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leftylee

How to retrofit deep pantry cabinets to make them more efficient

leftylee
6 years ago

I have a mid 1980s house with a bank of 24" deep cabinets designed to be the pantry. They go all the way to the ceiling. In addition, they are dark brown, making the upper ones like black holes, where things disappear never to be seen again. I can see where putting sliding shelves in the bottom and middle ones would work, but what suggestions, short of replacing the cabinets, do you have to make the space in the top ones more useful? Thanks



Comments (14)

  • vpierce
    6 years ago

    I think Rev-A-Shelf has some pull down shelves that might work.

  • jhmarie
    6 years ago

    Since I am a short person, I don't store anything in high cabinets that I frequently use. I would probably store bulk quantities (paper towels) / rarely used items in those spaces. You can get vertical dividers and put cookie sheets, platters, muffin tins, 9 x 3 baking dish and store vertically.

    Next, I would bundle items used together - backing soda, salt, baking powder - into clear containers so I could pull them all down at once - though I probably would keep those items lower in any case because I use them frequently.

    There is also nothing wrong with an almost empty cabinet or even storing some of the Christmas decorations in a high space.

    Many keep a step stool handy if they need to get to the space frequently. I have a smallish kitchen and have managed to get everything I need frequently to be easily reachable in lower cabinets. I have to be good about keeping the cabinets neat and not letting unused stuff pile up.

  • KD
    6 years ago

    Add in-cabinet lighting- you can get low profile battery LEDs that would work really well from places like Ikea. If you go really fancy you could set them up to automatically come on when the door opens.

    I’d also look into getting a step stool that fits in the toe kick, so you have one right there ready to grab when you need to get into the higher cabinets.

    Finally, as suggested, think about what you put where. Light bulky things like paper towels and unopened boxes of cereal and lightweight snacks (chips, etc. stuff that is mostly air) would be ideal. But only for your backup supply - you’d want to keep the cereal/snacks in use somewhere easier to grab, and I’d probably do the same with a spare roll of paper towels or two.

  • AvatarWalt
    6 years ago

    I'm not sure if they come in sizes that would work to put in those cabinets, but maybe you could find a pull out pantry configuration that would let you pull out a set of shelves from behind each door, letting you see both sides of the pullout and making everything from the front to the back of the cabinet accessible. Barring that, I agree with the prior posters to look at things you could put up there like cookie sheets, big cutting boards, paper towels and, if you put in a middle shelf, maybe a crockpot/rice cooker/instapot/ice cream maker/ food processor if you have a step stool handy.

  • PRO
    Drawer Essentials
    6 years ago
    You can put in roll-out shelves.
  • abbycat9990
    6 years ago

    Our 24" deep pantry is about 7.5' tall (to the soffit). In our recent refresh of cabinets, we replaced the adjustable shelving in the lower section with pullouts that DH made. In the upper portion, we attached cabinet dividers to the center shelf (and rear wall) for baking sheets, etc. The bottom shelf is for baking supplies; the top is for extra cereal, cat food, etc. It's a huge improvement on function.

  • User
    6 years ago

    BIG lazy susans.

    And the sheet bakeware is a good idea.

  • leftylee
    Original Author
    6 years ago

    @cluelessinColorado, yes they do.

  • cluelessincolorado
    6 years ago

    Oh good, the photo made it look like maybe the trim would stop them short of 90 degrees and that would eliminate pull outs. My mother has these and she can store a ton and find everything easily.

    p-241-swing-out-single-door-unit-tall-pantry-accessories.aspx



  • Leeann Hill
    6 years ago

    Thanks, everyone, for your suggestions! I have some research to do and some decisions to make.

  • Nicole
    6 years ago

    I put these lights in our pantry and love them. They've been there a few months and I had to replace the batteries only in one of them. https://www.amazon.com/URPOWER-Operated-Wireless-Nightlight-Portable/dp/B074DTSQF7/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1519820742&sr=8-5&keywords=motion+sensor+led+battery+lights

  • Leeann Hill
    6 years ago

    Nicole,

    Great idea!! Half the battle i have with these cabinets is seeing what’s in them. These would really help. Thanks

  • Nicole
    6 years ago
    last modified: 6 years ago

    You're welcome. It was easier than wiring up interior cabinet lights and the motion sensing works pretty well. They are very bright. I had 2 to light up the larges 6 shelf portion of our pantry. I have 2 more lights, one in each large drawer on the bottom of the pantry as well.