To ask kitchen pantry-havers if they are really that great?

I use our under stairs cupboard, which is in the kitchen, as a pantry and couldn't live without it. Yes I'm in and out a bit but everything goes in there from food, slow cooker, tupperware, flasks and I can just shut the door on it. My kitchen isn't big but if I had the gap, without the original cupboard being there the first thing I would do was have a one installed. It's also an unheated space so your not keeping food in a hot kitchen. I had mine shelved out by a joiner after working out all the different shelf heights I would need too.

I mean, do you have cupboards? It's just like a big cupboard basically, but better because you can see everything.

I don't have one, but I have an over-door storage rack and pull-out storage in the cupboards. If I had the option I would have one.

We have a small one and I love it. It takes tons of clutter like casserole dishes etc as well as all my tinned stuff, bread bin etc. I just close the door when I don’t want to look at everything. I say do it if you have space.

I used to have one many moons ago.
It even had a concrete??? shelf for keeping foodstuff cold.
Tbh I'm a lazy cow too, stuff would be chucked in and end up at the back going out of date, I was always clearing it out.
It was a pain

I love mine. The shelving was already there and I am not a fan of it. But it does a good enough job.

Lovely DH put a small vent in the door, top and bottom.

A little stool/step-ladder. I think it’s actually called a butler’s step-ladder.

All homes here have them (I live in Florida). I can’t imagine what you’d do without one. Where would you put your dry goods (flour, rice, etc) if you don’t have a pantry? Where else would it go? I don’t know what you mean by “walking to a separate room”. Walk-in pantries are a door inside the kitchen, like a room within a room. You don’t leave the kitchen to get to one. I keep the door closed when not in use but I’m particular about keeping doors closed because I think the house looks untidy with doors open.

We had 2 where I grew up. 1 by the kitchen and 1 in a basement. Basement for produce and preserves, one by kitchen for all else. If you bulk buy and bave bigger equipment it's perfect.
I miss them. I find it always bjt odd how absolute basic thing is now considered luxury. Even shere I grew up it's not common in newer builds anymore. Shame

I love a pantry. I think most got ripped out during that phase where people kept modernising big old houses and insisted on 'opening them up' by removing 40 to 60 percent of the downstairs walls.

They're great storage but also they do becomes dumping ground. People coming over? Throw anything big or unsightly in the pantry. Dh/dc hobbies out of control? Ok you can do that but only in the pantry. And so on until it's housing some chrysalis that may or may not hatch in a clear tank, a home brewing fermentation kit and all the bottles and funnels gurgling away to itself, loads of random pens and non kitchen items, tools loads and loads of tools.

My mum has a larder in our old house, with a marble shelf. Our neighbour growing up had a walk in under stairs one with a secret door to the kitchen. Bloody loved it. She kept hula hoops in there in big boxes.

Yes, is your utility off the kitchen, @LuckyBea? We combined our utility and small pantry into one.

It has a worktop with a butler's sink and a Quooker tap, an extra oven, a freezer, a wine fridge, the washer and tumble dryer, cupboards for cleaning supplies and the hoover and the ironing board, and then shelves for food storage. It's all built behind cupboards so can look nice and neat just by closing doors. We also keep the coffee maker and microwave in there, and did a sliding door into the kitchen so we don't have a door sticking out when it's open.

I could live without it, but it would be hard to give up!

They are associated with older houses

I would maybe combine the utility room and pantry. My SIL lives in a rather fancy house, you walk into the utility from the garage. The laundry machines are there plus a wall of cupboards opposite with plenty of counter space for appliances not used very often. All of her 'pantry' items are behind cupboard doors, so no mess.

Another friend has a walk in pantry, but yes, opening and closing the door every time you need an onion is a bit of a pain.

I had exactly this dilemma OP

I could have had the walk in pantry. It wouldn’t have been big enough to be a dumping ground/second kitchen. Only big enough for storage and maybe a microwave.

I went for the larder cupboard option and haven’t regretted it at all.

My reasons

• the door issue, as you describe
• similarly, distance: food items would be a lot more steps away from the cooking area in a pantry vs larder cupboard
• larder cupboard freed up more space for the utility room which backs onto the kitchen
• drawers under counter level are far, far more convenient for food storage than floor to ceiling shelves, especially if you are short. I am short.
• I know I would knock stuff off shallow shelves and/or forget about any items hidden behind others. Another 2 reasons why drawers work better

However: you want your pantry cupboard to have drawers underneath, doors on top. Lots of them seem to have full height doors and then concealed drawers inside. This is a pain as you have to open both doors to open a drawer.

We live in an old house and have a larder/pantry. It's stays cold due to vents etc so can store various foods in there. I really wouldn't want to be without one in some form or another.

Our so called pantry is a wall of cabinets, but it is full up.

Our understair cupboard opens into the kitchen so we use that for a storage & pantry area - saves loads of space in the kitchen cupboards for things that take up space & have long shelf lives (bottles, squash, pasta, rice, tins) as well as appliances we don't use that often.
There are also spare paint tins, a couple of musical instruments and all sorts of other bits in there too!!!

I wish I had a pantry off the kitchen. A large one with shelves to put large things like pressure cooker, stock pots, roasters, blenders mixers etc etc.

I don't have one but would love one. We had a small pantry/larder under the stairs when I was small so it might be nostalgia. But we have a larder cupboard in this house, about the same size as a fridge freezer and everyone I open it up I wish it was a proper pantry! All the cupboard foods organised in one place.

I live in a modern house so don't have one but had one as a child in an old house. I guess they were used to keep things cool before fridges. The open window is really small but it does stay very cool.

On tiptoe. I can reach ours and I’m 5ft 2in.

Love ours. So brilliant and I feel like I’m playing shop every time. Go for it OP!!

I think that's what would have been called a scullery

For those floor to ceiling ones, how do you reach the top shelves?!