I love having ingredients in my kitchen that are close and easy to grab, which is why I love the simplicity and convenience of this bookshelf pantry.
Quite literally, I took a basic, no-frills bookshelf, placed it in my kitchen, and filled it full of glass mason jars full of food.
Super simple. A project that can be over and done with in less than an hour, yet a project that I guarantee you will pat yourself on the back for getting it done.
Just like we want our spices and seasonings in an easy to reach location when we’re baking or in the middle of cooking dinner, there are a lot of other pantry staples we constantly grab for in our food creations.
Depending on how your house and kitchen is set up, it isn’t always easy or convenient to house all your go-to ingredients in your kitchen. I have found over the years of living in several different houses that many homes simply aren’t set up for ease of cooking or baking.
Blame it on the architects, contractors, or whomever you will – most homes built in the last … well, forever, are simply not constructed with cooking in mind.
From houses built with no pantry at all (no walk-in pantry, pantry closet, or even cupboard), to houses build with the pantry in the most awkward locations – finding the where for those pantry staples can be a real headscratcher.
Whether it’s a lack of overall space in your house or apartment, or just the inconvenience of the space you have this easy Bookshelf Pantry idea offers a convenient, inexpensive way to house all those go-to food items.
In the Kitchen
My dream is for my kitchen life to someday look like the kitchens seen on cooking channels and food blogs. Sparkling clean sinks with no dirty dishes lingering from breakfast or snack time; tea towels hanging square and perfect off the oven door handle; and shiny countertops void of, well, all the clutter that seems to accumulate on my kitchen counter.
And a large, walk-in pantry directly off the kitchen.
That’s the dream – that someday life and home I hope to live.
But alas, I am not to that dream-stage of my life yet. I’m still living in the reality of 2026, and that reality is much more disorganized than my someday dream life.
Lingering dirty dishes leftover from snack time or breakfast often grace the bottom of my sink. The kitchen towels hanging off the oven door are most often disarrayed with discoloration in the middle from dirty, working hand. And there forever seems to be an odd dish or basket setting on my counter holding an assortment of small items that I, frankly, have no clue what to do with (they have yet to find their “place”, so there they sit on the edge of the counter collecting with all the rest of the misfit pieces).
And in that someday world, I’ll start every meal out with cute little glass bowls all spread out in nice even rows on a sparkly clean counter, full of pre-measured ingredients that I would need for whatever meal or treat I am preparing to make.
That’s the dream anyway. An organized kitchen where even the making and baking process is planned out and organized to perfection.
You know that line at the beginning of old cookbook recipes? Step 1: Gather your ingredients.
I cannot identify why, exactly, but I don’t think I have ever started out a recipe by gathering every ingredient I would need for a dish before I started making it. I just never do it. (Raise of hands if you do the same… )
Mine is a more grab-as-you-go process, and then put it straight back in the cupboard.
There’s no trekking to the basement (which is where my current full-pantry is located with all my canned goods, stored squash, potatoes, etc.) to emerge with arms full of all ingredients needed. I’m obviously too concerned about exercise for that kind of organization, instead defaulting to multiple trips up and down stairs mid-cooking to grab what I need.
But here, again, lies the beauty of the Bookshelf Pantry: it puts many of your (dry) pantry staples easily within reach. So if you are an un-planned, do-in-the-moment baker like myself, the ingredients you need are within an easy arms reach.
The Obvious
If you love making homecooked meals from scratch, I am sure you are already thinking the obvious: that this bookshelf pantry can only hold so much.
And that is true. This is not a full-pantry. Nor is it meant to be.
In essence, this bookshelf pantry is simply meant to be an extension of, or complete replacement, of dry ingredients we would otherwise hope to store in our kitchen cupboards. Think flour, sugar, rice, beans, nuts, etc.
(NOTE: I have a complete list of what I store in my current bookshelf pantry posted at the very end of this article, for those that are curious.)
The Bookshelf Pantry is simply a way of keeping a few extra, often-used ingredients right there in your kitchen area so they are easily and readily available to grab in the moment.
Also – it doesn’t have to be a bookshelf! I keep using the phrase “bookshelf pantry”, but that is only because that is what I use and have used for the last 7 years. Any type of shelving unit can work. In fact, my first “bookshelf pantry” was made from old 2x4s and 1x4s that I found in an old worn out barn that were greyed with age and coated in dust. But those old boards came together to create something that not only looked nice in a literal old-barn-wood sense, but was very practical and fitting for my limited space.
Ease and Practicality
Okay, okay. So yes, having a simple shelf in your kitchen – right close to your cooking space in order to easily grab and go with ingredients – is convenient, but above and beyond that … I love the in-sight reminder that meals can be easy.
I think many of us often struggle with having a direction to go for meal planning. It is not that cooking is difficult or that we’re bad at it; but we can sometimes struggle knowing what to make for dinner. And then after accomplishing the feat of main course, it is a whole new struggle to come up with side-dish ideas, preferably ones that don’t take an hour of prep-time on their own.
That’s where I love having this easy pantry shelf 1) readily available in my kitchen, and 2) on display so I can see the ingredients and then go from there.
Readily Available
In my “bookshelf pantry” – which for years was a 5’ tall second-hand bookshelf that I filled with mason jars full of dry foods (yet another great use of mason jars!) – I store everything from grains like white rice, brown rice, quinoa, corn meal, popcorn, oats; flours like whole wheat, all purpose, buckwheat; to legumes like beans and lentils; to seeds and nuts; dehydrated fruits and berries; sugar and other sweeteners; and the list goes on.
I have now graduated to a slightly larger Bookshelf Pantry which I made a little over a year ago. A separate article on how I made it will be coming soon.
Many of these items are staple ingredients in many recipes that I make weekly in my home. But a lot of them are my go-to “just grab it” ingredients when it comes to toppings for oatmeal in the morning or some other porridge we’re eating for breakfast. Think walnuts, raisins, brown sugar, cinnamon…
Or for a snack. Maybe one day we’ll eat some peanuts for a snack or maybe as a side for lunch. Or maybe its raisins or dried cranberries. Perhaps we’ll make a trail mix with a combination of nuts, seeds, dried fruit, and maybe throw in a handful of chocolate chips for fun. Those same trail mix-type items go great in homemade granola bars or everything cookies that are all easy for snacks or to go along with lunch.
These items are easy salad toppers. Sprinkle almonds on top of a strawberry-spinach salad, or maybe some sunflower seeds to go on a kale salad. Cranberries and walnuts/pecans taste wonderful on an autumn-themed salad. Or maybe go with sunflower and pumpkin seeds on a springtime salad along with sprouts and croutons to give it plenty of crunch.
Extra nutritional benefits for a smoothie is just an arms-length away with oats, chia seeds, flaxseed, almonds, etc.
And the list goes on.
Pantry on Display
Apart from just being practical, one of the other features I love about this super simple (have I used that phrase too many times already?) pantry idea is the rawness of having your pantry on display.
It seems a common idea in our society that we hide the food in our house – hidden behind the door of a pantry, behind the door of a cupboard, or strategically placed in another room so our baking staple items and other foods are not in full view of the cook in the kitchen or the potential dinner guest.
Perhaps we’re trying to hide the off-brand labels on all our foods, or simply trying to distinguish our house from a small grocery shop.
Whatever our reasoning, we fail to recognize, or at least fully appreciate, how beautiful our food is.
Food is beautiful. It is!
I realize in our 21st Century American society, it may be hard to fully appreciate the value and beauty (yes, I used the word beauty, again!) of our food. When starvation is so far distant that we almost forget it exists, and storebought foods are so easily accessible, and inexpensive, it is easy to look at those raw ingredients and think they look … ugly or basic.
But, really, those containers of uncooked rice, beans, pasta, and flour; those jars or bags of nuts, seeds, and grains – they are a beautiful sight.
They mean you have food to cook for your family. They mean your family has another meal ahead of them, that yourself, your spouse, and your children won’t go to bed hungry.
They mean you are eating a home-cooked meal! That you are putting in the time and care to prepare wholesome, healthy foods to nourish your household.
It means you will create memories as you prepare the food together, and have enjoyable conversations as you eat over the home cooked meal.
Those staple ingredients on display in your kitchen reflect the good life you enjoy. And that really is beautiful.
So as we go through life, living our not-so-picture-perfect lives in our (often) less than picture perfect homes, I think we need to focus a lot less on the pristine space that only shows functionless decorations in our living spaces, and instead, display the living aspects of lives within the walls of our homes.
This bookshelf pantry is a great place to start.
Again, keeping your dry staple ingredients in an actual bookshelf is certainly not the only way to store food, but I think it offers a great idea. Not only a great way to store those staple food items for easy functional use, but a great way to start appreciating more fully the true beauty of the food we have in our homes.
