I just put shelves in my closet pantry. It really was a closet and is similar in size to yours. Here's what I did. I went to Lowe's and got the track type shelving. There is a hanging rail that I put near the ceiling on the back wall of the closet so that I would hit studs or wood. It only came in 40" widths, so my husband had to cut it to size with a hacksaw. Then I hung 3 tracks vertically (I think they are 84" long), two of them mounted to studs, the third is just there for support. To maximize the space at the top, I used two 12" deep shelves. The other 4 shelves are 16" deep and have a narrower wire mesh. I hope you can see the pictures. Some of the stuff in the pantry is there temporarily, as all my kitchen cabinets are gone! I will try to send you some pictures in another post shortly.

Thats exactly what we're doing, mountain - we are moving all our items out of our cabinets into the pantry while we demo the rest of our kitchen!

Thanks for the advice... I was thinking of hanging some sort of pot/pan rack at the top, but didn't know how well that would work. Maybe I need to do what you did and go shopping around to get ideas.

I just thought of another question:

How do I light up this pantry? Since the shelves will only be 16" deep, if I hang a light at the top front of the pantry, will that drop enough light into the pantry?

Gardenwebber - I've spent the last hour trying to attach the two pictures that I just took of my closet pantry and I do not know how to do it :( The pictures are on my computer, but I cannot copy them to this message (so frustrating). Even my college age daughter can't do it. If we figure it out, I'll send them to you. Our closets are so similar that I want you to see it. We are DIYing our kitchen and my dad just removed my sink this morning. No water! As he's due to return shortly (with the plumbing), I'll have to sign off. But I'll work on this picture posting later.

This little closet is the only thing that has any organization to my kitchen world. My pots and pans are on a shelf temporarily... so are a few other things. But the majority of the canned and boxed goods are in there. It's amazing how much can be stored in such a little space. About the lighting... this closet has a pull chain with a lightbulb on the ceiling (original to my 50 year old house). It does a fine job of lighting the closet, and I think the wire shelves have alot to do with that. It's easy to see everything, top to bottom, with the wire. Also, my two top shelves are only 12" deep. That way I can easily get stuff up there, and it doesn't interfere with the light.

A couple of thoughts...

You can put big lightweight things on the top shelf. I keep paper towels on the top shelf in my pantry. You can put cases of soda, water, beer, etc., on the floor. Just leave enough room to stack them say two or three cases high. I also keep the big container of dry cat food on the floor of the pantry. Or you can put in a small rolling cart or crate. (Check Ikea for some stackable rolling crates, Snack series, for ideas.)

I'd question the need for lighting in the pantry. If you have good room lighting, it should be enough to see what you have stored. IMHO, a bare bulb near the top is dangerous because it is too easy to hit and break. A recessed can (small one) may be better. Alternately, you could use lights that run on batteries and just stick to the underside of a shelf. Do a search on "tap lights" and you'll find all kinds of stuff.

mountainbasketmaker,

Do you have a photobucket account? They are free and easy to open. You download your pictures there, and then copy the html code they provide, and voila, your pictures appear in your message.

Here is a link that might be useful: Photobucket free hosting site

I can take no credit for our pantry, the PO put it together and I think it's PERFECT. The shelves are in a U-shape around the perimeter of the closet. It's a little bigger than yours, at 3 x 2 (wider). She put custom shelves along one side only for canned goods to be lined up, then staggered the depth of the shelves along the back to be between 10" and 5" deep, getting shallower as you go up but using all the space to the ceiling. I stuck a stepladder at the bottom that I can take around the kitchen, but use it regularly in the pantry for things that are up high. The kids use it to get to things, too.

The light in the ceiling is connected to a trigger in the door, so it comes on automatically when the door opens. It's just a bare bulb up there, but the U shape of the shelves allows the light to come down.

P.O. said she took her things out of this pantry and couldn't fit it all in her new pantry which is more than twice the size.

{{!gwi}}

Deb

I believe it was Divamum who made an outside shelf at the top of her pantry to store cookbooks; it looks really nice and everything inside is accessible. Check out her post; I wish I could include it here but I'm not sure how to do that. It's the one (in January maybe? not sure,) in which she shows us her finished kitchen.

youngdeb: That is a great pantry. That's what I want to do with mine that's exactly the size of yours, I think. Several years ago, we put in the coated wire shelving, but I hate those shelves because everything falls over, even though I put the cushy-type of shelf liner over the wire shelves. I also want to get a light installed in my pantry. I also love the foil- and plastic-wrap dispenser. Wonder where it came from?

See Divamum's open storage above pantry.

Here is a link that might be useful: Divamum's kitchen and pantry

will you be having the need for a step stool and if so do you have a place to store it? If not maybe some hooks on the inside of the door to hang it? Just a thought since I have this issue and missed out on all of the creative threads here on storing step stools!!!
Just an idea.
You could also do racks that could hold additional items or maybe cleaning stuff that you need to keep away from little fingers.

Thanks, amcofar!

Youngdeb - your picture is appearing as a red X to me. Does everyone else see the picture just fine?

I'm sorry I can't post pictures...a) I'm stupid, b) hubby has the camera and he's not here. I don't know how close this closet is to where your stove is, but I attached (hubby did) shelving things to the inside of my door. The top two units store spices. I just counted and with both of them together, I have 36 spice bottles. On the bottom, I put a different storage/shelving thingy that has two sections that bow out. On the top one, I stuff plastic bags, the bottom one I can stack with paper grocery bags. I'm sure you're getting a really great picture of this with my lame description. HA! Anyhoo, I bought these a very long time ago, but I think I got them at The Container Store. I think this is a good use for the space on the inside of the door...well, it is for me anyway.

Here are my pictures, I hope! Thanks to raehelen for the photobucket info.

Hope this works...

Here is a link that might be useful: photobucket pantry pictures

mountainbasketmaker,
you linked us to the main photobucket page, not your individual page, I think. Go to your photos, copy that URL and paste it into your link. You might also have to do something to make your pictures public, too.

gardenwebber, you could look into rope lighting. I love the idea of putting the light switch on the door latch so it comes on when you open it. The rope light is low wattage and you could run it vertically down the wall in front of the shelves. Maybe you could put a piece of molding in front of the rope light so that it does not shine in your eyes, but is shielded so you do not look into the light as you look at the pantry contents. It would light up one side of each open shelf area and give you fewer shadows than a single light at the top of the pantry.

My pantry was here when we bought the house. It is 30" wide and 40" deep. That is not a very usable space! It is too wide for retrofitting those sliding tray-shelves that would make best use of the depth. We cannot do as Youngdeb did and have perimeter shelves because the pantry is in a space above the basement stairs. The bottom of the pantry floor slopes - you cannot step into the pantry! So I have three 30" x 40" MDF shelves (the plywood in there when we bought the house had bowed significantly). I use a lot of little wire shelves I had in a previous house to make layers of storage on each level. Using bins for categories of foods (dog treats, rices, nutrition bars, pastas) means I can pull out a whole bin, rifle though it, and replace it. The neatness of the bins means I can easily shuffle them around to get to everything even if it is very deep on the shelves. Our first winter here we had mice, and I made sure everything got sealed into bins so the mice would not be attracted to the pantry and it worked, none ever got into the food.

Speaking of pantry pests, here is some advice: never bring birdseed into the house. Some of it has webworms (moth larvae) and those darn things can infest your pantry if you let them in. I had moths from birdseed go crazy in an attached garage. They got into the house when we used the door from the garage to the house and we'd see them flying in the evening. Somehow, I kept them out of the kitchen!

I'm glad you're going w/16" deep shelves. We had a 6'x3' pantry in our old kitchen w/18" deep shelves...it was a black hole! 18" as a rule, I think, are too deep for stationary shelves. Things got lost in there. When I cleaned it out I found a few things that expired 7 years ago!!!

I liked the narrow shelves I saw in Deb's pantry.

As to the door...do you have space elsewhere for a broom? If not, you might consider hanging it on the back of the door.

Other things...I don't think anyone has mentioned a calendar.

As I think someone else mentioned, pots & pans would work.

Or how about cutting or pastry boards? (You probably have tray storage for them, but if not...)

Cookie/Cake decorating supplies?

Here is a link that might be useful: MountainBasketMaker's Pantry Pics