Shoe Rack Pantry

Storage is obviously one of the biggest problems in a tiny kitchen. In my kitchen, there are two normal sized, over-the-counter cabinets plus the obligatory, hard to reach cabinets over the stove and fridge. Only one of the cabinets is used for pantry items and I cook a lot so it was getting ridiculous. Good luck finding that bag of black beans or little bottle of sesame oil!

I’m pretty handy and I thought about adding some shelves somewhere on one of the walls but since the kitchen is only five feet wide, they would have to be so shallow they would be almost useless. Plus we are renting and have to consider the consequences of any “remodeling.” I’m guessing we are going to live in this apartment for at least two or three years so if we lost some of the deposit because of something that made our life here better, I wouldn’t hesitate. But a few four inch deep shelves would just be miserable and make an already small kitchen feel even smaller if I could even find shelves that shallow.

I love using things in ways they were not intended and Terri knows this. She suggested a canvas shoe rack, mounted to the wall at the end of the kitchen. I wasn’t sure how well it would work but I trekked out to a local housewares store and found one for $13. Cheap shelves would have cost five times that and nice ones would have been ten times the price. Installation took about ten minutes with some picture hooks, a hammer and a level. There are 24 pockets and it so happens that our feet are about the same size as a bottle of olive oil or a box of pasta. My pantry has some breathing space now and I haven’t even filled every pocket. I’m debating whether to put my most used items or largest items in it since it’s so nice not to have to look behind anything in the shoe rack, unlike my cabinet.

Terri is a genius!