So this week's topic is " What's taking up space in your pantry ? " My pantry is 88cm wide X 57cm deep X 2.06 metres high. Not large by any stretch of the imagination but I can fit a lot in there. At the workshop I showed a photo of my very neat pantry. There were a few giggles about how neat it is. how many containers I have and how everything is in neat rows with ALL labels facing the front. A bit OCD ? Maybe, but when everything is neat and well stacked I can fit so much in.
I mentioned at the workshop that I only use my pantry to store food in. There are no empty containers, no extra rolls of paper towel, no toilet paper, no appliances, no cleaning products, no boxes of tissues, no canning jars and no cat food. These items are either stored in my garden shed or in the appropriate room ( cleaning products in the laundry etc ).
Once non food items are removed from the pantry, you might be suprised at how much space you have. For me, space means stockpiling and stockpiling means peace of mind.
This week I'd like to challenge you with two questions -
* Do you have non food items taking up valuable space in my pantry ?
* Can you relocate the non food items and start a healthy stockpile ?
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| Do you think I have enough tea bags ? |
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| I like nice neat rows. |
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I have a larger stand in style pantry, not massive, but bigger that the one you describe.
ReplyDeleteIt does store more than food products, it's the only space I have to store my big appliances on the bottom shelf. But it always seems to be "packed to the rafters", because as you point out I store tissues and paper towel in it, and other non food items.
I will reconsider other homes for these things and see what I can do about it (although I may have to wait until the laundry is renovated as I have no cupboards in it at the moment)...food for thought in this post.
Cheryl, do you have a garage or garden shed ? I store most of the tissue boxes in there and keep a few spare in the house.
DeleteDo you store your stockpile else where? I find I need to put tins in another cupboard and then move them to the main pantry as they get used.
ReplyDeleteI store my excess tins in the cupboard above the rangehood.
DeleteHi Wendy. Great topic. I must say I do have a bit of an OCD with my pantry as well. The only non food items in there are cling wrap, aluminium foil and sandwich bags. I like to go through and re sort my entire pantry from time to time to put everything back in its place as well as to use up anything that may have fallen to the back. We have lots of air tight containers in our pantry as meal moths are in our area and have destroyed many good cereals, flours, rice, pastas etc (even if still their packages or in a regular container). A tidy pantry makes things easy to find and less likely to waste food too!
ReplyDeleteHave you tried using bay leaves scattered in your pantry ? It helps prevent pantry moth.
DeleteWe've tried bay leaves and didn't work. We ended having to buy those traps for them. But ever since we put our food in air tight containers and jars, they haven't really come back. I guess it's because they can't get to what they want now.
DeleteHi Wendy,
ReplyDeleteGreat post!! I only store food items in the pantry otherwise I would have no room left. Big things like paper towels get stored in the laundry. When we renovated the laundry cupboards a few years ago, I made sure I had plenty of space to store big things, it's great.
Is your pantry going to be bigger than your old one? Hope you have heaps of space in your new kitchen.
Maureen
Yes the pantry is bigger. It's now 107 cm wide. The new cupboards are in the kitchen. Tomorrow they get fitted. So exciting !!!
DeleteLooks like just the right amount of tea to me! Some things you just don't want to run out of !
ReplyDeleteTea can last for at least a few years past it's best before date. We couldn't run out of tea, toilet paper, chocolate or dairy.
DeleteMy pantry stores mainly food, but the sandwich press and toaster also have a space in there, due to there being nowhere else to store them. I also have a metal colander on the top shelf but this holds all sorts of packets of extra herbs and spices.
ReplyDeleteDear Wendy,
ReplyDeleteAfter your talk I did more to remove non food itmes from the pantry. Inhad all kinds of things in there, drink bottles, tins, you name it. I had to be creative to find new homes for everything.
My "full pantry" was not full at all! I had a false sense of security. Now it is full of food and emergency supplies. I fit so much more in there. With thanks, Annabel.xxx
Love this post. I need to reassess my pantry as I have a number of non food items in there and they take up a LOT of room. I'm currently having the laundry renovated, so I'm hoping this will yield some extra storage.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the wake up, Wendy.
Janine
I've had to rethink my pantry. Hubby cooks the meals and I do the baking. Hubby has dreadful rheumatoid arthritis and finds bending and getting things off the low shelves almost impossible. As a result I have two mixed cupboards. Two shelves in the pantry have the most used cooking implements in them. He can reach everything and uses all the resources available to him. In the big implements cupboard there is a baking shelf. So I have two mixed cupboards and this works for us.
ReplyDelete