The Clever Way Ree Drummond Customizes Her Pantry Shelves

Social media has certainly inflated the home cook's ego. That's totally fine — the internet is wonderful for food lovers of all walks of life to come together and learn from each other. But perhaps instead of presenting viral challenges for things like neon cloud bread, why not empower one another to become more efficient chefs? Technical tips are always welcome, after all, who wouldn't want to excel at common tasks like cutting onions and peeling garlic? But some of the most life-changing hacks don't just come from the food, but rather from the space in which you store it.

Let's face it, most of us are running around the kitchen between recipe scrolls, frustratedly rummaging around. Despite your best-laid plans, the cumin is never where you last put it, there are things falling over, and spice doubles you didn't intend to open. In general, when preparing a big meal you may find there was an unacceptable waste of valuable kitchen space, ingredients, and time. Fortunately, trusted sources like celebrity chefs have come to the rescue with ways you can take your pantry from paltry to practical.

Ree Drummond's kitchen pantry shows off some exemplary organizational skills. In a blog post, she showcases her pantry shelving, which is enough to necessitate a moving ladder and is partly based on her own design. With so much space to play with, she's able to house extra food items and even the appliances she doesn't use as frequently, per her readers' suggestions. There's even a low-profile prep space inside her pantry for working without taking up vital kitchen space when she has guests over. How convenient is that?

Having ample, user-friendly storage like this does makes it easier to keep track of everything. Remember the dreaded curse of the multiple open bottles of the same spice? But, if you feel that a pantry of this magnitude is out of reach, you're certainly not alone. Consider TODAY's interview with professional organizer Nicole Abramovici. She says "Anything within walls is immediately more organized," and giving your food and gadgets the room they need can help you be a more efficient cook. That advice can apply to cabinets and drawers as well, so it's worth looking into spice racks, pull-out cabinetry and shelving, tray dividers, and other space-saving, clutter-reducing solutions. 

Housing food is a concept as old as preservation. Encyclopedia.com explains that a larder, though synonymous with "pantry," was originally a room for storing meat in big containers of lard (like pork fat). Pre-refrigeration, these rooms were cooler than the surrounding area, and items could be hung and stored — think wine cellar or root cellar for long-term storage. The word "pantry" came from the Latin pannis (meaning bread), so the first pantries, in medieval times, were essentially fancy bread cabinets. 

Some dwellings come with a food pantry, whether it's a walk-in storage area or a narrow door somewhere near the fridge. If you don't have a walk-in pantry but want one, you can convert a mudroom or coat closet into a pantry. Of course, like any space in your home, it requires upkeep for it to remain useful. So why go through the effort of dedicating such space to food and ingredients? For one, kitchen cabinets aren't generally that large, plus you only need to stock them with the items you use most frequently. The pantry can absorb the rest. Furthermore, a pantry can store food properly, keeping it dry, out of direct sunlight, and safe from potential pests.

Whether you want to invest in a whole room or just a spice drawer like Marie Kondo, you have plenty of options for organizing your kitchen essentials.