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What is a Pantry Organizer?

Paulla Estes
Paulla Estes
Paulla Estes
Paulla Estes

A pantry organizer can transform even the most crowded kitchen or pantry into a thing of beauty. Pantries originated during medieval times, when food storage and preparation did not take place in one single room, as today. Centuries ago, various types of food were kept in different places in a home, castle or other structure. These rooms came to be known as pantries.

In the middle ages, there was the bread pantry, in which the ingredients for bread were kept, and in which the bread was prepared, kneaded, and stored after it was baked. There also were pantries for meats, dry goods, fruits and vegetables, and alcohol, as well as a separate room for cooking and preparation. As time passed, many kitchens were equipped with two rooms: one for storage and one for preparation; but the evolution of the kitchen leaves us where we are today: with one large room and often a large cabinet or closet for food and utensil storage, known as a pantry.

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Woman shopping

Since a pantry is rarely a separate room, but merely a closet or cabinet, many cooks and homeowners find that they must be very creative in their ability to store their goods properly and neatly. In this day of supermarkets and large discount stores, we find ourselves with a surplus of goods that have nowhere to reside in our kitchens. Hence, our cabinets and pantries often end up a garbled, stacked mess of boxes, bags, bottles, and jars.

A pantry organizer can be just what a kitchen needs to put everything in order. A pantry organizer can be found in many different varieties, colors, shapes and sizes. For the kitchen with a large closet, a pantry organizer might include several shelves, along with special carts and shelving units. These might include rolling bins that allow one to easily pull items out of the back sections of deep shelves. Storage bins and stacking baskets can also be used as a pantry organizer for closet pantries. For the closet door on the pantry, a metal or plastic door rack will hold lighter and smaller items such as boxes of cereal or dry vegetables, while heavier things such as bottles of oil and juice may be kept on the sturdier main shelves.

If a pantry is simply several kitchen cabinets above the countertop, a pantry organizer with the aforementioned items can still be a great source of help. Turntables and Lazy Susans are perfect for spices, medications, or any other small items. For cabinets below the sink or countertop, pull-out drawers and carts can be used as a pantry organizer to help the cook with hard to reach or heavy items. A pantry organizer can completely transform a kitchen from a haphazard, cluttered room into a well-organized planning center for meals and goodies.

Paulla Estes
Paulla Estes

Paulla is a freelance writer and website editor who currently lives in Maine. Paulla has a B.A. in English Literature from George Mason University and over 15 years of experience as a freelancer. She relishes the flexibility and consistency of working on WiseGEEK articles, as well as the opportunity to constantly learn something new.

Learn more...
Paulla Estes
Paulla Estes

Paulla is a freelance writer and website editor who currently lives in Maine. Paulla has a B.A. in English Literature from George Mason University and over 15 years of experience as a freelancer. She relishes the flexibility and consistency of working on WiseGEEK articles, as well as the opportunity to constantly learn something new.

Learn more...

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