kitchen pantry project

We we first looked at our house, before we owned it, we walked through and talked about all the things we love and the MANY things we would change (gotta love old houses). There was a large pantry/broom (shelves on one side, empty space on the other) closet on the far side of the kitchen near the back door, and although it provided nice storage, the thought of having my cereal next to a broom just wasnt working with me. So we decided, if we bought this house, to use it as a pantry only, with the plans of building shelves on the other side in the future. So since May, all of our stuff has been crammed on one side, with towel rack awkwardly balancing on the other side.

geez...that is embarrassing. I now realize I should have cleaned up a little before this pic

As you can see, this was not working. The shelves are very deep and I could never see what I had stuffed in there. Thus accounting for the over-buying of many groceries. You would think penne pasta was like being discontinued or something. This madness had to stop. So we decided to follow through on the plan we made when we first looked at the house. I was envisioning two top shelves, even with the other side, and some sort of drawer thingy (technical, I know) on the bottom. With a little bit of space on the side to hang my reusable shopping bags (yes, I am one of those--most of the time)

So, during our last trip to Ikea, I bought a metal shelving unit, with two wire baskets and one large plastic bin. Took it home, put it together, fit great. Perfect. Moving on to the shelves. Peter made them out of reused wood from some cabinets we took out. The wood was in great condition, and green at that. Wow, saving my pantry, organizational sanity, and trees--I feel good. Here is the finished product. And though it make look busy to you, I assure you, everything has its place and I can finally see just how many bottles of BBQ sauce I have.