agmss, anyone who sees my pantry accuses me of being a prepper, LOL. It's that 1000+ jars of home canned garden goodies, I think.

Pantry basics? Mine would include flour, sugar, salt, beans, coffee, peanut butter, wheat and corn for grinding and chocolate!

I do keep a lot on hand, as evidenced by those above mentioned canned goods, but I waste very little. Elery and I are not adverse to eating leftovers, so I often turn last nights supper into something else. Elery likes omelettes and salads for breakfast so he'll often take last night's supper, from chili to stirfry and put it over lettuce then top it with a couple of eggs and lots of hot sauce/hot peppers/whatever hot.

Any food scraps or stale items become chicken food or compost so I don't feel as guilty about wasting them. The most often discarded items in my house seem to be bread, yogurt and nuts, which just get rancid before I can use them. I've tried freezing them but they just get buried and I still don't use them. I haven't found a reasonable solution yet.

I do need to clean my pantry, so maybe you'll be a good example for me!

Annie

We don't do much pantry storage anymore. We put just about everything in the freezer including flour and spices so that we won't get any pantry bugs. We make extra food eat leftovers for a day or two and freeze the rest.

There are times when DH doesn't eat his lunch so we seem to have that as waste! That bothers me. If I don't eat my lunch for lunch I eat my lunch for supper. But that's just me.

Our children are grown. DD and dsil (who for the next month have winged their way to New Zealand) use up the leftovers for the most part. Occasionally her DH will ask for fresh instead of leftovers. There is some waste at that time. DS and DN who live with us cook for themselves and eat the leftovers and usually have little waste.

We do find meat from certain stores seem to go bad much more quickly like within a day or so despite date by being three or four days later. That's a waste we cannot stand.

PS it is DD's 35th birthday today and all I can think of is I wish she had left maybe tomorrow or the next day instead of yesterday. Even if I didn't see her today we can't text back and forth right now. I know that's selfish. Every moment of time is so precious to me with my family...

I have a semi-organized "pantry" that has basic things like canned tomatoes, boxed stock, flour, extra bottles of oil and vinegars, etc.

Then I have a "total mess" that has all the stuff I bought for some meal and didn't use up, but didn't throw out, and thus has stuck around for years and years, getting staler and staler.

The "total mess" is, sadly, equal in bulk to the "pantry". I need to go through the "total mess" stuff and throw it out. I have a hard time remembering that stuff is just as "wasted" if it is thrown out today as if it clutters up my house for the next five years and is thrown out then. Sigh.

My "pantry" in our tiny galley kitchen consists of 2 shelves of a large wire shelving unit furnished with 3 milk crate style totes plus a large wire basket. I am striving to be more timely in using the dry, bottled and canned goods I have stored there. Things I consider staples to keep on hand are, in no particular order:

canned tomatoes/tomato sauce/paste

dry beans and rice and a few cans of beans as well

rolled oats

oils

vinegars

extra mayo

peanut butter

sardines

salmon

anchovies

olives

pasta

tortilla chips

cocoa powder

cornmeal

stuffing mix (which I use in place of seasoned breadcrumbs)

saltine crackers

tapioca pearls

coconut flakes

baking soda

oil spray

extra mustard & barbecue sauce

sugars

jams/preserves

tea

molasses

canned milks - evap. & cond. & coconut

various odd items I occasionally buy on sale, like canned cranberries and hominy

I also have a large tin for various types of flour in bags, but that's on a different shelf nearby

Right now bins are overflowing a bit, but I will use things up until it's time to restock again. I tend to stock up on non-perishables when they're on sale.

I am much the same as the two previous posters. I always have a stock of non-perishable items on hand........pasta, rices, beans, various canned items, flours, sugars, assorted baking ingredients, crackers. And I also dislike running out of something I use frequently so generally always have a backup supply of frequently used condiments (and other staples) waiting in the wings. And it all gets used in a timely manner :-)

I am fortunate to have a huge pantry. Actually, it is a large storage room just off the kitchen with floor to ceiling shelves on 3 sides. The wall and shelves closest to the kitchen is dedicated to pantry items while other areas house my larger, non-counter appliances, extra and less often used dishes and the rest stacked tubs of things like assorted batteries, candles, light bulbs, napkins and placemats, cleaing supplies, pet supplies, holiday decorations, vases, plant stuff, etc........

I'm pretty much like the two above posters, and find that as I age and my health gets worse, I rely on my pantry more and more - I just may not feel up to a trip to the grocery.

Unfortunately, I don't have a designated "pantry". But what I've been thinking about getting is a cabinet to put in my basement which I can use to store non-perishable staples. I intend to buy a few plastic boxes in which I can store flour/sugar - don't need to attract mice and feed them! I also like to store paper goods - Kleenex, paper towels, TP, waxed paper, foil, plastic wraps and bags.

I always have what I call "staples" in my cabinets - various oils, vinegars, baking supplies - a list such as that of carolb... I just want space to store more of some of these items than I have room for in my kitchen.

My pantry is the size of a closet with deep shelves on the back wall and wire baskets on the side walls. It's also a total disaster. My late husband use to get on me for having so much food stored in the pantry, cupboards and freezer, but that never bothered me. During the blizzard of '78 we were almost out of bathroom tissue and dog food, but not people food, and as soon as we could get out, we walked five city blocks to a grocery store and back for those two items so I'm especially careful to always have a good supply of both items. Since we moved to the boonies with the nearest grocery over twenty miles of twisting, turning, hilly, narrow country roads away, I really keep stocked up on everything. Flour and meals go in the freezer for a while after buying, then into food safe buckets. Sugar is in food safe buckets. I do have my home canned goods as well as store bought. The freezers hold mostly meats and fruit, but I also buy a few canned meats. I froze half gallons of milk last year, but didn't like the thawed texture of it so won't do that again. Coffee, tea and homemade hot chocolate mix are well stocked. I have a good supply of all the essentials for baking anything I could want or need. I have 'way too many spices and condiments. Leftovers, if I don't freeze them for later meals, they go with me to work as a meal and last, but not least, to my super spoiled, fat chickens who are killing me right now because they aren't laying.

I moved into town almost 2 years ago, so that was a good purge! Before that we got some little red pantry bugs and had to throw EVERYTHING out! Ever since then, everything goes into very well sealed containers!

I do, however have to figure a way to make all my spices readily visible so I don't buy multiples! Hate going through all of them when searching for one little thing!

I grow fresh herbs, which is what I mostly use for day to day cooking, and now have a spice/herb store a 15 min walk from the house, so I can go buy just a pinch of this or that for a recipe!

I have a rather small pantry, but I have cabinets above my washer/dryer, which are next to my pantry, and those are like an extension of my pantry. I probably have way too much stuff in them, but I also have a stand-up freezer in the garage. It must look like I am prepared for Armageddon, but that was never my intention. I am definitely earthquake-prepared - perhaps too much so.

As for staples (including some that I have in the freezer that would normally be in a pantry) I have multiple flours, multiple dried chilies, capers, canned tomatoes, brown rice, Basmati rice, steel-cut oats, grits, powdered milk, powdered buttermilk, pomegranate molasses, black strap molasses, dried mushrooms (at least five different kinds), Panko, dates, coconut milk, tamarind paste, dried shrimp, countless vinegars, whey protein, pea protein, soy protein, anchovies, sardines, cocoa and cacao powder, soy sauce, fish sauce, multiple types of olives, giadiniera, plus more that I can't remember at the moment without going and looking.

Staples? Oh my, I forgot coffee! Definitely have to have coffee as a staple, and I roast my own beans, so the green beans in their bags will last for several months until I roast them.

Madonna, my "old" girls aren't laying right now either, but the young ones are. I have had to keep them separated though, the young layers gang up on my 6 remaining old girls and pull out all their feathers! So the six old hens are "retired" into the milk house and the 16 new girls got the big coop.