New Ikea pantry for better storage

During our trip to Ikea to buy my new desk, we came up with several ideas for improving our home. Our new house is a one-level ranch with no basement and a crawlspace attic. In addition, the kitchen is essentially galley-style with a limited amount of storage space, especially compared to our previous two apartments. Thus storage space is at a premium. Our current solution has been to turn the utility room off the kitchen into a combined laundry/pantry/craft room. So we have the washer and dryer, a chest freezer, Melanie’s craft table, and a series of shelves in there.

We have one shelf unit serving as the pantry for storing canned and boxed goods as well as storage containers and some small appliances. (You can see it in the photo below.) It’s not ideal because it’s easy for small items to get lost in the back and cans and boxes are always falling off as you root around for what you want. So when I saw the Akurum pantry cabinet at Ikea, I wondered if it would work. The cabinet itself is 15” wide x 24” deep x 80” high (or 88” depending on the model). The existing shelf, on the other hand, is 34” wide and 18” deep and the ceiling is 84” high. So I’m thinking we could fit two of these side by side in what is probably about the same amount of space.

And looking at the cabinet, with the sliding shelves and open cabinet above, I think each one has about as much storage as the present shelving has and would allow everything to be better organized. I think in a few weeks we’re going to take a serious look at installing these cabinets.