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meldy_nva

Pantry Shelves as a Guide

meldy_nva
13 years ago

I'm trying to figure how to tell DH that I want another set of pantry shelves. The kind that has wheels so I can pull it out and remove stuff from either side of the shelf.

You think 'what's the problem'? DH grew up in a tiny town with 3 (yep, three) grocers within 2 short blocks of his house. Apparently MIL mostly planned dinner in the a.m. and sent the kids for whatever was needed that day. Me? I grew up rural and gardens were SOP, along with canning and preserving what you might want again before the next year's harvest. If you didn't have enough beets or peaches or whatever, you traded for a neighbor's surplus. Empty pantry shelves were a sign of either improvidence or major illness (in which case the neighbors filled them up before frost). The result is that DH doesn't understand why I get uptight if there is less than a 6-month supply of foods on hand. Mind, he really likes having the pizzas, spaghetti sauce, jelly and jams, canned & frozen vegs, and pie fillings... he even likes that I'm willing to can/preserve all those items and more. Then he sees the pantry shelf stuffed and makes noises about having all that food 'sitting around'. And come October, when there are boxes of jars slid under the bed...

I think maybe one should check the pantry of the spouse-to-be's family, *before* making big life choices. I don't understand empty shelves, and he doesn't understand full shelves... and that's been a big issue all these years.

Comments (19)

  • mawheel
    13 years ago

    Your DH sounds like mind. While I don't keep our pantry as well stocked as yours, I do like having supplies on hand. DH will look in the fridge, pantry, or garage and say, "Look at all this stuff! Do we really need it all?" "Yes", I say, "what if there were an emergency and we couldn't get to the store?" (I'm remembering last winter's back to back blizzards, as a justification.)

  • mawheel
    13 years ago

    If this has already posted, I'm sorry. It didn't show, so I did it, again!

    Your DH sounds like mind. While I don't keep our pantry as well stocked as yours, I do like having supplies on hand. DH will look in the fridge, pantry, or garage and say, "Look at all this stuff! Do we really need it all?" "Yes", I say, "what if there were an emergency and we couldn't get to the store?" (I'm remembering last winter's back to back blizzards, as a justification.)

  • west_gardener
    13 years ago

    meldy, I grew up like your DH, where we went shopping every day for food and I was one of the shoppers. One of the reasons was because it was a shortage of food, and you had to get it while you could and you bought whatever was available and the cook had to cook it in short order.

    I'm a long range planner and I'd luv to have a pantry full of food so I can plan meals weeks ahead. My dream is to have an organized pantry. If you have a chance in getting one, go for it.

  • sara_the_brit_z6_ct
    13 years ago

    I grew up shopping every day, or every other day (since the second day was when you ate whatever you turned the leftovers from Day One into . . .). Typical European pattern, based on No Storage Space and buying what was in season. I mean, there'd always be a bag of potatoes, carrots, onions and so on: you could always make soup, or eat eggs, if you couldn't get to the shop. My mother can make delicious soup out of an old lettuce leaf and a handful of lentils if necessary.

    I really don't like planning meals days and days in advance. I mean, I make sure to take advantage of what's in season, and what's on special at the store, but knowing what's for dinner on Wednesday next week? No way - I like to cook what I feel in the mood for, based on what's available. I might not WANT chicken pie next week, and will turn it into salad instead.

    Although I do keep staple amounts of pasta, rice and flour. We'll never starve.

  • posieh
    13 years ago

    I can't imagine shopping every day, usually every week is enough. My MIL was a cook who always had supplies on hand even if unexpected folks arrivied at meal time. A trip to the basement would produce canned chicken or beef. She would make a chicken soup and add home made dumplings, add home canned peach sauce, home canned veggies, and you had "the full meal deal"! I'm not that good, but like to keep the shelves and deep freeze stocked.

  • calliope
    13 years ago

    When one grows a large garden, one keeps a large pantry I guess. Harvest time is my one chance in the year to put away everything we need in the way of fruits and vegetables, nuts and meats and be done with it. If we eat salsa twice a week, it's evident I'm going to go through over a hundred pints of salsa in a year, so there's nothing unusual about canning up that much. I only have thirty six pints bottled so far, so have some catching up to do. ;-)

    Last year I had put up about ten pints of pumpkin. Well, guess what? There was a national pumpkin shortage but that didn't stop me from making pies clear up until this spring. And all the more reason to put away foods because the reason there was a shortage is that it's all canned by one company now and all grown in one state. If that farm fails nobody has pumpkin, do they?

    It also saves us from driving into town every whip-stitch to buy something I need saving gobs in fuel. If it's not perishable, I have it somewhere in my pantry. My DH has built me two pantries and I have a cupboard in my solarium for purchased canned goods. It all gets rotated, and it may as well set on my shelves as some warehouse shelves. It also allows me to purchase ahead when the prices are best. I seldom pay full price for anything that way.

    Yes........at first my husband was incredulous. His family owned a slaughterhouse and meats were just across the drive from them. They also ran a grocery for while and food I suspect came home at the end of the day. And, I've lived in Europe where wonderful fishmongers, green grocers and butcher shops were all lined up in town and you popped into them on the way home. And, it was a hard sell to my SIL because of that and I got gently teased about being a survivalist. But now he knows what three foot snow looks like and impassible roads and living too far to walk to a store. I don't get teased anymore.

    I don't tell him what to do where it's a household function he pretty much controls, and when it comes to food, he lets me be the decision maker. Works for us. If I need a pantry, I get one. LOL.

  • gmatx zone 6
    13 years ago

    LOL @ meldy_nva...."I think maybe one should check the pantry of the spouse-to-be's family, *before* making big life choices." That's exactly what the oldest son did - and, yes, the DIL stocks as full a pantry as I do. She had him make her a HUGE self-stocking pantry after they married and moved to go along with her regular pantry. Of course, the teen-age GS keeps the food rotated quite well :-)

  • tibs
    13 years ago

    I grew up in a house where we could have eaten for at least three months without going to the store. We also would have enough paper products and cleaning supplies etc. I married a man who didn't grow up like that becasue they didn't have enough money to buy in bulk. His mom had loads of cupboards in their kitchen and some of them were actually empty! I am the type that fills all available storage space. That said, dh doesn't care how much I have on hand just as long as he gets good meals. He did question my need to buy more book cases.

  • west_gardener
    13 years ago

    gmatx, Luv the line" Of course, the teen-age GS keeps the food rotated quite well :-)

  • anneliese_32
    13 years ago

    Grew up with the grocery store across the square, the butcher shop 2 houses over and the backery right next to
    that. You could shop for the rest of the meal while the roast was in the oven. Produce was in the garden and got canned, sitting on shelves in the cellar, right next to the bin with about 500 lbs of potatoes in fall.
    Now I try to keep about a 4 week supply of groceries, since we don't drive anymore and the grocery 1/4 of a mile away gave way to Walmart a couple of miles down the road.

  • sara_the_brit_z6_ct
    13 years ago

    Thinking again about this, I also realise my mother's generation grew up with strict rationing and the official line was that stock-piling was unpatriotic. Not to mention there was no refrigeration.
    I used to do my daily shopping on my way home from work, or in my lunch hour, because the butcher and greengrocer were right across from my office.

  • west_gardener
    13 years ago

    There seems to several posts that mentions how people used to be able to walk to stores etc..
    There seems to be a new awareness how important it is to be able to walk or bike to a destination. The homes for sale ads actually posts a "walk score" around here in the valley.
    My house walk score is listed below.

    Walk Score
    38
    Out of 100
    Check out your neighborhood's walk score below.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Walk Score

  • D Ahn
    12 years ago

    Meldy,

    Sorry this is a year late, but... Hahaha, my wife and I are the same way! I think she stockpiles way too much. But as much as she says I pressure her to do things my way, we are buying a home and doing an all new kitchen... and in this kitchen, we're building big -ss tall slide-out pantries, just the kind you want. Hey... it's her kitchen!

    David

  • meldy_nva
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    I think I may be envious of your new kitchen :) However, I would suggest a bit of a compromise on those shelves. Don't make them too tall! Too tall is awkward to use. I'm 5'8 and have a set of shelves that are 6'6 and the topmost shelves are strictly for storage since I need a stepstool to reach anything that isn't on the front edge.

    A friend updated his kitchen and did something I think is neat. He converted some wooden utility shelves bought at Ikea ~ added castors, pulls, etc; but they were only about 60 " tall. He then hung wall cabinets over them and made the cabinets very useful by installing box shelves (about 1/3 cabinet depth) on the inside of each door. He also left a special place to put a folding stepstool so it's always handy when needed. He said that if you had to move more than one thing to get whatever you wanted, you were spending too much time moving stuff.

    I haven't thought of his kitchen for a while, but I also admired his pan storage: sliding shelves in a lower cabinet with the lids hung [via towel racks] on the door; knives in a slotted thingy fit into a drawer right beside the sink; a 'garage' for the small appliances with an electric plug for *each*; a baking area with enough storage for all the measuring cups/cakepans/mixing bowls/etc AND a granite countertop exactly the right height to knead dough! Also a moveable cabinet that stored everything used in preserving, canning, etc.

  • west_gardener
    12 years ago

    Even before reading all these posts, I have had serious pantry envy and now it's even worse.
    All the new high end houses around here have walk-in pantries. Some of them have fancy cut glass doors that says "pantry".
    All I want is a walk-in pantry, nothing fancy.
    davidahn, it's a good thing that you all are getting a pantry in your new house.

  • west_gardener
    12 years ago

    Follow up on the pantry issue.
    After more than 50 years of marriage and living in this house w/o a pantry for some 38 years, I'm getting a pantry.
    Our pantry has been a lower cabinet that is wide, long and dark, things can hide in there.
    Lately, it has been more and more difficult (physically) to bend down and look for things, so I have been asking DH to find things for me.
    DH decided to build "me" a pantry.

  • petaloid
    12 years ago

    Hooray!

  • meldy_nva
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Good for you to have such an able spouse. Do you have a wish list for the design?

    I can bend, but I can't kneel. The [badly designed] corner cabinet is now DH's preserve since he is the only one who can kneel and reach to the back. While I already had a lot of drawers compared to most kitchens, I am in the process of installing sliding shelves to what were standard base cabinets ~ no more items hiding in back!

    See link for something to add to your wish list!

    Here is a link that might be useful: appl;iance shelf

  • west_gardener
    12 years ago

    meldy, yes, it is nice to have a handy DH.
    My wish list and DH wish list for our kitchen (at this time) is that it will meet my needs for the rest of my cooking life.
    My DH is very interested in what's cooking so he'll keep working. Lol.
    I'm looking forward to getting some sliding shelves and also some appliance shelves. I saved your link.

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