My "Pantry"

I like my new kitchen. It's got a good amount of walking space, and not a bad amount of cabinet space. But I am quite the hoarder when it comes to my kitchen, and since arriving in Champaign I've been trying to buy in bulk when I can. I'm also trying to stock up on some of the kitchen appliances I've never had before (slow cooker! food processor! stand mixer!), and those take up space. What's a girl to do?

There's a fairly awkward space in the first floor bathroom, right off the kitchen. It's an old shower, but I would never suggest anyone use it for that purpose. And instead of just wasting the space, I've erected a set of shelves, and am using the area as a "pantry." Putting my canned, jarred, and otherwise sealed food items in there.

Take a look -

Here's the entrance to it, wedged between my stove and fridge.

And the inside! It's a bit cramped, but it adds about 16 square feet of storage space to the kitchen, which isn't insignificant.

The bottom shelf is storing my cat food and large canning pot. And apparently my worchestershire sauce, which I should move to one of the upper shelves...

And here you can see all my lovely jars of peaches and tomatoes! We did eat one of the tomato jars, and had no ill effects we could determine. And it took a bottle opener to get that lid off, it was sealed so tight. I bought strawberries at the store yesterday, so hopefully I'll be making jam in the next two or three days. I'm excited!

If you have any creative space tricks, please leave a comment! I'd love to hear about it.

- Caity