Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Pantry in a stairwell - some storage ideas

The stairway to our basement is also our pantry. I try to maximize the bits of storage space that don't encroach on the free use of the stairs.

On the walls that have a few inches of clearance, there are wire shelf baskets. These reach up to the ceiling of the stairwell.

When we have bags of chips (or any bulky bag of very light weight), we clip them to the higher shelves (so they are out of the way and above our heads) using clothes-pins. This way, they don't use valuable shelf space.

On the one wall there is about 3" of space, which isn't wide enough for a set of shelves. On this wall, we stack boxes of breakfast cereal face-out.
Emily in 2004 with the Wall o'Cereal after a big Kellogg's sale

Emily in 2004 with the Wall o'Cereal after a big Kellogg's sale. She was as old then as Gretta is now.
{Cue the violins with "Fiddler on the Roof"....}


Above head level on that wall, I've hammered a few nails into a (painted) plank of wood that is attached to the drywall.



These nails are perfect for hanging the net bags that hold heavy produce, such as onions and potatoes.


This is also where we keep the plastic coffee-cup lids, and bulk-purchased plastic bread bags, suspended by plastic bags, hung on mug hooks.


What are your Pantry storage solutions?


Please share them in the comments!


Works for Me Wednesday header at rocksinmydryer.typepad.com(This post is part of the Works for Me Wednesday group writing project.)
Here are the rest of my contributions to the WFMW project.

11 comments, so far. Add yours now!

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Kara said...

Great use of space!

Carrie J said...

Wonderful use of space. When we lived in an apartment I used to store cases of food under my beds, under end tables covered with a cloth and under my sofa.

Mari said...

Great way to use that space. I can see you have a lot stored there!

RaggedyMom said...

Great photos and descriptions! I'm going to have to look around at the wall space here and see if anything can be reconfigured. Space in our apartment is a little tight in terms of buying large quantities.

We used to keep things on and under a narrow butcher block that we inherited from my brother and sister-in-law. But Andy tends to just take things apart that are in his reach at this point, so . .

We converted our hallway linen closet into a pantry and gave up a bedroom closet to the linens.

Nikki said...

Very creative storage! I love what you've done. I used to store canned food under my bed when we lived in a one-bedroom apartment when we were first married.

I never thought of hanging up bags of chips and such. That's very smart. They won't get smashed and they won't be taking up shelf space. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

My goodness, I hope some of that cereal is still around !
:-)

Kathy in WA said...

Great post! I love the pictures. We use peg board in our pantry - provides lots of hooks and places to hang things. There's NEVER enough space, however, for everything. :)

Duckabush Blog

Anonymous said...

Wow! You have really utilized your space. In my kitchen, I needed a place to store my unsightly collection of aluminum foil, plastic baggies and such. I used the bottom shelf of an available bookshelf and hid the mess with a tension rod and a window valance.

Orthonomics said...

I have a fantastic pantry. But, I added two of the six foot white wire racks you have because I want to be able to view all of my spices, baking, and cooking supplies. I'm a major stocker, I can see you are too. I've never thought to hang onions or potatoes on a wall. I keep mine in a plastic container with a handle on the floor of my pantry.

Storage Cabinets said...

Great storage solution! Love it :)

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