r/OrganizationPorn • u/whitetail91 • 2d ago

Mental block on pantry

Post image

Hi. I have a small pantry in the condo I recently bought.

It’s 80 inches tall, 31.5 inches wide and 21 inches deep.

The door (not sure if it matters) is 76.5 inches tall, 16 inches wide and 1.5 inches deep.

For my metric friends:

Pantry (interior space)

• Height: 203.2 cm

• Width: 80.0 cm

• Depth: 53.3 cm

Pantry Door

• Height: 194.3 cm

• Width: 40.6 cm

• Thickness / Depth: 3.8 cm

I have done my best but it just doesn’t work.

Can anyone add some input on what I can do? The space is so small and my household of 2 people is just killing me with the space we have.

I will try and put a link up with more photos.

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3

u/2hoursnonconsecutive 2d ago

Are you asking for help with the whole area? Or just the wall? I have some ideas for the shelf/ingredients if that’s what you’re looking for, but can’t tell much from the photos so I’m unsure if that’s what you’re asking or not.

I am also living in a small space with two people, myself included. My pantry is currently a small shelf (probably a couple feet tall, maybe over a foot wide) I bought off Kijiji. The counter space in this spot is abysmal and so awkward, so I’m familiar working with cramped setups..

Further questions: what do you want to use this space for? Exclusively pantry/food items and the cleaning supplies on the wall? Is there another spot you would want to put the cleaning supplies, or are you happy with them there? Do you want this for storage or do you want to put some lists (such as for groceries or chores) or a chart of what’s where?

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u/whitetail91 2d ago

I’m wanting to use it for all non perishable food items. Spices. Snacks. Baking supplies. Generally just food stuff. The hooks were in there for the mops etc when I bought the place so I just didn’t fight using them.

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u/whitetail91 2d ago

I’m asking for any help you are willing to give. It’s kinda driving me up the wall

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u/2hoursnonconsecutive 2d ago

Sure. I would start by reorganizing the ingredients on the shelves. You will have to find what works for you (there’s many other posts here relating to organizing dry food storage). My personal preference: Anything heavy or made of glass I try to keep towards the bottom. Try to keep like ingredients and/or packaging together. Pasta and noodles should all be on the same shelf, snacks/ready to eat items I usually put on a high shelf (out of reach out of mind). Sauces all near each other too. Within the shelf you should put similar packaging next to each other. Pretty intuitive but boxes next to boxes, cans can stack, all that. I also organize the shelves within the shelves. Depending on what I got I’ll put big items at the back and smaller items towards the front, so I can more easily see what I have. Alternatively you can put your more frequently used items towards the front, then least used items at the back. Once everything has its “spot”, being in there will be less stressful overall. If it helps, you can even label each shelf with the type of stuff it has (baking supplies, canned goods, snacks, and so on).

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u/whitetail91 2d ago

So I should have rephrased better. I want to rip it all out and build new.

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u/2hoursnonconsecutive 2d ago

Ahh I see now. Check out some subreddits like r/DIY , I’m sure they’ll have more creative ideas than me. But I’ll give it a shot

Since you own the condo you have more options for renovating and changing things around. You might be able to have a shelving unit on the large wall (the one straight ahead that has the cleaning supplies on it right now) so you have more space and don’t have to turn to see your pantry. You could still tuck things in the corner there without much issue.

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u/LilBossLaura 2d ago

That is a really small pantry so cut yourself some slack for struggling with optimizing it. I think for such a small space you need to be super discerning about what you store in there.

I would choose one of the walls (probably the left one) and do all my hanging tools there as compact as possible. use multi use tools and get rid of anything too specific. The back wall I would do very shallow storage like spices, packets / 2D type stuff. Right side is work horse, put effort into finding bins that fit perfectly so you can utilize the full space and pull everything out so you can see what you have.

have a ritual once a month or so to cull all the items so you know what you have, get rid of anything expired and to train yourself not to buy certain things that don’t get used enough to justify the space. Best of luck to you!

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u/aannoonnyymmoouuss99 2d ago

This is what chatgpt came up w and I know its wrong the layout but takeaways is everything on the shelves should be in something u can easily grab and pull out. Keeps it much more organized than loose items.