Maxing Out Kitchen Cabinets

   Whether you are planning for the apocalypse or just need more space for your cookies, this concept will benefit your pantry. Maxing involves taking a second look at the negative space around the products stored in your cupboards. Now, you could just cram as much stuff into your cabinets as possible, but that does not create a functional space. Take a good fifteen minutes to see if you could rearrange your goods by height in a way that creates enough dead space for an additional shelf. If you have older builder-grade cabinets like me, this is probably not too hard, considering their inefficient use of space and poor design.

   After completing the hard mental task of cereal Tetris, lets talk carpentry. The real bones of this hack is the quick and easy installation of stock shelves. I have painted, stained and varnished enough household projects in my lifetime that I no longer find any joy in it.
   Armed with this prime directive, I began searching for a solution that would literally be finished when the last screw was driven. After scouring my vast knowledge of home improvement products, a foil wrapped, faux wood shelf popped into my mind that would fit the bill. Normally, I despise this material because it is cheap, heavy, brittle, and altogether ugly, but in this application it is perfect because it matches the material grade of my cabinet interior.
   Our primary pantry, included only one shelf in a rather large volume of 16 cu.ft., great if you are storing camping equipment, but of little use for can goods and other consumables. There was also zero interior bracing to add shelves. In order to make this as simple as possible, I bought (3) shelf boards for each rack I intended to build. Two boards were used as rails and glued to the interior of the cabinet walls. The third was laid across the top and voila! the cabinet is now a highly functional system.
     Admittedly, this can be a rather crude venture depending on your skill level. The trick is to match the faux wood to the interior of your cabinets. Rubbermaid makes a variety of sizes, and colors ranging from white to black with several shades of wood in between. You might ask why bother with this relatively simple upgrade? If you are a piler then this is not for you, but if you like the thought of not having to constantly move around the same items daily, you can see the benefit in this system.