Making Your Kitchen and Pantry Functional for Better Home Improvement

Space: the final frontier… and not just for Star Trek, but also for your kitchen and pantry. If you want your pantry and kitchen to be both practical and functional, and not to mention pretty to look at as well, use every inch of available space with every shelf, container, and drawer idea you can imagine. Be practical though, and don’t clutter up space in order to use space.

Use every inch of space you’ve got all the way up to the ceiling. Seasonal and less frequently used items are fine to store up high and out of reach. Or take the opportunity to display a collection of serving pieces that might otherwise stay closed up in a cabinet. Top shelves are also good storage for your backup stash of cleaning supplies or bulk items like paper towels.

Large, flat items are easier to access and take up much less space when they are stored on their sides rather than stacked on top of each other. Use small spring rods to make dividers between your shelves. They are super simple to install and just as easy to remove if you decide to use the space differently later.

Labeling is the key to organizing anything in your pantry and kitchen. Use chalkboard labels for containers that hold foodstuffs that can be frequently switched out like flours, cereals, and pastas. Buy labels or, if you have chalkboard paint, mask your containers with painter’s tape and paint the labels on. Chalkboard markers are a great alternative to old-school chalk for quick and clean writing.

Canned goods come in many sizes and can be troublesome to stack and keep visible in large quantities. You can DIY some great storage for all your canned goods to store them sideways to stack on each other rather than standing up. Customize your storage with paint and labels to match the rest of your pantry decor.

Stair-step storage can help you maximize space on a deep shelf. The arrangement gives items in the back a boost to make them more easily visible. You can purchase a shelf or you can create one yourself by stacking boards of varying widths on top of each other. Stack a 2×4 on top of a 2×6, and you suddenly have three levels to store items on, making everything more accessible.

If you’re adding new shelving, installing an adjustable shelf system will give you flexibility to vary and change the heights of your storage areas. You’ll also be able to use every inch of space that you have.