Organization Ideas for a Small Kitchen Pantry
A small kitchen pantry can be organized to store and contain many more items than it might appear at first glance. By implementing and maintaining a functional system that uses sensible storage solutions, you can ensure that everything that needs to find a place to call home does.
Snug pantries, especially ones with awkward shapes or odd dimensions, can all be outfitted to work with the reality of the space. You can’t change the configuration or size, but you can maximize the possibilities. Here are six space-saving strategies for your cozy kitchen pantry:
- Dress Up With Dispensers
- Decant and Group
- Look to The Back of Doors
- Rise to The Occasion
- Spin A Lazy Susan
- Think Up and Down
Continue reading for details on how these six strategies could come to life in your own kitchen pantry space. Pass the three-tiered spice rack, please!
Dress Up a Small Kitchen Pantry With Dispensers
Dress up your kitchen pantry using an array of canned food dispensers. These storage wonders keep everything in tidy, neat rows. They come in varying materials, colors, and presentations to fit even the tightest, narrowest pantry spaces.
Most dispensers are designed with a slight slant or tilt that allows cans to slide along as you remove each one. Use them for a host of food storage such as soups, vegetables, beans, and even pet food cans.
Decant and Group
In small kitchen pantries, space is at a premium so the ability to decant and group storage bins is a brilliant way to see what inventory you have. Clear containers can be used to decant items such as baking ingredients, nuts, pasta, and so much more.
Cutting down on the many bags and boxes that fall over and get jammed into most pantries makes it a productive way to avoid overcrowding your valuable shelves. Whatever containers you choose, be sure they have air-tight or suction style lids so that pesky pantry visitors don’t show up uninvited.
Look to The Back of Doors
Using the inner side of pantry doors is an easy way to add storage for lightweight items such as coffee, tea bags, spices, foil, baggies, or plastic wrap. Nesting several slim storage units saves you precious real estate on shelves to house other items. Door organizers come in all types of widths and heights to accommodate your own pantry’s specifications.
Be sure prior to affixing units that you can close the doors and that they do not abut the shelves, impeding door closure. Worthington Court offers 15 terrific ways to use the backs of doors to maximize space in your pantry.
Rise to The Occasion
Shelf dividers and tiered shelf racks rise to the occasion when placed in smaller pantries. Expandable dividers assist in generating separate sections that promote necessary boundaries for your food items. Tiered racks and risers can double or triple your space and go a long way in maintaining a more streamlined pantry reality. Epicurious shares why incorporating shelf risers is a must in any kitchen pantry.
Spin a Lazy Susan
Hard-to-reach corners and narrow shelves are common design problems and are even more prevalent in a compact kitchen pantry. A Lazy Susan makes sense in spaces where traditional storage solutions just don’t work. Every pantry has its odds and ends that don’t seem to fit anywhere else and a Lazy Susan can corral those one-off outliers. In addition, it's great for stashing basic necessities such as condiments, sauces, spices, oils, and baking sprays.
Think Up and Down
The tendency when organizing a kitchen pantry is to try and utilize the space you see. However, there is so much you can do if you think up and down. It's amazing how much more square footage you can gain if you use shelf stands on wider shelves to double your surface area or magnetic racks or hefty hooks. Cover a sidewall with a pegboard and discover so much storage potential. Or install bins and place them below your shelves. They're ideal for containing individually packaged items or serving as a temporary resting place for potatoes or onions.
Final Thoughts
Finding an organization system for a modest kitchen storage area that works well is no easy feat. It takes trial and error to figure out an arrangement and the accessories that can meet you and your family’s everyday needs the best. With some creative storage solutions, your small kitchen pantry can function optimally for all the things you want it to be.