I have shelving and the cabinets, I love both. I have three cabinet units.
One is a pantry since it's right outside the kitchen
One unit is for paint and other home repair supplies
The other is for lawn maintenance

I don't have good pictures but you may get the idea from this. Notice that the units are off the floor. I utilized this space for pull out storage. I got some Starlite plastic storage boxes and put handles on each. I didn't use the lids to these boxes 1) because then they wouldn't fit under the units 2)they fit snugly enough that bottom of the cabinets act as lids to protect from dust and other things.

So, if you do get the units installed consider the space underneath. Also, paied extra for thicker shelving and for two extra shelves per unit. Well worth the extra $.

{{!gwi}}

brilliant!

When I'm sick of publishing, I'm going to write an organizing book. (oh, wait--that's publishing!)

And I'm going to call you up and ask for permission to use your photo to show why an extra shelf (or two) is CRUCIAL! In my opinion, it is the ONE simple step everyone should do.

So many shelving setups have at least 1 too few shelves, and then you end up w/ wasted space--or worse, headroom that suckers you into stacking stuff on top of other stuff (like the shelf where your breadmachine dictates a wider space than you might have liked and so you've stacked things).

Even shelves that seem "too closely spaced" are actually quite useful--like a cubbyhole, sort of--and EXACTLY like the shelf above the bread machine. If there were nothing on that shelf, someone would say, "that's too close! What can you put there!" But it works perfectly.

Here's a perfect example of too few shelves--look at all that empty air! If they have one more shelf, you could increase the storage space by a quarter.

Or this one! How ridiculous can you get?

Even more decorative stuff is often sold w/ too-few shelves. For this one, they found som tall stuff to put on there, but in real life, how tall is most of your stuff? There's a lot of empty air.

And even here, there's some empty space that would sucker me (and esp. DH) into laying things up on top of the stuff on the shelf.

The only time you need headroom is when you need to be able to lift stuff from the back "up and over" the stuff in the front. That's why every kitchen pantry should have roll out shelves, closely spaced.

Mustangs, what really impressed me is how you used the space under your cabinets. Until now, I had never considered how important it is to have extra shelves.

Where did you get your cabinets from? I really like them and since my big pantry/storage unit was broken by the movers during my last move, I will need to make a decision of whether or not to replace it or buy new before I move again.

Once, while visiting a friend who reached in her cabinet for a coffee mug, I noticed that she had that "extra" shelf. It was positioned so that the space between that shelf and the one above it was no taller than a coffee mug. I thought it was genius. I went to Lowes the next day and found "finished" shelves that were a close match to my existing shelves. They needed to be custom fit just a bit. But for a few dollars and some extra shelf peg-supports (cheap), I have increased storage space in several of my kitchen cabinets. I created another narrow shelf space for lunchbox storage. And another just for paper plates. I'd post a photo if I knew how!

In our garage we have open shelving along with closed cabinets. Closed cabinets offer a "cleaner" appearance but it's easy to forget what is in them. The open shelving stores items we reach for on a regular basis: gym bags, basketballs, roller blades, gardening gloves, fire-starters, water.

Some of our old kitchen cabinets are hung in the garage. We keep some pantry items in here after a trip to Costco.

I would love to see what "Mission Organization" would do with our garage 1) because the space is not being utilized to its fullest potential and 2) because it is used as our main entrance to our house.

TS, You are do right about the head space! I have installed and extra shelf in every kitchen cabinet I own and the reach in pantry.

Headroom/space is your enemy! The shelving in my kitchen pantry was built-in and had a lot of wasted space. To reclaim that head space, I added the coated wire shelving to each existing shelf...it ain't pretty but I have no headroom!

Talk about typos--sorry, I have sausage fingers on the laptop.

Mustangs, I love your pantry....can you posst a couple of closeups of your containers to give me ideas of how to organize mine....also, do you remember where you got the containers?

Kona, Thanks! Are you talking about the containers with the round lids? If yes, they are the Snapware plastic containers and Dollar Store containers. Let me know what you want a close up of.

Here is a link that might be useful: Snapware Containers

actually those and the square plastic ones like the one labeled "oriental". those look a lot sturdier than the plastic shoe boxes i'm using......and i'd just love to see your labels just to see how someone else has things categorized.....

thanks!