Pantry Shelves

[Big Dave]

I have looked on the past posts and have not seen any one telling how deep the shelving is in the pantry. I went to the grocery store and measured 12 inches. I have seen metal and I have seen wood. Some solid and some vented. Is their any standard or is it just make what will work? What has work best for everyone? Thanks for any reply.

[greenmulberry]

Some of our pantry shelves were designed to hold pints and quarts exactly as far as shelf height. I really like them that size because they keep everything very tidy.

As far as how deep front to back, I think that would depend on how much room you have to work with. Many of my shelves are only 10 inches front to back, I would like them deeper but if they were then they would take up too much room.

[Alice In TX/MO]

The shelves at the top of my pantry are 12 inches. The ones at the bottom are deeper for storing larger, heavier items such as the blender, waffle maker, big skillets, KitchenAid mixer, etc.

[DQ]

if they are too deep rotation of stock is a pain. I prefer they be no more than 4 jars deep so that I am not having to pull a ton of things out to move the newer items to the back. also in deep shelves things get "lost". it is easy to overlook things you have and end up buying new. that being said I used whatever was available. some of mine are several feet deep and I use those for boxes of similiar items, such as a canning jar box full of chicken stock or tomatoes. then I know what is in the back and can just pull the box out and use the oldest dated one (I date/label the tops not the sides). all my cabinet shelves use baskets. so that to "dig" in them I just pulll the whole basket out, that way I don't lose stuff in the back.

[kitaye]

I think they've discussed this over in Survival a couple of times. I've seen some really cool pantry ideas over there. When I build my perfect pantry it will store quarts and pints two deep and as wide as I have space for.

For store bought goods I have a cabinet that is 10 inches deep and the shelves are fixed at 13" apart. I find it just doesn't work well. IT is either to big or to small for what I have.

[suitcase_sally]

As a side note, if you buy your motor oil by the case, the box will hold 2 dozen pint jars double stacked. Put cardboard between the layers. You will have to re-work the top box flaps. I put in the jars and then mark the height of the top jars on the inside of the flap and re-bend it to fit. I then label the boxes as to what's inside.

[culpeper]

In my previous house I had a walk-in pantry the size of a bathroom. It was wonderful! I had it fitted out professionally and they installed graduated shelving. Widest at the bottom (leaving space underneath for floor storage for very large items), and narrowest at the top (which was close to the ceiling. This made everything very easily accessible. I don't recall the actual depths, but the bottom shelf was roughly the same width as a standard kitchen cupboard, and the graduations as the shelves got higher were by several inches.

In the house before that, I had a pantry-cupboard in the kitchen, which was also excellent. At the bottom, the depth was the same as the other kitchen cupboards, and was made high enough to store large appliances; the next highest shelf was a couple of inches narrower, and the one above it was of a horseshoe shape. Then there was another wider shelf (narrower than the larger lower one), and above that was another horseshoe-shaped shelf. From then up it was just a series of horseshoe shaped shelves.

The spacing between all the shelves was adjustable.

Although alternate shelves were quite wide, with the horseshoe-shaped ones in between, everything was easily visible and easily accessible.

I can't give actual dimensions of the horseshoe-shaped shelves, but here is a rough description. The shelf began flush to the outer reaches of the cupboard. At the nearest edge, it was somewhat wider - the 'tips' of the horseshoe were sort of bulbous, if that makes it easier to visualise! Obviously, rounded - no sharp edges. The shelf was cut in such a way that the width/depth was roughly the same all the way around except for these slightly bulbous 'tips'. They were just wide enough to fit something about the size of an average canister, or a mixing-bowl set. At a guess, say 8 inches or so.

Or, to put it another way: Imagine 2 circles of timber, and 3 rectangles. Cut one flat edge on each of the circles (to fit flush to the walls of the cupboard). Cut into the circle to join one rectangle to it, neatly rounding as you go for the outer edge. Repeat for the other side, with one rectangle joining the two. Where the shelf fits into each back corner, the front edge of the corner was rounded.

Obviously, each shelf was just one piece of shaped timber, but I'm trying to help you picture it more clearly.

Since the larger shelves were narrower than the cupboard walls, there was plenty of room to fix small shelves to the insides of the doors to hold things like herbs and spices, small packets and sachets etc.

[Harry Chickpea]

12" is a reasonable depth. I had a custom pantry made for one house that was counter depth, had wire rack door shelves and interior adjustable shelves that were about 16" or 18" deep. Stuff was always getting lost at the back. If I was to do that one over, I'd use stronger hinges and have wider shelving on the doors, and pull-out shelves for the main cabinet shelves.

Lowes has storage cabinets that make decent pantries, but a walk-in is much better if you have the room. I still remember one that an aunt had, and the heavenly smell of home made gingersnaps in there. With a smell like that, you don't care how deep the shelves are, just how fast you can find the cookies.

[hotzcatz]

We buy used metal file cabinets at garage sales for up to $5 each and line them up in the garage. Everything gets stored in those but they have a place for a label on the front which helps when looking for stuff. For more storage we have shelves 12" deep, 10" deep and 24" deep. But the file cabinets are easier.

[Shawna]

My dh and FIL built my shelves out of plywood and 2x4s. They are 6' tall, 8' long, and shelves are 2' deep. I can fit 3000 quart jars, I figured, on each shelf unit (I have two). These are in our basement, not in a kitchen or pantry room.

They are super sturdy and I love them! Well worth spending a few extra bucks and a bit more time building them, rather than getting a metal or plastic shelf unit from the store.

Shawna

We're moving so just yesterday I cleaned out the pantry. The shelves are 24 inches deep and quart sized high. The bottom shelf is 30 inches deep and has more head room. I can fit a box of cereal and a bread machine there.

The problem is is that I threw out FOUR GARBAGE BAGS of stuff that went bad in the back of the pantry. I also had an old canister set in there as well as spritz cookie presses and other things I had totally forgotten about. Most of the stuff was from shelves that I need a step stool to see to the back of. Out of sight, out of mind.

My good friend has the same pantry size, but she doesn't have flat shelves across the whole thing like I do. She has shelves that are 8 inches deep that go around the whole area. She doesn't waste as much as I did just because you can see it.

Of course, I won't be pointing that out to and buyers....

[Shepherd]

I needed something really sturdy to handle a lot of weight for canned goods and my canning. I was tired of unsturdy metal shelving that would buckle too easily under the weight. We copied Sssarawolf's design. These are 2 feet deep, 8 foot long, and 6 foot tall. We'd just moved them into position and started filling them in this picture. We've added a 2nd set so far.





I hope this helps you.

[Wendy]

I made these when we enclosed our back porch. They are deep enough to hold 4 quart jars or 5 pint jars. They are about an inch higher than a quart jar. The ceiling is 8'. I made these out of 1" poplar I got from my dad. They are very sturdy & work real well. Wish I had room to put more.

Wendy...I now have shelving and canning envy! Nice work!

[where I want to]

The shelves I use are really deep- very inconvenient but I do the best I can by putting labels on the front of each shelf that says what is on the shelf especially in the back. It does help to find things but it's still a pain to shift things around. I also put dates on the canning lid so I can see pretty easily that I am using the oldest stock.

[Charleen]

Wendy - I just love seeing that pic! You must be very proud!

The previous owners of this house built a wooden pantry cabinet in the cellar. It would not be able to come out of the basement in one piece, so they left it for us. It's 5' high x 5' wide with double doors and each shelf is the exact depth of my arm. Each shelf height is adjustable so I have some set for pints, some for quarts and 1/2 gallon and gallon jars are on the bottom.