Things that need to be kept cool, I store in the fridge – for that, I got myself an extra-large fridge.
In my pantry stands a freezer cabinet (and therefore I could skip the freezer compartment in the fridge -> makes it bigger inside again), the CO2 soda maker, our toaster – plugged in and ready to use (those are the two things I don’t want cluttering up the kitchen countertop), pasta, grilling equipment, bike bottles, a bag with plastic bags, a collector for plastic waste, a collector for waste paper, baguettes for spontaneous needs, jams, an insane stockpile of Nutella (my husband is definitely Nutella-addicted), a tray with our breakfast sweets (various honeys and other spreads), canned goods, flours, sugar, various salts, refill spices, potatoes, onions, garlic, pumpkins (currently), long-life milk, spare cartridge for the CO2 soda maker, cooking wine etc. pp. Everything super practical and within easy reach. When I have the window open, it’s a bit cooler there than in the rest of the house. But we don’t have it open at the moment, because the lowest part between the door and the pantry is still missing and then it gets noticeably cold on the feet in the kitchen.
It’s not meant as a cold room but as a storage room. Beer and wine are kept in the basement or stored in sufficient quantities in the fridge (because it’s really big ). However, it’s not cool in our basement either. I’m already thinking about whether at least the beer could also be stored in the pantry – wine stays downstairs because it shouldn’t be stored in daylight.
Sure, I could have put all of this in cabinets, but honestly: we built my shelves from the leftover wood of our ceiling – only cost us the fixtures (I think that was under 100€), I can see everything at a glance, didn’t have to buy an integrated freezer (also more expensive), but got one on special offer (I didn’t care how it looked) – that cost me significantly less than if I had installed three or four tall cabinets.