I grew up in my maternal grandparents’ farmhouse, which dated from the late 1800’s. The hallway leading to the cellar was Grandma’s pantry. It was lined on both sides with shelves for mixers, pickle crocks, and other kitchen equipment. It also had a huge chest freezer. One could have put two intact sides of beef in it, with plenty of room for other items. Home-canned goods sat on shelves above the stairs to the cellar and in the cellar itself. There’s a reason she needed such a big pantry: Her kitchen was puny, with very little counter or cupboard space. The kitchen also doubled as a mud room for my grandfather and uncle when they came in from the barn. Since Grandma was disabled due to arthritis in the last few years of her life (she died just before my 5th birthday), it’s a safe bet Grandpa or my uncle had to move her mixer or get meat out of the freezer for her.
With the exception of my grad school apartment, all of my kitchens have been bigger than Grandma’s. However, the issue of storage still remains. Each kitchen posed its own challenges. The house we rented in Dallas when we merged kitchens accommodated everything, assisted by a hanging pot rack. We managed to shoehorn things into the Greensboro rental house. Our former rental house in Seattle came with an extra refrigerator in the basement laundry room. We used that fridge for extra meat and beverages. We even brined a turkey in that fridge one year. There was also a cupboard in the laundry room where we could store some of our Costco largesse.
The garage here at Casa Sammamish serves as our pantry for excess canned goods, paper products, beer, and foil. It’s also where our smaller-than-a-side of-beef freezer resides. We have a good-sized refrigerator in the kitchen, but double-door, bottom freezer appliances aren’t always as large as they appear. The one thing I’d add to our pantry is a large dorm-sized fridge for the white wines and beers. Grandma would not approve of this use of electrons. (She was so anti-alcohol that Grandpa had to stash his “heart-starters” here and there around the farm, knowing that she’d never find them.) However, moving the wine and beer out of the main fridge would free up more space for the important stuff.
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