Turning a spare room into a pantry.

[Ldychef2k]

I am tired of my preps and food storage being all over the place. I can't even tell what I have any more, let alone find it. So, I decided to move my home office to my bedroom and use the former office as a pantry. There are crafts and all kinds of stuff here in the office, some of which may be able to stay if I plan it correctly. I plan to black out the windows, and if that isn't enough, I will hem lengths of black fabric and velcro them from the top of the shelves to the floor.

I will have room for my dehydrator, canning supplies, and a work table for both prepping and crafts.

I started moving things out of the office yesterday, as I am planning to do one wall at a time. I have some leftover 2x4's from the fence, so I cut them to make supports and screwed them to the studs in the wall. I chose the wall that a child having a tantrum removed the wallpaper. At that time, we found two other layers of 1970's wallpaper underneath. I stopped removing it after the second layer and decided to wait for another idea. I guess this is it.

I have a line on some very cheap half inch plywood, and I will cut it into 16x48" shelves, reinforced with 2x4's front and back every 16". I will then attach trim to the front and open side of each shelf to create a lip for safety.

When I am done, the shelves will be organized by fruits, veggies, meats, sauces, soups, and so on. I want to know how many I have of each item, so I know what needs to be replenished.

Anyway, here's a picture of what I did tonight in about three hours. I measured my tallest quart jars and the shelves will ultimately be an inch and a half farther apart than them. If it works as I am hoping, each 16x16 segment will hold 16 jars. Each shelf will thus hold 65 jars, and the entire wall will hold 455. This is the smaller wall in the room

 

[FarmerDenise]

That sounds like a great idea and quite a project. I will watch you , since we plan on turning DSS's room into our pantry, once the "child" (18) moves out It happens to be the coldest and darkest room in the house and is right next to the kitchen and has a large closet. It would be wonderfull to be able to store all the canning supplies as well as the canned and dehydrated food in one place. We would even be able to fit a freezer in there easily.

Good luck with your project.

 

[rty007]

Don't you have like a LAND, and I mean acres? I wonder in Poland people that are more... real-food aware, tend to build hmmm... root-celars? (basement like, mostly underground, covered with dirt, structures. a little bit of examples:
they,re just perfect for that kind of thing, keeping vegies fresh, storing canned goodies, vine, even cheese making if you get a clean room.
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you get the idea by now In poland it is usually build under the regulation, which means 25m2 or about 255 square feet.

 

[Farmfresh]

Great project idea! It will really help to be organized like that.
Looks like you have a good start on the project as well. May I make a few suggestions and be the devil's advocate for a minute? Just a few questions to make sure your project turns out the best it can.

LdyChef are you going to build another support for that front corner? Like a post type support perhaps? You may also need additional supports along the long side. If you put a 2X2 or even a 1x2 on edge the length of the shelving under the front edge of the shelf and perhaps another one in the center of the shelf lengthwise, it will give you lots of extra support and help prevent sagging.

Figure out how much a single qt jar full of product weighs and then multiply to make darned sure you have enough strength in all of the supports to hold more that that weight. Full jars are HEAVY. I would hate for a top shelf to fail and then crash down on the rest!

Also you might consider dust and grime. I find that when I store jars a while, even in a clean area they tend to get dirty and dusty. I helped to solve my problem (at least to a degree) as well as making my storage darker by covering my shelving unit with curtains made from those flannel backed plastic table clothes you can buy real cheap. It made a world of difference on the dust especially.

Keep up the great work.

 

[Farmfresh]

Don't you have like a LAND, and I mean acres? I wonder in Poland people that are more... real-food aware, tend to build hmmm... root-celars? (basement like, mostly underground, covered with dirt, structures. a little bit of examples:
they,re just perfect for that kind of thing, keeping vegies fresh, storing canned goodies, vine, even cheese making if you get a clean room.
1
2
3

you get the idea by now In poland it is usually build under the regulation, which means 25m2 or about 255 square feet.

I will answer for myself here rty. I have a "back 40". Most people when they say that are referring to 40 acres. I mean 40 feet X 40 feet! That is the size of my current backyard.

I also garden a large vacant lot near my home and raise chickens and turkeys at my D1's house where there ARE 3 acres. Not all of us are privileged to live on acres ... at least not yet. I live in a city of now close to 200,000 people!!!

 

[justusnak]

What a wonderfull idea! I agree with FF, support, support, support! You can NEVER OVERDO it! A friend of mine did the same thing, but she was lucky to get free metal shelving...and lined her walls with it, then ran 2 more sets of shelved down the middle of the room. Looks like a commercial store room...and its packed! LOVE IT!

 

[rty007]

I will answer for myself here rty. I have a "back 40". Most people when they say that are referring to 40 acres. I mean 40 feet X 40 feet! That is the size of my current backyard.

silly me :

 

[Farmfresh]

By the way rty, those are BEAUTIFUL pic of root cellars. You should start a thread about them. Some of the people (ok MOST) on this forum do have land to build one on. Others of us are just interested.

 

[k0xxx]

Keep us posted on your progress.

We have a 6x12 walk in pantry currently, but it's quickly running out of space. We had planned to purchase a small portable building and use it for dry storage, but have decided instead to add a second coop. Like yourself, we have started turning a spare bedroom into storage, and will be using it TP, aluminum foil, our emergency supplies, seldom used appliances, etc. That will free up the pantry for only food items.

 

[Dace]

Excellent idea Ldy!

I can't wait to see the finished project