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!

Not worth the gas to drive to nearest ReStore (unless we were doing a major remodel). But I'll try Craigslist. I did pull a silver 12" lazy susan out of the attic (has ceramic pieces that fit inside, 1 chipped). Put an old Tupperware container of my mom's (maybe she has 1 missed a lid) inside, fit oils and vinegars (except my quart & gallon bottles of canning vinegar) inside, but even positioned right in front of clip in stud, it wobbles. Might work on wood shelf. Large square Tupperware canister fits 5 lb flour. Too bad I only have 2, and where the shelves are positioned now there is space above for half size (maybe 3 lbs?) canister of sugar, but I use that in 1 batch of jam. Have 2 shorter square containers, but all I could find in the basement were the oval containers I used to use for pasta (before DS started eating 1/3 lb by himself, now I find it easier to just grab a box even if I have a tiny bit left, rather than filling a container and using most of it for 1 meal. I currently have 1 opened bag of elbow noodles and 3 almost-empty boxes of 3 different-shaped pasta in the pantry, unopened boxes are in basement but right at bottom of stairs. The oval containers don't fit together on the shelf as nicely as the boxes, so am I right not to go back to using those? Now, the quinoa bag has a zipper (that's in the cereal cabinet), the barley and bulgur don't so I had to put them in ziploc bags - might it be worthwhile to put those in the oval containers? They're on the same shelf as the wooden boxes, all the way over on the right, just above the flour canisters (and the partial bag of Bisquick - a 40 oz box didn't fit in the small red-topped canister - grr). Steel-cut oats and cornmeal (which has expired - don't know if it's any good for dusting a baking stone?) leave in original round containers? I swear I had more Tupperware... I did pull a couple of small wooden crates I use on my table at farmer's market (mostly to stack things on top of when they're turned upside down, they're not good size for jelly jars - I do have 1 that has a divider that is perfect for a little "bookcase" when turned on end so I don't want to use that in pantry, and another that I use for paper lunch bags that I put produce in). Not sure if they work here, but I did corral the Japanese food in the smaller one and dried fruit in the larger one. One thing about having things visible - DS eats them. You can see I have only half a bag of white chocolate chips I bought at the holidays - I didn't open them but when I found them open I put a twist tie on the bag. A few years ago I found a good price on Scharffen Berger chocolate squares, used them to make peppermint bark and put them on the top shelf (in front, I was too lazy to get the step stool out) and later found half of them gone - he had been eating them like candy bars! We've never restricted the kids' candy consumption, they go trick or treating, get candy for Easter and Xmas, but last year (mind you, he was 13 1/2) I found wrappers from his Easter candy in the supply vents in the family room. At least he didn't put them in the returns! But there was no need to hide them - I don't care if they eat the entire contents of their Easter baskets in 1 day (other than they might get sick, but then they'd never do it again) or 3 months. I just ask that eating be restricted to the kitchen, dining room, or rarely, the family room. Not the living room with wool carpet and leather furniture, and not upstairs. But I do like to keep baking supplies for baking, not snacking (esp. expensive things like that chocolate, candied ginger, etc.) and don't like going to use something to find out that I don't have enough b/c someone has been eating it without telling me. I *am* going to throw out the old (who knows how old) confectioner's sugar in the green Tupperware canister, and the cocoa (very light) that my mom gave me - we weren't even sure if it was hot chocolate mix or baking cocoa, b/c it doesn't even smell like anything, she put it in a Rubbermaid container!

I'm assuming the dead space is off to the sides? You're not complaining about the depth, right? By opening that space up to the sides, wallboarding in a simple pair of narrow doors (or however Ikea can configure it) and installing simple but sturdy shelves (just making a closet full of removable wooden shelves) I think you could have the a fantastic pantry/utility closet that would store large amounts of anything you wanted, and give you lots of flexibility for the future. That's a HUGE amount of space! (I put in a large but very shallow shelf pantry in an odd place during my remodel and it's been great!) Search on pantries for some well-configured, attractive shelf pantries. You could keep it plain, if it's in a hallway, or dress it up if it's more central. Is this an option, or were you hoping to keep it very very cheap? I don't think it would be too too expensive. A weekend job for you or a handy friend. The advantages of solid shelves have been discussed here before. Imagine a container of honey or flour tips over on a top wire shelf. (Plus I personally am not a fan of wire. I just always think it looks and feels, well, not luxe; it snags everything and it's noisy. Purely opinion. If you have found some that make you feel happy then don't listen to me!) Good luck!

I had a small, step in pantry that I hated, and got rid of it for a lot more storage in cabinet pantries instead. The thing is, a closet style pantry is a lot cheaper to build. That's the main reason people opt for them. You can do a hybrid if it will work better in your space but putting roll out tray shelves in the bottom, and pretty double doors on the front. You can also put restrictors on your upper shelves to keep things only in the front. For function, either way would work the same, though with the cabinets you'd have a slight ledge to set things down on, which would be useful, or a counter if you use actual uppers, rather than having them down to the top of the lowers. I don't use a lot of bulk items, other than paper goods like napkins and paper towels which are better and easier to buy rarely but by the case. I only buy 10 lbs. of flour at a time, but have many kinds of flour. The flour canisters are in two drawers in my baking area, and extra flour is on a roll out shelf in the pantry. Similarly, I don't use a lot of oil, and have several kinds. The open bottles are in my cooking area, and the replacements are in the pantry. Pasta, rice, beans, etc., are in the pantry. The paper goods are on the upper shelves because they're easy to get down and out of the way. My pantry is two 30"x18" floor to ceiling cabinets, roll out shelves in the lowers, which are about 5' high. Most of the foodstuffs, as well as beverages, are in the lower part. Housewares and general household stuff are in the uppers, as well as some canisters that have nowhere else to go, and wines/spirits. There would be plenty of room in one 30" wide pantry for most everything without the papergoods. The extra depth you want to get rid of would be quite useful for the paper, though... :)