Is a Kitchen Pantry Cabinet Appropriate for You? Plus: How to Judge and Buy If It Is

Old farm kitchens used to have little rooms tucked in next to them that were used for separate pantries. These rooms provided the storage shelves necessary for jars of home-canned fruits and vegetables, large bags of flour and sugar, occasionally-used cookware, and baked items the cook was saving for a meal later on. They needed this space, because most kitchens had few, if any, cabinets where food items could be kept. Newer homes, however, weren’t built to have pantries. Instead, extra cabinets were added. Still, with all of the things a modern cook needs to store, most women find their kitchen storage space to be inadequate. Even in a newer kitchen, however, it is possible to add kitchen pantry cabinets to increase storage space.

Some pantries are additional units that match kitchen and cabinets the rest of the cabinets and are intended to be installed at the time the rest of the cabinetry is being put in. In a lot of kitchens, though, this didn’t happen, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t have a pantry. As long as you have space for the unit, you can purchase something that may not exactly match your other cupboards, but which will look nice with them. These can be single- or double-door units which are fitted with numerous small shelves and pull-out drawers to give you easy access to even the items stored in the back.

Another way to fit a pantry into your kitchen is by utilizing the space in some of your existing cabinets. Companies make pantry inserts that fit into your cupboards and on the doors to create a great deal more storage than you had with just the cabinets and original shelves. These inserts can be added to just one cabinet, upper or lower cabinets, and double cabinets. These systems include swing-out shelving units that allow you to store many more canned goods or packaged products than you’d ever store in just a cabinet and then access them freely. The units themselves are made of solid woods, such as maple, and veneers, so they look and last like high-quality cabinetry.

There’s no need to pass up that great deal on a brand new appliance because your kitchen is too crowded. With a few simple changes, you’ll be able to nearly double your existing space and make everything more convenient at the same time. The cost for adding pantry inserts is much lower than if you would have to buy the entire cabinet again, and you’ll be delighted at the way you’ll be able to store all of your kitchen paraphernalia away out of sight.