I use plastic bus tubs/dishpans and shallow boxes, and mark the fruit with a Sharpie to tell what's what.

We love to cook and bake, and have 6-10 cookbooks that we use regularly, plus binders with collections of recipes. Loose "want-to-try" recipes go into an expanding file folder until we try them out. In there they're roughly organized by season... we garden and tend to cook cyclically: lots of fruit and vegetables and grilling in the summer, lots of baking, etc. in the winter. Once we try it, if we really like the results, the loose recipe sheets go into a binder. The key to our recipe system is an old rotary Rolodex file. We simply make a card for each of our all-time favorite recipes (we have a lot of them!), and cross-reference the location of original recipe. For example we'll list a cookbook name and page number, or "Holiday Binder" or whatever. We also make a note of any special ingredients, or if we'd made it for a party or whatever. The rolodex is organized alphabetically by main ingredient, unless we have a lot of recipes for a particular item: for example "Soups" are all together, "Breads", "Cakes," etc. We've been using the rolodex for years, and it works great for us. We keep it in the kitchen. It's fun and easy to flip thru it for ideas. We bought the rolodex at a rummage sale for next to nothing, but I know you can still find them new. Most large office supply stores carry the blank cards. Here is a link that might be useful: classic rotary Rolodex

Welcome to the forum, Arundhati! Rather than have everything in one kitchen pantry, we have the items we need at each station: cereal and crackers near the fridge, flours and baking good near the baking station, etc. We have a 10x8 room in our basement that we call the "root cellar" where we keep all our cases of food, bulk items, wine, home-canned food, upright freezer, emergency food and water, and seasonal dishware, extra glassware, etc., so we actually are taking out our not-well-laid-out pantry in the kitchen during our remodel. We can keep enough canned goods in the cupboard near the range for everyday needs, and once a month or so "go shopping" in the basement. Anyway, to your question: In looking for a better way to store our bulk items in the basement, I found the "first-in-first-out" storage rack systems called ShelfReliance. They also sell inserts for pantries called Cansolidator. Perhaps you could use one or two of these in the right width for a shelf or two in your pantry. It would eliminate the expense of a pull-out, and eliminate having to search for items in the back of a standard shelf. Here is a link that might be useful: Cansolidator by ShelfReliance

I am so glad, Sue, I know everyone will enjoy it! Funny you mention the cost. When I first embarked on this, I was thinking it will be a big impact present where the gift is our time not the cost. Yikes, even with the 50% off, each book was $200 OMG. I didn't really expect that, but after all the work putting it together, I wasn't going to go back and trim. I may regret making them so large, 11x14, but I know i usually like photos to be bigger. I also fell for that very pricey for that "lay flat" upgrade that allow you to do those "centerfold" shots. Heck, i actually fell for every type of upgrade they offered, including a storage box. And then I have the engraved USBs and those boxes. But oh they will be so pretty. I actually went with this one because I liked the idea of putting a photo with it. They also have them in navy, grey, and Tiffany blue. I was upset that I had to switch my product to Shutterfly, but I have to give them a big shout out. They have added so many features to their books, and so many options for designing them. Plus, they still had my photos on there from 2005, though I had not done business w them in years. In some cases, they were photos i did not find anywhere else in my files. Whew. One of the best parts of making the book was doing the captions, and adding in things like scans of their footprints, their baby announcements, etc. I also commissioned DH to write a letter to each of them talking about the day they were born and their first few years. He did a wonderful job, brought tears to my eyes and made me laugh, too. We finished yesterday. Finally. Annie - love that tree! we do have a few photo ornaments, but a whole tree! Fab Running - Even from book 1 to book 3 i got better at it and fancier. There are soooooo many options and embellishments and features. And if you have the right dates on your photos, the autofill feature is a great start. Enjoy!