Cabinet of wonders

January 30, 2023 4:26 PM

I'm trying to organize/customize a deep, ceiling-to-floor pantry cabinet by adding some special shelving to an existing cabinet. I need some guiding principles. What belongs at eye level, chest level or waist level? What kind of pull out shelf works best for various types of items: wire, shallow wood, deeper wood? Or should I remove the shelves and install actual drawers for certain stuff? Any tips appreciated!

I've already put liquor on the bottom shelf, and plan to use the top for rarely-used appliances and maybe other beverages. But I'm having a tough time deciding where everything else should go, and which type of shelving to use (a mix is fine). My pantry is more oriented towards cooking than snacking. I've got a wide variety of beans/rice/pasta, oils/vinegars, baking stuff, cans/condiments, some spices that don't fit in my main spice drawer, fresh veggies that aren't refrigerated, and so forth.

posted by acidic to Home & Garden (8 answers total)

I'm constantly surprised at how many people store their KitchenAid mixer up really high, like on top of the refrigerator. Don't they realize how heavy those suckers are? The broader point is that ease of access should be taken into account along with frequency of access.

You will have more flexibility as your needs change if you rely on shelves and put small, roll-y things in baskets. I tend to keep a variety of small to medium containers on hand that I can press into duty when I reorganize my pantry. But that's me, an admitted freak about such issues.

In addition to the advice you'll receive here, the folks at Container Store really excel at this type of challenge. Every time I've had them work with me to design a closet or the like, I've been thrilled with the results.
posted by DrGail at 5:24 PM on January 30, 2023 [1 favorite]

If you have enough depth, I'd go with something like That Midwestern Mom's mom's pantry (instagram link). It swings out with lots of shelfs. Appliances and lesser used stuff goes in the way-back. [tiktok link here]

Wire is nice for airflow and for being able to see up and down through the shelves. But I end up putting some cardboard on my wire shelves because not all items sit nicely on wire.
posted by hydra77 at 6:03 PM on January 30, 2023 [2 favorites]

Our pantry has 4 or 5 shallow pull-out shelves up to 6 feet or so and above that is just non-pull-out shelves. The whole thing is maybe 10 feet high and the top shelf is really just for things we use a couple of times a year. We need a stool to access the higher stuff anyway and having to deal with things coming out on top of it seems like it would make everything more difficult.

It is easier to organize things on a solid surface like a wood shelf than a wire one. We have some wire pullouts for mixing bowls but with a pantry you may have small bottles or even bags which won't work great with a wire basket.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 6:09 PM on January 30, 2023 [2 favorites]

I wouldn't put appliances on the top. They are too heavy and aren't something a person should have to reach for. Any appliances should generally go in the area from waist to shoulders. A person should need to do the the least bending or reaching for appliances.
posted by NotLost at 7:02 PM on January 30, 2023

I can't think of any use case where wire is better than wood, for pull-outs. IME wire is always a PITA, stuff will always fall through and be annoying.

Shelves above your head should be shallower than ones at eye level or lower, for visibility.

I'd much rather have liquor high up than appliances, unless you live in earthquake country. Anything heavy should not be above your shoulder level.

For my money, shallow shelving where you can see everything you need to see is better in general than anything deep, including drawers, and a whole lot cheaper. (Not talking here about under-counter storage, which, because it has to be deep, is infinitely better with drawers.)

Don't forget lighting.
posted by fingersandtoes at 8:11 PM on January 30, 2023 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks for the answers so far. I can see people are going to fixate on this so I just want to clarify that by appliances, I am talking about exceedingly rarely used, not too heavy stuff such as a plastic sno-cone maker or a spiralizer.
posted by acidic at 9:19 PM on January 30, 2023

I’d put tall things and heavy appliances on the bottom. On top, wire storage baskets, lightweight, seldom used items like cookie cutters, extra water bottles. I had a bag of rice in the bottom container in the pantry. Then some mice came to visit and found it. Food on low shelves should be in sturdy containers.
posted by theora55 at 4:58 AM on January 31, 2023

I reorganized my deepish (roughly 2' x 2') pantry with a large lazy susans on the upper two shelves, where I store canned and bottled goods. The waist high shelf has bins for pasta, salty snacks and dried fruit, which I can pull out to rummage through or pull out to access less frequently used pantry stuff, such as baking supplies. I have another lazy susan on the bottom shelf which holds large bottles like my olive oil (which refills the smaller container by the stove).
posted by sarajane at 8:15 AM on January 31, 2023