What about switching to canning-style jars? I use Ball jars--I keep rice in the tall 1/2 gallon ones (about 9 1/2 inches tall) and beans and nuts and specialty flours in the quart sizes (all purpose flour is kept a larger canister in the baking area). I use the smaller pints for overflow of items if the quarts are too large. You can plan the heights and widths of the drawers based on the heights and widths of the jars--making the storage sleek and organized with every inch used.

Another advantage is that you just need 2 size lids--and the lids come apart. You can neatly label the flat parts with permanent marker so that you can easily see what is in each jar when you look down on them. You can have an extra supply of flat pieces so that you can make up new labels as needed instead of trying to write labels over old ones--the already labeled ones can be reused when you fill a new jar with that item. The rings can be used for any jar with the same sized mouth.

We struggle with pantry moths. The only jars I trust are the tight sealing canning ones. The jars without really good threads always seem to let something in if it sits around too long.

We use a lot of jars. The thing I don't have in my kitchen is a good place to keep clean empties. If I had your set up I think I would plan to devote appropriate-sized drawers just for empties. Make sure you plan some narrow drawers just for lids. I love our lid drawers!

I loved the look of pull out pantries whenever I checked out the kitchens in Ikea. When it finally came to deciding on cabinets for our laundry room I decided I really disliked the way the pull outs functioned--you have to pull everything out at once just to grab one item. The front-on view is blocked by the front panels. It's really like having fixed shelves with a view from 2 sides instead of 1. Getting to anything in the middle of the shelves will be difficult unless you leave lots of reach in space between the items and the shelf above it.

I think your idea sounds like a great one. A lot of our jars are stored on deep open shelves above our mw. Items are constantly getting pushed toward the back and lost. Your drawer idea would give much easier access to all of them.

It sounds like you like to reuse as much as possible. I know it will be difficult to buy when you can reuse. But once you have the canning jars you'll be able to reuse them again and again for decades. Lids can be replaced as needed. You would be conserving resources by having very efficient storage--not lots of wasted space from different sized jars. In my case, I waste less food since the moths don't get in these jars. I don't miss hunting for the right lid for the right jar.

zelmar, not to hijack the thread, but I would love to see a picture of your narrow lid drawers, please!

Aliris, I call those jars wire bail jars vs. the regular canning/Ball jars with two-piece jars. I don't know if it's the actual name, though. By the way, have you ever seen this pantry? Those jars are gorgeous but for me too much of an investment...

Here is a link that might be useful: Glass jar pantry

aliris19, thank you so much for your reply.

I misread your original post (too much was going on around me.) I got too darned excited about jars and posted before taking the time to understand your situation.

I was wondering how the natural food stores dealt with the moth problem. Thank you for the info about bay leaves.

One solution for cans is to have shallower drawers with cans on their sides so that the labels can be read (the idea coming from pictures I've seen here of pantry roll outs with cans organized this way.)

Bagged items are best held by drawers so it doesn't seem like you should have any concerns there. Will you also have to think about tall boxed items, i.e. cereal, when planning the heights of the drawers?

It might be helpful if you posted drawings of your thoughts for the pantry. As best as I can envision, it seems like you are on the road to a very pretty and functional space.

beckysharp--our lids are kept in the top 2 drawers just to right of the coffeemaker in the picture linked below. We keep some of our empty jars in the cabinet above. We're in the process of adding another shelf to the cabinet above to make empty jar storage better.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1645412}}

Becky -- yup; that's em. I don't have that many but I do have maybe one section's worth. They were an investment but completely worth it, IMO.

Zelmar, that's one handsome kitchen! Gosh I love that. I think I've seen yours before and been completely blown away. It would have been an inspiration-kitchen if I'd known what that was or how to use one.

I posted my plans in a thread I'll link below and paste the pantry here. There is a layout and elevations of the rest of the kitchen in the photobucket file you can follow, I think, if you click on the link below? I didn't post it again because I was sure everyone was sick of it already.

Changes I've made that may or may not show up in these plans are: no glass in cabs flanking passthru. I've scrubbed the pretty light-colored fossiliferous limestone; we'll do rainforest green instead. And I've bowed to everyone's gentle chiding about mixing colors and materials; we'll do it all in a soft cherry shaker style. No hardship, just less interesting, maybe - safer too.

The colors don't really reflect my latest thoughts either. Going safer the countertop would all be the dark wild zigzaged rainforest granite and as light as we can go cherry cabinets for all woodwork despite what the coloring suggests. The floor is slightly 'toasted' bamboo.

This picture of the pantry isn't drawn well because I don't know how to depict it flat. But the idea was to have a high counter with many deep drawers beneath and open rimmed U-shaped shelves in the space above for the glass jars of staples. By "rim" I mean a wire or something -- something to secure the glass as we're in earthquake country. And I thought of having a cabinet up top, though I'm not so sure of that now, it just seemed to finish things. Though how the doors would open is a problem. Latest thought is sliding sideways along a rail, glass doors, just 12"d.

I'm not sure if I mentioned above - I think I did - that rev-a-shelf's folding pantry shelving seems pretty neat too, though probably way-expensive. They have basically open shelves on piano hinges that sit inside the front part of a double cabinet and can fold to the other side revealing its back and the depth of the cabinet within. Then they stick metal shelves on the door insides too. It's pretty nifty. And I'm wondering whether that might be more expedient? Waste of money? Just roll-out shelves?? But I like the way the piano-hinged shelf pulls around and then there can be a deep cabinet (flour bins!) behind.... They make these in just 25" high versions too which would still permit a drawer above....: http://www.rev-a-shelf.com/Common/ProductSeries.aspx?Class=Sink%20&%20Base%20Accessories&Family=Wood%20Accessories&Category=Pantries&Series=4WP%20Series

Help?

Thanks for any thoughts...

Thanks all!

Here is a link that might be useful: elevations and layout of kitchen attached to this pantry

I don't have any help, but I'm hoping to hear more about your pantries. That's my next step IF, I mean, WHEN my kitchen is finished!!!

What about a super cabinet below?

BTW freezing kills moth larvae.

I love these containers. I use them in my freezer & pantry & fridge. I love keeping elements together for making foods that I make all the time. For example, I make cheese enchiladas most every day...in the medium stand up container, I store my extra-thin corn tortillas, pre-cut & measured cheese, sour cream and a serving size of my homemade salsa. That way I won't have to root around the fridge.

For the freezer, I store individual Ziploc baggies of cooked w.w. spaghetti, brown rice, etc. to add to hubby's lunches. I had a hard time keeping track of the little packages so this works great.

You could use them to store your 'floppy' stuff & smaller items in your pantry as well.

I got them from Brylane home which I'll link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fridge Binz

I wonder if roll out shelves would be better than drawers, for a pantry cabinet. I know roll out shelves are not popular here - two motions instead of one, etc. But perhaps the low sides of the shelf would make it easier to see the sides of bags and containers?

For the upper, are you planning open U-shaped shelves, or U-shaped shelves behind doors? When I think of a pantry cabinet, I always imagine the latter, with more shelves on the inside of the door.

I will be interested to see what you come up with. I have a similar space, 62'' wide by 84'' tall, that needs to be designed for pantry and appliance storage, and I don't have a good idea of what to do.

There are actually a fair number of ROTS proponents here, especially for pantry and foodstuff items. You could try searching for those threads, if only GW programmers had not accidentally purchased the "Kugel" search engine by mistake.

Hi again ~

Melaska - those containers look really nice. Especially for a freezer. I have such a hard time organizing things in there. I can't believe oyu make enchiladas (nearly) every day! I think I remember you mentioning your salsa as well. Not what I usually think of as staples in Alaska!

Marco - I think that was basically what I was trying to articulate - would it be better to have ROTS or separate drawers for food? I've seen those pantries that rev-a-shelf makes (is that the photo you have?) and they look pretty perfect. And pretty pricey as well.

But when I do want canned food it's usually when I don't know what I want, so standing there and staring is a little bit of the plan. That argues for ROTS. OTOH I don't ever really have very many cans to begin with.

John - I think I'm going to skip doors because the pantry is right off a main walkway and I fear the doors just eclipsing the space. We're not very good at putting things, including doors, away around here. So open shelves is what I was thinking about, for glass-staples storage.

I wish I could swing (no pun intended) one of those built in pantries like pictured above!

Aliris - The first time I ever had Mexican food was in Alaska! The year was 1972 and I was in love. I grew up in Indiana & I never saw Mexican food.

Yes, I make salsa all the time...I am addicted to that stuff. I crave it. I could drink it! I cannot do jarred salsa, I've tried many different kinds. The only possible choice is the 'fresh' salsa at Costco and even then, I have to doctor it up.

I go through limes like crazy...you must mean my thread about the citrus press I was asking about. It's on its way and I can't wait!

Here's a great pantry thread on "How NOT to build a pantry"...it was very entertaining :) I'll link it below...

Here are more links to other pantries I've seen on here:

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg021356163059.html?13

I got the one below from
https://www.houzz.com/photos/custom-pantry-traditional-kitchen-boston-phvw-vp~33747

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[traditional kitchen design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2107) by boston interior designer Marie

Here is rhome's pantry:

Here are rhome's measurements:
"My spaces between shelves, from floor to 9 ft ceiling are: 19", 15", 14", 10", 10", 14", 21 1/2". The 19" at the bottom allows for my roll-out bins for grains and pet food. The 10" are what I needed for cans stacked 2 high. The others fit cereal boxes, gallon jugs, my grain mill, etc."

Here is buehl's pantry & measurements:

Good luck with your pantry! Be sure to check out the thread I linked below. :)

Here is a link that might be useful: How NOT to build a pantry - by bmorepanic

Aliris,

I linked a houzz page at the bottom for pics of hundreds of pantrys...maybe you can find inspiration.

You can make 'idea books' if you open a free account...then, any picture you like, you right click and follow the prompts to add them to any idea book you'd like. You make your own idea books...all you have to do is just name them which the prompts will guide you to do. You can also make any or all of your idea books private or public.

Here's one example of a pantry with pull-outs that don't look scary (from houzz) I also see a lot of Gardenweb pantrys on here! :)

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[tropical kitchen design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/tropical-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2108) by hawaii interior designer Archipelago Hawaii, refined island designs

I really like this idea of different-sized shelves:

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[eclectic kitchen design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/eclectic-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2104)

Here is a link that might be useful: [Pantrys galore on houzz.com[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/kitchen-pantry-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~a_13-517)