next to our dishwasher and one upper cabinet and is deeper so not right next to it.
Ours looks something like this link(ours is white).  In the photos on teh link this is built in next to the fridge.   www.homedepot.com/p/Hampton-Bay-Hampton-Assembled-18x84x24-in-Pantry-Kitchen-Cabinet-in-Natural-Hickory-KP1884-NHK/202518637
Maybe you can find something that might be similar to your cabinets and build it in - instead of freestanding?

[Mushe]

Oh barf, mice!

I’ll try to upload a photo of the space. Our kitchen has one set of lower cabinets with pull out drawers (2) that we use for pantry items now. It’s really forced us to be more judicious in what we buy, until COVID. I bet we could add pull outs to the cabinet next to it and store the Pyrex and mixing bowls elsewhere. Better those go outside (if necessary) than food!

Maybe I could get him to agree to a lower/smaller cabinet if we also commandeered the kitchen cabinet.

[lilac05]

Does the current setup work outside of COVID times? Do you plan to continue to keep as much food in your house after things improve?

We currently have more pantry items in our house to reduce trips to the store, but will return to regular levels when it looks like things are a little more stable. For now, I have just a folding table set up in my dining room. It's not pretty, but no one is coming into my house anyway!

I'd consider what your food storage needs are long-term before making any purchases. Do you have any basement space? We have kitchen overflow in the basement, too. (A previous kitchen was 2.5 times as big as our current one.)

[Mushe]

He’s been complaining since we moved in. 😂

I found a local company that custom builds pull out drawers, so yay! I’m hoping he’ll let me move some things around to turn a second inside cabinet into pantry storage and then revisit the need for a cabinet.