What kind of storage do you have in your pantry? shelves? cabinets? How big is it? Can you share a photo?

If you have space, lower cabinets with drawers work really well for keeping things organized and put away. Could also look at bins on shelves or wheeled or slide-out bins on the floor.

I don’t have as big a pantry but it’s just me. I have a island with shelves on the end that faces the cabinets and I stir my toaster, crockpot, blender, salad spinner and an electric can opener on those shelves.

I store my appliances on one side of my pantry and then use baskets on the shelves for a neat appearance. I also don't stockpile which helps.

I like how A D has a designated cubby for each appliance! I think for these larger items having a single reserved spot for each one would really help you.

What to do with all the small appliances? Does anyone have any ideas on where or how to store them? ie, food processor, insta pot, kitchen aid, vitamix, waffle pro iron… you get the idea? Help please!

First question is, How often do you actually use each of these small appliances? Anything that's not "earning its keep" should go away.

Second, in a perfect world I'd like to have something like AD shows: tall shelves (with adjustable shelves) on one side of the pantry.

Where do I actually keep such things? My KitchenAid mixer stays out on the cabinet -- I use it at least twice a week. The coffee pot stays out because my husband uses it (almost) daily. The other things live in the pantry, but not on shelves as nice as AD's.

That is good information. I do use my Instant Pot and Vita Mix more frequently but the Waffle Maker could actually be moved elsewhere. Thanks for that idea. I also realize I have more can goods ands bottles of sauce, vinegars, etc that I really don't need so I can also find someother place to store the overflow on those items. What luxury to be able to actually store bottled water, soda or other drinks! (I have no room for those either!)

We have a second full sized fridge in our garage where we keep bottled water and other drinks so they are cold and don't take up space in the pantry.

Your shelves are very widely spaced, which makes it difficult to keep small items organized. Look at your lowest shelf--there are several stacks where you need to lift 2 items to get to items below. Tall shelves, stacked high, make it hard to find what you want, and often lead to over-buying of items because you can't see what you already have. A good first step might be investing in shelf risers that let you convert one tall shelf area into 2 or 3 shorter shelf areas. Once you are able to organize small items on their own short shelf, space for appliances will hopefully reveal itself.

Long term, you might want to investigate Elfa or another type of hanging shelf system. It lets you break the wall into smaller sections with different shelf heights, to really optimize what you can store. Or if you want the look of fixed wood shelves, plan out a more customized set. Notice how AD has a variety of shelf heights that lets her fit appliances into "just right" spaces.

I have a pantry room in my basement, so most stuff goes down there. I have a basement/garage so it's easy to unload the items in the pantry room and then pull them into my upstairs kitchen pantry as needed. So I do stockpile, but I keep just a few items in the kitchen vs multiples of things in the basement pantry.

(though right now I'm tearing out my kitchen so my kitchen pantry space has shifted to an old TV armoire unit that we had custom built back in the day when TVs were big and unweildy. Since we can't quite give up the custom built piece, I've decided it works just fine as a temporary 1st floor pantry.)

So... do you have the space elsewhere to set up a pantry so you can keep less food in the actual kitchen pantry to provide more space for the appliances? Alternately, I've seen some mobile 3 or 4 level small carts that folks use just for appliance storage.

I am in the process (meaning hubby needs to get moving) of adding three pantry units to my laundry room. It is directly adjacent to the kitchen and will hold all the small appliances and Costco trips.

I have racks in the basement for kitchen overflow for items that I need for special occasions (picnic ware for our annual pig roast), HUGE stockpot that wouldn't fit in any cupboard, the 75 different bundt pans............etc.

I have pantry cabinets and, as of recently, have one section with adjustable shelves houses everything except the coffee pot and toaster (which live on the counter). I suppose it’s the cabinet version of what @A D has done in part of her walk-in pantry.

mcarroll16 hit the nail on the head - if you had twice as many shelves, spaced to fit the things you have, it would look (and stay!) much neater. I'll bet your pantry goes from neat and organized to an exploded mess when you start to dig under 3 things to get that can of diced tomatoes on the bottom.

Put tall canisters on one shelf, short canisters on another - with only an inch or so of "wasted" space above them. A shelf at eye level can be jut tall enough for 1 layer of canned goods. Then you can put like things together - cooking on one side, baking on the other, for example.

As for appliances - in my old kitchen, they all went in the super susan; in our new house, they are spread out: some in drawers, some in the pantry/laundry room off the kitchen, and some in a spare bedroom closet next to the kitchen (that's for things like waffle iron). If you designate a space for each appliance, and put them away right after use, those spots won't get filled with food.

I found the oxo lazy Susan/ spinner tray very helpful for the corners of my pantry and organizers that look like stair steps helpful for small bottles/spice jars. Just removing and really assessing everything is a great start. Surely some stuff is lesser used, out of date, otherwise doesn’t need to be in there. Then maybe identify one area for the necessary appliances, each one with its own spot. Then maybe foods by type. Cereals here, flours here, etc.

One day my wife and I went through our pantry - the bottled spices, cans, pastas, grains, prepared mixes, unopened bottled items like peanut butter, various jams, mayonnaise, mustards, asian sauces, hot sauces, different vinegars, some unusual oils, etc. We were appalled at the expiration dates of many. They ranged from 9 years to 1 year expired. Not only were they so old, but it showed how infrequently we used these items. Our shelves seemed quite empty after we threw those away. You may want to do similar in your pantry, and find that you have plenty of room after all.

Small appliances for us - coffee maker, burr grinder, toaster and mixer on the counter. Food processor and blender in the pantry. We gave to charity the popcorn maker, George Foreman grill, waffle maker, mini food processor, ice cream maker, bread maker, panini press, and a couple of other things that seemed so cool when we bought them but that we never used after a couple of times. My wife wants to get rid of the huge mixer - we never use it, but we do use the Kitchenaid handheld one quite frequently and that barely takes up any space.

Set aside some of the unopened (and not expired!) sauces and seasonings, and use them to make up little gift baskets that you can give people or donate to fund raisers.

You need to use the fourth wall of your pantry which is where the door is located.  A well built rack on the back of the door could hold quite a few items and everything woud be visible and not stuck behind or under anything else. Install a hook or holder for your broom and dustpan also. Additional shelves of varying heights would reduce the stacking.

@rainyseason I use them too. I have two on a higher shelf and they are so useful for accessing the items I would need my stool to reach.

I also have a full door spice rack I purchased from Esty on the back of my pantry door.

Lazy Susans are awesome for organizing! What you lose in shelf space you more than gain in ease of locating items. Especially on overhead shelving.

I have a very small pantry, so I arranged some Target bookshelves to be an overflow/stock-up pantry in the basement. So I may have 6 boxes of spaghetti, but only one is upstairs. 10 cans of tomato soup, but only two are upstairs. I ”shop” in the basement before I go to the grocery store. If my kitchen pantry were larger, that would leave me room for appliances. (As it is, they live either on the counter or in a lower cabinet.)

A wall rack, hung on the wall or on the door, is great for cans!

On shelves, the only things that should be stacked are duplicates. So, your shelves should be closer together. And the only things that should be stacked horizontally, one behind the other, are duplicates. So some of your shelves can be shallower.

I agree with others. Your shelves are too far apart. I can not tell form your picture but is there wall space for anything?

I used walls for some things in my pantry. Vitamix, kitchenaide mixer, toaster oven, coffee maker and coffee grinder live on my kitchen countertop. We store extra water down in our mechanical room.

I just had an Elfa pantry installed, but haven't moved in yet. The room ended up a bit narrower than planned, but will work just fine. I've been happy using Elfa for closets, but haven't used it for a pantry before. If I had another foot of width I would have done drawers on both sides. I think the drawers will make a big difference in helping to keep things neat and organized.

Chispa, that looks great! I hope you have a lot of fun with the move-in process. My Elfa garage pantry made a huge difference in storage for us. The ability to add and move shelves as your gear changes is a huge help in keeping things tidy. This thread is motivating me to go buy a few more shelves and fix one of the mistakes I made in my original set up. I think it's the Elfa discount season right now.

Given supply chain issues, it's very hard these days to know the right amount of canned/boxed foods to have on hand. I apprecate that the OP is stocking up, which is wise especially if she has a family. It's helpful to separate food that you are currently eating (like opened food in canisters) from food that is stored (in cans, bags, boxes) so you don't overlook open food that is losing freshness by the day, then teach your family that the pretzel canister goes "HERE" and the unopened bags go "THERE". Do you have enough cupboard space in your kitchen-proper to keep open food in there? I would not store food on the floor unless it's temporary (food you might buy for a party). I'd get a large plastic storage tote for paper goods and a smaller one for inventory of foil, plastic wrap, ziplocks, etc. Let your storage containers define the size of your inventory.

The new thing I've discovered is clear acrylic turntables: you can find them online or at Walmart or Target, from 9" in diameter to 14" in diameter. Very expensive at the Container Store. I would say that turntables, though you cannot pack as much into the space as you can with bare shelves, have done more for my kitchen organization than anything else. I think I have nine or ten of them, the best one has sides that are about 4" high. It's easy to see what you have. All the vinegar goes on one turntable. Nut butters and honey belong on another. Oils on another. I keep my big spice jars on turntables and my smaller spice jars go on little stepped organizers that fit in my spice cupboard. Corn starch, corn meal, baking powder, baking soda go on another. Vitamins on another turntable. Its' easy to check inventory, just spin. Having the food we use day-to-day organized on turntables (these turnables account for about 20% of my in-kitchen cupboards and certain ingredients in size appropriate canisters that fit in my cupboard has allowed me to pack food neatly into my back pantry. Of course I have the usual canned tomato products, stocks, condiments, canned veggies, etc in the kitchen, but most canned food is stored in my back pantry on 12" shelves. Everything is easy to view and rotate into the kitchen cabinets. Just my two cents.

Thank you all for your suggestions and comments. They’ve really helped with my pantry project. I’ve reworked the shelves, bought some new organizers and reduced many cans and bottles, sauces and the like. Here’s where I am and almost ready to call it good!

It looks great! But I can definitely see that it might not stay that way for long - as soon as you have to start shuffling things to get what's behind and/or under something else.

Looks great! I see you got some of those stair step things that lift the cans. Those are very useful.

Wow! Great job, that's a lot of work to accomplish. You still have a lot of stacking. If you find that frustrating in the future, you might want to consider adding this kind of riser. But super impressed with what you've accomplished in such a short time!

WOT!!! Who has an entire turntable of nut butters and honey???!!!

Not me. Those are flavored Olive Oils and Sherry & Champagne vinegar.

I do! Natural peanut butter, almond butter, Jiff, tahini, honey in packets and honey in a squeezy dispenser that looks like a bee hive.

Great work, Michele! I love your pantry, it has a cozy feeling of abundance which is a blessing.

@ShadyWillowFarm some of us have an entire turntable of just vinegar. :)

Looks so much better!

Thank you so much. I’m really enjoying the new order of things,

I use one side of my large pantry cabinets for half of the heavier appliances such as grill, turbo cooker, pressure cooker. Air fryer is on the counter as is toaster, other baking equipment or appliances, go in a wired shelving unit in the laundry room, facing kitchen.