Update in #1. If you don't have a pantry...

[wendibird22]

So I was away for a conference for 5 days and what does DH go and do...rearrange the pantry/island like he wanted to....and I didn't. I walk in the house after a 6hr drive home and exhausting week and find I don't know where anything goes. Can't figure out where to hang my coat, put down my work bag, etc. I didn't say anything to him about it and he didn't say anything to me. I'm pi$$ed because I at least would've like to have a say on where things went. Now our bread and rolls are in a drawer where the baggies and plastic wrap used to be. All the boxed, canned food, chips, cereal, etc are in the island. All the coats and hats and mittens and shoes are in the pantry closet and the front coat closet is an empty wasteland with a vacuum and mop. Oh and I forgot to mention that he even swapped shoe racks for the one in my closet so now I have a smaller one in my closet that doesn't hold all my shoes. I'm really going to try to adjust but I just don't think I'm going to like it.
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Sorry for the long post....

Where and how do you store your food? Our home is 6yr old. It was a new construction but about 90% complete when we purchased it. In finishing the interior the builder (who does custom homes mostly) realized that the specs didn't call for a pantry. The kitchen was already finished. So he installed extra wire shelving in the back closet. This closet is a standard bedroom closet...two sliding doors, interior space recesses a bit to the left and right of the doors. The closet is right next to the kitchen at our garage door entrance. We use 1/2 the closet for pantry and the other 1/2 for shoe, mop/broom, and misc item storage. We also have a coat closet at our front door entrance so our coats, work bags, book bags, hats/mittens are stored there.

DH HATES and I mean HATES that when you come home (and we always use the garage entrance since both cars park in the garage) there's no place to put anything. The kids dump their shoes, coats, bags, leaving DH or I to lug all our stuff to the front hall coat closet to hang up. The shoe rack, mop, broom, and misc junk (grill tools, reusable grocery bags, etc) do not allow room for the hats, mittens, and coats to be in that 1/2 the closet. DH very much wants to get the food out of the other 1/2 and make the closet a full coat closet. He thinks we should rearrange our kitchen cabinets so that food can go there. I just don't see how we'd have the space.

We have in our kitchen:
a center island which currently houses electric stuff (forman, griddle, mixer, blender, etc)

One double size upper cabinet (all plates, bowls, serving items)

3 single size upper cabinets (two hold drinkwear/mugs/stemwear, the other holds spices, small baking items, measuring cups, etc)

1 narrow upper cabinet which holds liquor and cooking spray/oils etc

1 upper and 1 lower corner cabinet. These easily become black holes because they are so deep. The upper holds all tupperwear/plasticwear/food storage and the lower holds all the pots and pans

3 lower single size cabinets. One holds bakewear/casserols/mixing bowls. One holds all baking items (racks, cake pans, muffin tins, loaf pans, etc). One was holding baby food and baby feeding stuff and is now EMPTY and could be used for something.

2 tiny above appliance cabinets (one above microwave and other above fridge). These hold the stuff we rarely ever use because they are so inaccessible.

The only place that I think would have enough space for all the food would be the island but I don't think there's anyway the appliances would fit in the one available lower cabinet and much of it is used often enough that it wouldn't make sense to store them elsewhere and we do use them on the island. I also think we'd have a hard time finding what we need in there.

He really really wants to do this so I'm trying to take suggestions on how to make it work. What I really want to do is find a way to get some coat/bag storage at the back entrance (coat rack/hooks) or maybe add shelving to our laundry room (very very tiny and at this same entrance as pantry/closet) for the misc item storage. Unfortunately with the laundry room door being on one wall and a full closet on the other, that back entrance isn't big enough for a locker style bench system. There's only 32" of wall space.

Here's a pic from when we first moved in. You can see the back entrance (the pantry is on the right hand side and the garage door straight back). There are a cabinets on either side of the fridge that you can't see in the pic.

[wellyes]

Nice kitchen!
If you don't mind a rustic look, you could store food above the cabinets.

[momof2girls]

It's kind of a big job, but would you consider moving the washer/dryer to the basement? Before we had a pantry we used shelving in our mudroom for storage. Others in my area have their laundry in their mudroom area, but I'd rather be inconvenienced a few days a week doing laundry than daily with kitchen goods.
Also, not sure if you are into the look, but you could install potracks over the island and free up some cabinet space that way.

[AnnieW625]

I honestly just don't buy many dry goods in bulk. Canned tomatoes, refried beans, peaches, pineapple, and tomato sauces are the only exceptions because we keep them in the boxes and then we keep them in the laundry room cabinets as they are right next to our kitchen.

[mom2khj]

Is there anywhere you could fit a freestanding cabinet?

[lil_acorn]

If you can, I would move some of the appliances down tot he basement (little used) and use that space for some common pantry items. Extra food items or special food items that aren't eaten frequently, I would also put down in teh basement. We have racks down in teh basement for most of our foods.

[khalloc]

I have a large kitchen I think. We have a similar problem. We come in from the garage (to the left of the fridge) and although there is a small mudroom there, we dont have enough room for our stuff. We drop it all in that room (boots, gloves, coats, shoes, etc...) Then I drop all of the grocery bags on the island (if they fit) and then next to the fridge and then to the right of the wall oven. To top it off, our laundry is in that mud room too. So we often has laundry baskets, etc...on the floor taking up precious space.

We dont have a pantry really. We do have a pantry cabinet to the left of the fridge. We use that for all the food.

I think you just dont have enough kitchen cabinets. Can you put some items in the garage? Like mop/broom/etc...?

[Jo..]

Do you have a garage or utility room right off that kitchen? In my old house, we had a very large mudroom type thing which we used as the exercise room/dog room/storage. I lined two walls with utility cabinets from Lowes/Home Depot. That gave us 30 linear feet of storage (x6 feet high).

We moved to a small rental and moved half of the cabinets into the single car garage off our kitchen. That is where 99% of the food goes. Otherwise I seriously don't know WHERE I could put it...the spices, the oil, the vinegar, the canned beans and tomato products, the potatoes and onions...there's no room for it in the kitchen.



This is such a problem for me. I like to shop on sale and in bulk when I see a great deal.My new house is going to have a HUGE kitchen with tons of storage, AND a butler's pantry, AND a walk in pantry.

[erv917]

Could you consider putting a "mudroom" space in the garage next to the entrance door into the house? Coat hooks, shoe racks, cubbies, etc.? Then you could continue to use the closet as a pantry for food storage. I know this isn't exactly what you were asking, but I agree with you that I don't see a lot of options for food storage elsewhere. Alternatively, what's on the wall near your fridge? My kitchen has a similar layout, except my fridge is next to my oven. The wall where you have your fridge has 2 large, shallow pantries (about the depth of a cereal box, which I love because I don't lose things!). Any chance you could put some type of food storage over there?

Good luck!

[AnnieW625]

Insanely jealous! I think that kitchen/living area is as big as my house!

Don't ever move to a desirable area of Southern California or the Bay Area because you won't get that for under a million bucks!