Works-For-Me: Making a Pantry Out of a Coat Closet

Tuesday, 16th October 2007
Random Thoughts

I’ve mentioned before that we live in a small house. A really small house. Kitchen storage is practically non-existent. I love to stock up on groceries when they’re on sale, but we really had no place to put them. So I made a pantry.

We rent, so I couldn’t actually modify our house. What I did was put up some cheap wooden shelves in half of our coat closet. Now that half of the closet is used as our pantry. I’ve been on an “eating out of our pantry” binge, so it’s pretty bare right now.

It’s not a lot of space, but it’s enough for us. If you don’t have a pantry but want one, look around your house. Can you put some shelves in a corner and screen them off? Hang a curtain in front of them. Is there a closet you could convert to a pantry? If you look hard enough and think outside the box, I’m sure you can come up with a solution that works for you.

For more great tips visit Rocks in my Dryer!

17 Comments

Ewokgirl

Tuesday, 16th October 2007 at 10:57 pm
 

Great solution. I wound up taking over a shelf in the garage, but I’d much prefer to have something in the house since we have to walk outside to get to the garage.

Jennifer Partin

Tuesday, 16th October 2007 at 11:16 pm
 

that’s my problem……I can’t think outside the box.

Milehimama

Wednesday, 17th October 2007 at 4:31 am
 

As a longtime renter, I feel your pain! I ended up buying a freestanding cabinet with doors for our pantry. (The build it yourself laminate kind). It’s white so it matches the walls in every house we’ve ever lived in.

Beth_C

Wednesday, 17th October 2007 at 4:33 am
 

Great idea! I have a pantry but it is very small…about 1/2 the size of a normal pantry. So we put shelves in our garage for extra space. Our garage is right off the kitchen so it has worked out great!!

Deb - Mom of 3 Girls

Wednesday, 17th October 2007 at 6:46 am
 

We don’t have much storage in our kitchen either, so ended up buying a separate cabinet to use as a pantry and we have some shelves in the garage that I want to clear off to use for extra storage as well. I never thought about using the coat closet though - great idea! :)

Martie

Wednesday, 17th October 2007 at 7:22 am
 

I did this too! I will be posting it for WFMW in a couple of weeks. COme see it! Very nice job with the organizing.

Come see us at The Big Yellow House sometime!

Martie

SAHMmy Says

Wednesday, 17th October 2007 at 7:30 am
 

We did this in our first home–thankfully, the coat closet was right next to the kitchen! My father in law installed U-shaped shelves–my inlaws are Mormon, so they know a thing or two about food storage! I could see all my stockpile at a glance and still had room to store the vacuum in the space created by the U.

Ginny

Wednesday, 17th October 2007 at 7:55 am
 

We had to buy one of those shelving units that has the door on them. I’m not sure if they are specific for the kitchen or not. We also had to use in the past one of the bigger cabinets with doors for dvds in the kitchen. Also, in our bathroom we have one of the smaller dvd/cd stands with doors & a lock. We use it for bathroom storage & that lock comes in really handy with little ones around. None of the pieces were very expensive & they have lasted through several moves.

Tiffany

Wednesday, 17th October 2007 at 8:52 am
 

We live in a small house, too. My laundry room is between the kitchen and the garage. We bought a couple of the stackable “cabinets” from Wal-Mart (the laminate kind) that are thin enough to fit, but still holds canned goods. It is still small sometimes, but at least it is something. Also, it is easy to put them away when I bring them in from the car.

PinkJeweledCat

Wednesday, 17th October 2007 at 10:21 am
 

This is a really great tip. We’re currently a military family, so we don’t have to worry too much about having space for our stuff. But when hubby retires, that may be a different story, especially with a family of six, with one child in a wheelchair. So this tip may just work for me down the road. Ta for now dahling!

TX Poppet

Wednesday, 17th October 2007 at 10:49 am
 

Found your blog via WFMW. Glad I did.

Lori - Queen of Dirty Laundry

Wednesday, 17th October 2007 at 1:24 pm
 

Great idea! I need to find some more pantry space like this, for sure.

Love your polka dots, too!

Tanya

Wednesday, 17th October 2007 at 1:57 pm
 

Great idea! Looks good!

Kim

Wednesday, 17th October 2007 at 3:24 pm
 

What a great idea. We rent to and it makes it so hard to fix the place up to be more convenient. I never thought of using the coat closet as a pantry but I like it. Our coat closet is actually where i put the shelves for the dvd’s after the baby came home to keep him from pulling them off. So, sort of the same concept with a different twist. After seeing your pantry i think maybe i will clean out the linen closet (it’s close to the kitchen) and use it as a pantry.

Thanks for the inspiration!

childlife

Wednesday, 17th October 2007 at 9:48 pm
 

Now if I only had an extra coat closet about me… ; )

laane

Friday, 19th October 2007 at 1:31 am
 

We have the same problem.
Someone had the idea of making an entrace from the kitchen to the plart under the stairs.
The entrance is small, but inside it’s very large.
We’ve made shelves there.

Have a nice weekend.