Organize Deep Pantry Shelves (for free!)

The small kitchen in this video belongs to a busy, young family with no budget for fancy, custom built-ins. How do we fix their deep pantry shelves so they don’t drive them crazy? Watch the above video, or read on to find out! 

This young family has zero budget for a kitchen remodel (Who can relate?) So we work some organizing magic to make their small kitchen more user friendly without spending money on more stuff. 

Their main complaint: the deep corner pantry cabinets go way back into a lonely, dark abyss and everything gets lost. They can’t see what they have. 

Do you have this issue with your deep pantry shelves? It’s so frustrating and feels like wasted space. You can buy turntables (lazy susans) to fix the issue, or purchase long, clear bins w handles to pull things out, like a drawer. But again, this family doesn’t want to buy any of that right now! 

Looking around their kitchen, I find another cabinet which isn’t being optimized, beside the sink. This cabinet is what we call “prime real estate,” right at eye level, and should be used to store their kitchen items which are used most often. 

Instead, there’s a heavy mixer and some other specialized tools which I pull out.

We turn this whole cabinet into a “Breakfast Zone” with breads for the toaster oven located on the counter below it, and all of their coffee mugs because the coffee maker is also in this area near the sink. 

We find another cabinet which is a little random and has a large space where the stand mixer could go. I like to put those heavy mixers at waist level or below. They’re too heavy to be stored up high. 

We thin out and organize their drawer of storage containers on this project as well. You can read more about organizing Tupperware (and watch more videos) here and here. 

We take everything out of their low, kids’ stuff drawer and put back only what they still use. The kids have outgrown the baby items. 

Once we clear out space in those other 2 cabinets, we donate some mismatched glasses and move others to a dining room hutch. We also relocate all of their coffee mugs out of their shallow cabinet, and we are left with half an empty, shallow cabinet. Much better for storing small pantry items like cans and bottles! 

Now What’s in the Pantry?

The pantry has some clear bins (which the family was already using) for categories like: 

• baking supplies
• snacks, snacks, snacks!
• cooking staples: grains, pasta, etc.

Since we don’t need the lids to these bins, we strategically place some of those lids in the back of the pantry shelves in order to keep things from getting accidentally shoved into the black hole back there!

You can also use empty boxes or other sturdy items like seldom-used baking pans (maybe a cupcake pan) to occupy that dead space in the back of your deep pantry shelves. 

Labels

Wherever we move things around, we put a sticky note on the outside of the new drawer or cabinet to minimize confusion and frustration for everyone who uses the kitchen. 

The main take away here is to store things where you use them, especially items you use often. 

For example:

• coffee mugs by the coffee maker, near the sink
• hooks to hang oven mitts very close to the oven, where they are needed

The other important organizing principle on display: Move things you seldom use to higher or lower shelves to make room for the everyday stuff at eye and waist level. 

Thank you for reading and watching. Happy organizing!

Nonnahs