What are you calling pullouts vs rollout drawers? Pullouts where you open the door and then have a pullout tray vs a regular drawer where the front is attached to the pullout...is that what you mean? I was a little confused by the term rollout drawers.

I wasn't sure the correct terminology. To me a pullout is where the entire cabinet front pulls out and all shelves are attached to the cabinet door and pull out together. Roll outs I thought were where the door opens normally and you can pull out each shelf. Sorry for the confusion!

I assume you are asking about the cabs flanking the frig? Since they are only 18" I would be inclined to use pullouts. I have rollout drawers in my wider pantry, and they are great, but I do find myself often pulling out one after another looking for a particular item (I am not very organized!). With the pullout being rather narrow, it would be easy to scan all shelves quickly.

Edited to add: you would have to make sure that the pullout on the right would clear any window trim

I will also have similar sized pantries (17.5") flanking the fridge. I'm doing one as a pullout and the other as a cabinet with roll out shelves. I think each type of pantry is useful for storing different items. For the pullout, I am planning to store bottles, jars, condiments, baking items, etc. On the roll our shelves I'm going to store boxes of cereal, crackers, chips, and such. I think of the pullout as something I will use a lot while cooking, and the roll out will be for the family to grab what they need. I didn't want two pull outs because I don't want Dh and the kids constantly tugging on it and leaving it open for me to close!

I think melis918 idea of one of each is great. Some things (chips, bread, bags of chocolate chips, etc.) just wouldn't store well in a pull-out unit so having both gives you the best of both options.

I like what melis918 said.

You were correct -

• Roll outs are the trays that you have to manually pull out after opening doors. They're often called "ROTS" - Roll Out Tray Shelves.
• Pullouts are when the shelves are attached to the door and pull out automatically when you open the door.

I would do all pullouts. You will find it almost impossible to access/open an ROTS toward the top - unless you are very tall...think about a shelf over 6' off the floor (maybe even 7') - can you reach it easily?

In addition, with a pullout, you can find what you want at one glance, you don't have to open each tray individually

• With a set of ROTS, you have to: open the door; then open a tray, look, push it back in; open the next tray, look, push it back in; repeat over and over until you find what you're looking for; then retrieve the item, close the tray; finally, close the door.
• With a pullout, you pull open the door, look, retrieve item, close - you're done!

There are very few items that cannot be stored in a pullout - even chips, cookies, etc., are easily stored on pullout shelves. I'm not sure why someone said they weren't.....? In fact, I can't think of anything right now that cannot be stored on a pullout shelf.

One thing, make sure the shelves are adjustable - that way you can determine what you want to store where and adjust the shelves accordingly.

BTW...there's less to be "left open" with a pullout than with ROTS. You just have to close the pullout vs close an ROTS and then close the door.

Oh, one other thing - with an ROTS, you need to be sure it's completely closed b/f closing the door. Otherwise, the ROTS will nick the inside of the doors and it can become beat up looking over time. Yes, it's the interior, but still... (Yes, experience speaking! :-( )