Do you have a pantry?

[Sleepybunny]

Just wondering really I you have one and what you do with it?

I have moved to a house with one and planned on kitting it out with shelving, but is it a waste of space? Should I use it for something else? If you have one do you fill it? How would you decorate it??

The space is about 1.7m x 1m with a high ceiling (3m)

Ooh, those of you who don't keep fruit there, why not? Our bananas are in there with the root veg - and wine as some of you have mentioned - basically any food that doesn't need to be in the fridge/freezer is in the pantry.

Easier for DDs to reach the fruit in the kitchen as the pantry shelf is quite high

I live on a farm and have an entire small room kitted out! It holds the dog crate, various animal feed bins, crockery, one cupboard for tins , one of bathroom stuff etc. I love it! Once I get plumbing sorted it will also hold the washer and dryer.
I'v already got my Zombie Apocalypse plan in place.

I love my pantry (we built it when we extended) - basically I keep all food which doesn't need to be in the fridge in there (plus wine / pet food and kitchen paper) - they're fabulous things!!

Yes, we have one. I love it. Here it is, after a good tidy out last year.

Ours was a pantry once I guess, 1930s house and it's got the little fan on the window but it's now where we keep coats, bags Hoover etc. There are 5 of us and all our tins etc fit into a small cupboard, I don't understand why people need one!

My dad has a new family with 2 kids and it's like they're feeding the 5000: pantry full of food, huge cupboard with food, 2 tall fridge freezers.
I once got a can of coke that was 10 years out of date from my grandmother's pantry.
I prefer to plan for the week and don't have much extra. Saying that I live near shops so nipping to get something is easy.

How can you 'not have much extra'?

Store cupboards ingredients are what see you through last minute meals, endless baking and who knows what else.

I love the fact that I can go into my pantry and can pretty much guarantee I have whatever I need for X, Y or Z.

I sort of do. We have a basement and there's a side section with shelving I use as a pantry. I love it and don't know how I lived without it! It's mostly full of bulk buy tins of beans and tomatoes, bags of rice, pasta and lentils, and loo roll and kitchen paper. I have an extra fridge freezer down there as well.

As I said if I need something I'll just pop to the shop. I'd rather that than stuff going out of date. I usually have something in the freezer for a last minute meal and bake a lot so have the flour and sugar in, but just one bag; if it's getting low I'll get another in the next weekly delivery.

Are you all obsessed with costco too? I have friends who go on about it who have catering sized packs of things like homous or salad 'so cheap' which inevitably don't get eaten in time and go off.

We have one and I love it. It's mainly shelving and stores all my food. So I have no food stored in the kitchen bar the fridge. Mind you with the weather at the moment the pantry is as cold as a fridge. It also stores big bags of dog food and other general rubbish. In fact needs tidying up, I'll add it to my to do list!

I used to have one but got rid of it when I had a fitted kitchen. Over the years I have accumulated kitchen gadgets, slow cooker, food processor, bread maker, smoothie maker, spiralizer, preserving equipment (obviously a hoarder) and I wish I still had one so I could just shut the door but have them still to hand. They are on a shelving unit and it looks such a mess.

My parents had a pantry and so did my grandparents wish I had one!!

What's the thoughts on shelving? I've got a tall freezer to go in there

If you put a fridge/freezer in there it will stop it from being a larder because it will generate heat.
We wondered about taking ours out when we re-do the kitchen (in fact this is qhat Howdens suggested). Luckily, every other kitchen company has said this would be a bad idea; they build them for people all the time so why would you take one out?
Ours has narrow shelves down one wall and a deep one at the far end. I use fridge binz from TK Maxx and shelf baskets from Lakeland to store different categories: sauces, pasta, flour, sugar beans, nuts, snacky biscuits etc. Tins are on a sort of expanding set of mini steps on the big shelf and there's a wire spice rack on the back pf the door. When we get the new kitchen the breadmaker will go in there and we'll have a posh cupboard with baskets for the veg instead of the scruffy wire rack we have at the moment. Eggs and all my experimental teas go in there as well! And the plastic bag holder.

That's a pretty pantry dowageress, I might paint the inside of mine some day! Mine looks a lot like the other pic,but with less deep shelving.

I used to have one, and am envying your s.
Used to store ask our food, food processor, pressure cooker, and some less used bits of crockery.

Ours has become a shoe and coat cupboard and some junk. Now the hallway looks nice and big.

Yes, though I use it to store cleaning products and bottles rather than food.

Mine is 1.2 x 2.5 m and fully tiled with large white metro tiles. It has full height shelving on walls with those metal movable shelf upright things so I can play about with heights if I wanted.

It's is really cold at the moment, and never gets that warm and I use it to store all food that doesn't need refrigeration. As the kitchen has underfloor heating, even though there wasn't meant to be pipes under the cupboards, they still get really warm.

Large enough that I can bulk buy cereal at Costco every couple of months.

Interesting about putting the freezer
In there, you're right Shotgun, that would generate heat. I might need to rethink that.
I do love the zombie apocolpse prepping plan, cuntess I can't be as organised as you, I'd prefer to have a stock. We're near a shop, but only a small grocer.