what do americans call a pantry?

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Casuallyfocused@reddit

I have 3 separate places in my house that I call "pantry".

In the garage there is a tall, shallow cabinet with narrow doors. Each door is ~12" wide & 6' tall. They open onto shelves that are ~10" deep and spaced ~12" apart
In the mudroom (the little room between the garage & the main house), there is a wall ~5' wide with shelves ~2' deep & spaced ~2' apart. It's open, with no doors
In the kitchen there is a little closet, 2' wide by 1.5' deep with shelves in it. This has a door with a glass insert that has "Pantry" etched into it

I call them the kitchen pantry, mud room pantry, and garage pantry

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SpecificWorldly4826@reddit

I’m desperate to know why you can’t imagine Americans calling this a pantry.

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dogslogic@reddit

My guess is it's just because OP is not from here, but knows that Americans often have slightly different names for things when compared to other countries.

E.g., Some U.S. vs England (and other countries) names: bathroom vs water closet (or even just toilet), trunk vs boot, elevator vs lift, washcloth vs flannel.

I didn't read any judgement into the, "I can't imagine Americans calling it a pantry" comment.

Maybe OP can't imagine "pantry" being a commonly used word in the American accent.

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lylalexie@reddit

I never thought super hard about it but always thought that was a USA thing, I think due to people clowning on us about it. So I was operating under a very similar misconception about Australians.

That being said… pantry is such an oddly random but very specific word lol.

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bloobityblu@reddit

They're getting very bothered by the idea that their specific experience isn't as universal as they thought it was lol.

I've never heard people using "cupboard" all that much lol.

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SpecificWorldly4826@reddit

Thanks for the understanding! Yeah, I honestly do hate that this is such an uncomfortable situation for them. I just…I can’t change that my experience differs from theirs!

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Positive-Draft3801@reddit

Its just that you avoided answering the question. I was curious how they might say things differently where you are from, so I used an example that you took literally.

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SpecificWorldly4826@reddit

I mean I can’t imagine literally saying someone’s pantry is empty in any actual conversation, but yeah, I guess if I were in a bizarrely literal situation that demanded referring to the physical space which would be occupied by food if the person had any. I would definitely not say cupboard, because to me, that would mean they don’t have any dishes.

To be fair, it's not a word you ever really hear in film or TV, or even reading books.

Or even most everyday conversation, even at home. It's not like people ask where something is and you have to say "the pantry" -- you already know what's kept there.

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DodgerGreywing@reddit

Do other countries not have lemonade as Americans know it? There's no way a drink like that only exists in America.

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Xiij@reddit

in the rest of the world, lemonade is some form/variation of sprite

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DodgerGreywing@reddit

No one else has the lemon juice, water, and sugar version of lemonade?

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literatureandtea@reddit

No not really.

Cloest thing too it would be Solo or Pub Squash, but this is still carbonated (fizzy drink) and is either artificial lemon-flavour or a small percentage lemon.

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BelleMakaiHawaii@reddit

A pantry

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Edithasburglar@reddit

We call it a pantry. 🤷🏻‍♀️

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MiseEnSelle@reddit

As opposed to "food pantry," which is for charity. Not sure if that would be ovious to a foreigner

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MidorriMeltdown@reddit

It makes me wonder how many other types of xyz pantry's there are.

Toilet paper pantry?
Cup pantry?
Ice pantry? ICE pantry?
Towel pantry?
Trowel pantry?
Pot pantry?

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SubstantialListen921@reddit

Yeah, just to be clear, the specific phrase “food pantry” refers to a charitable organization that distributes food to the poor, or to the building that performs this function, or to an event of this type at a church or other public building.

New_Average_3716@reddit

This sounds very similar to our current pantry. Ours is a very small room at the end of one side of the kitchen. This is our first official, separate pantry. It even has a door with frosted glass that says “Pantry” on it. 😁

The former owners of the house converted it from a bar area where someone could mix drinks. Apparently there were mirrors on the walls behind the bar, and when the owners converted it into the pantry, they left the mirrors on the walls and just added shelves over them, so for two of the three walls of the pantry, you can peek between the shelves to do your makeup. Lol

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MontanaPurpleMtns@reddit

Lucky!

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ComeSeptember@reddit

I fought pantry moths for months, and I don't even have a pantry at all - renamed-closet, room, or otherwise!

For OP, I'd say that pantries are a large-home-thing for the most part. I've only once lived someplace with a pantry, despite living in a total of 16 different homes so far. I have seen other families have pantries, though, and they were definitely larger homes than I lived in.

inanutshell@reddit

Thats the garage fridge.

Up here we have a pantry Canada goose.

It's...it's real mean. It's why Canadians are known for their politeness and even temperedness. All our hate and aggression goes into the pantry geese.

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BarAgent@reddit

The Portrait of Dorian Goose

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trphilli@reddit

A redditor of fine taste. Take the upvote.

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TantricEmu@reddit

canadian

even tempered

"Panny" is ridiculous. It's a panno.

Must be that region.

Vitamni-T-@reddit

I've been to St Louis when it was raining, and what you have there is actually called "a serious drainage issue due to awful infrastructure" in other places.

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FunkyPete@reddit

I'm from Kansas City, and among other Missourians I will happily trash St. Louis and their infrastructure.

But I feel oddly obligated to defend them when an outsider insults them. They're kind of like our sibling, and WE can make fun of them but it's uncomfortable to hear it from someone else.

“Sure for us sensible english speaker Americans but those drunkards down south come up with some funny names. Wouldn't put it past them to call it a chazzwazzer. “

Down south ^ not referring to southern US in this comment…

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sparklyjoy@reddit

There is so much cute and not cute hating on southern Americans from other Americans that I also assumed that was what was happening here

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allysonwonderlnd@reddit

We literally have no imagination when naming things. You're thinking of the English.

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KayoticVoid@reddit

I love how all of these people think you're talking about what Americans call a pantry when it is clear, to me, you're saying OP could easily not be referring to what us Americans mean by pantry. Even when you explained further... 🤦🤣

I'm thinking trunk in British English (Aussies might use the same word. No clue). Most Americans thinking of a car but they would likely be referring to a trunk to hold clothes in and such.

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Great_Chipmunk4357@reddit

“Trunk” to Americans is also the big chest that you store things in. That’s why we named that part of the car the trunk. Brits named it the boot because, that’s where they put their feet???

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Great_Chipmunk4357@reddit

See my comment elsewhere where I commented on Brits’ habit of telling Americans what they say, and it’s never right.

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KayoticVoid@reddit

Fair clarification. But point still stands.

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craftyreadercountry@reddit

Cupboard, pantry, butlers pantry are common terms where I am in the south.

It’s where you keep the non perishable food

We have a freezer in our pantry.

We also store some non-food stuff like soap, toothpaste, paper towels, and napkins in the pantry, so we know when we're running low.

I guess not. I think it was their styling throwing people off. And the people who want an economical truck are going to gravitate to the Maverick hybrid option.

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lisagd625@reddit

When I hear Ford Maverick, I think of the 1970s car. I took my driving test in one, as a matter of fact. 🙃

A pantry can vary based on many factors that you might consider when writing for your characters. Some: Age of the house 1930's or 2026. Location...like New England vs Arizona. Climate. City or rural. Wealth or income level of the characters.

A pantry can be anything from a tall cabinet built into the other cabinetry in the kitchen that might or might not have pull out shelves to store canned goods, dry goods, drinks/sodas and other non perishable items....to an entire separate room or alcove off of the kitchen. A butler's pantry in much older homes (like 1930 built) would also have storage for kitchen utensils, shelves, drawers and counter tops.

If your characters are living in an apartment or condo it is unlikely that they would have a pantry of any kind.

We are rural and have a large built in double door cupboard in our kitchen cabinetry with some pull out shelves. In addition we have a 10X12 ft concrete block well/pump house building separate from the house within 10 ft from back deck that functions as a pantry with LOTS of canned/dried goods/extra kitchen items like foil, plastic wrap /BOOZE and wine......as well as where we store kitchen/cooking equipment that we don't use every day. (dehydrator, canning equipment/pressure cooker canner/ baskets for potatoes and onions and other garden produce)

LOOPVE butler's pantries. As I am in my 70s now,, I have downsized. And that means some(just some) of my serving dishes, dishes, and drinks apertanances have been sent away. I am in less than half the square footage of my former home. The butler's pantry is such a treat. Only way to truly have an esthetic kitchen. I still have a food pantry, and of. Lurse can still store my less used kitchen tools and serving sets in the far upper cabinets, but the accessibility of a food pantry AND a butler's pantry truly makes for a gracious home. I like a dishwasher, wine fridge, full sink, in a butler's pantry.. a microwave or tabletop convection oven.

I make do now with a formal bar, glass shelving mirrored background, for the various drinks glasses. I have watched the younger generation not want the expensive serving, ,party, formal ware of any kind. They order in, host at restaurants. I cook, create cocktails, love a well decorated table.

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Push_the_button_Max@reddit

I’m with you!

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Push_the_button_Max@reddit

That’s wack-a-doodle…. Who wants LESS food storage?

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Donald_J_Duck65@reddit

When home buying they seem more popular than ever. We just built a house, and the architect said he is requested to design one into almost every house they build.

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poopiebutt505@reddit

I always require a panty in any home. So many modern kitchens have inadequate cabinets for esthetics (? In a KITCHEN???)

Pantry is a small room with a door. There are shelves and rods to hang your clothes.

Pantry cabinet is basically just a very wide and tall cabinet with either regular cabinet doors or a regular door.

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Powersmith@reddit

You can specify “walk-in pantry” or “wall pantry” eg in a real estate listing to clarify

https://www.angi.com/articles/types-of-pantries.htm

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aruisdante@reddit

A proper pantry is like a walk in clothes closet: it is a dedicated room with shelves in it, and enough room for a person to stand inside. A door is actually optional, though usually it exists.

A pantry cabinet is just a dedicated set of cabinets being used to store food. They’re often floor to ceiling, but they don’t have to be.

I pantry closet a floor to ceiling set of shelves in a closet with a “regular” door rather than a cabinetry one, but which does not have enough room for a person to stand inside.

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DeceitfulDuck@reddit

Yeah, this is how I view it too. We have sort of the opposite of the "pantry cabinet". We have a closet with a normal interior door, but it isn't "walk in". At least not comfortably and there's no interior lights so I still don't consider it a "pantry" and we call it the "pantry closet".

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Dartagnan1083@reddit

Size probably.

There's also "Servant's Pantry," often called a butler's pantry, was a transitional,,,, high-activity room located between the kitchen and dining room in 19th and early 20th-century homes. It was used for storing silver, china, and glass, as well as plating food, preparing beverages, and cleaning dishes, serving as a vital, shielded workspace for domestic staff.

First (and last) one I saw was in a new 4bd house and was in a corner connected to the kitchen and pantry (2 doors to pantry) and had its own sink, cabinets, and prep area. It was about to square meters minus the cabinet setup and had a window.

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bull0143@reddit

Yes. And if the pantry is a closet or room, some walls most likely.

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Desperate_Day_2537@reddit

I don't even know, really.

Yes and we called them "kitchen cabinets" instead of "cupboards."

Same, also California, but my parents - and probably 90% of my classmates' parents - were from the Midwest, so that's not too surprising.

I probably say cabinet more often than cupboard but definitely use both. Now I'm pondering what the distinction is, or what leads me to use one or the other in any given instance.

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Powersmith@reddit

Same same.

But it seems like cabinets can be free standing. Cabinet makers make both built in and independent cabinets.

Also a cupboard is a single compartment. A cabinet can be a whole multi-compartment piece, eg it may have 2 cupboard doors and 3 drawers

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MsDJMA@reddit

For me, cabinet is at eye level, hanging on the wall above the countertop. Cupboard is below the countertop. (funny, because "cups" are never stored there)

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WestBrink@reddit

We did, but one of my grandmothers immigrated from Germany after WWII and the other was the child of Prussian Menonites, so it's entirely possible there's some non-standard kitchen terminology in there...

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PirateJen78@reddit

We also say cupboard, and also from a Mennonite family. My mom's side was actually PA Dutch Mennonites.

ilanallama85@reddit

A lot depends on how you shop and how you cook. I bulk buy a lot, and tend to use relatively few “fresh” ingredients - I have easy access to stores but not a lot of time to plan or go shopping, and I have a hard time sticking to a schedule where fresh produce and things don’t go bad on me before I get to use them. For a long time that meant mostly a lot of frozen stuff, so my pantry wasn’t all that full, but lately I’ve been getting more into dry and canned goods. The thing is, it’ll probably take me over a year to use the case of chickpeas I just bought, but I will definitely use it, and at 62 cents a can I couldn’t pass it up. You fill the space pretty quickly doing that

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keithrc@reddit

Costco has entered the chat

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ilanallama85@reddit

For frozen, for sure, but tbh the regular grocery store gets most of my dollars for canned goods when they have their case lot sales.

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mina-ann@reddit

Agreed. In addition to shelf stable food, I also store the KitchenAid mixer in the pantry as well as other not as often used kitchen gadgets.

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And small appliances. My mother has a walk‐in pantry, and that's where the blender, slow cooker, food processor, etc. live when they're not in use.

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thewags05@reddit

Yeah I have a walk in butler's pantry. The toaster and ir fryer live in there so they don't clutter up the kitchen cabinets. I also have floow to ceiling pantries with appliance garages. Apparently I hate kitchen clutter.

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marshmallowsynapse@reddit

I also call my deep cabinet with shelves that pull out, but is only about 5 feet tall, a pantry.

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CheekyPunker@reddit

So I worked for Shelf Genie and through them I found out that walk-in pantries are VERY out of fashion right now.

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Cupboard is an alternative.

Ex: “Where’s the sugar?”

In a house with a separate closet or small room for food storage, we call it a pantry.

sics2014@reddit

I call it a pantry. They're like closets but for food.

But at my great-grandparent’s home, they had a walk-in narrow pantry where my great-grandma also kept her preserves, jams, jellies, etc. and it had floor to ceiling shelves. That thing was always packed with stuff.

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bandcat1@reddit

In the US we generally have two kinds of pantry. The most prevalent one is a built in cabinet or closet primarily used to store dried, canned, and other imperishable foodstuffs, and sometimes seldom-used kitchen appliances.

serendipitymoxie@reddit

Why can't you imagine an American calling a pantry a pantry?

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Epic_Brunch@reddit

There's no need to keep lying to them. I think it's okay to be honest so they can accurately display it in their writing

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Some people have pantry’s, some don’t. My parents is no bigger than a small coat closet, my grandmothers is a walk in room- probably the size of a bathroom (she also keeps extra kitchen aids in there that she’s not actively using)

A pantry may be a small room (especially older houses) or closet sized cabinet.

So you build safe rooms?

SaintCambria@reddit

Also soil composition, I live in the Texas Hill Country and most people don't have basements due to how hard it is to dig in the granite and limestone.

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RedHickorysticks@reddit

The metroplex doesn’t have basements because the soil expands and contracts too much. Lubbock has some basements!

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katarh@reddit

Soil comp also determines slab vs foundation construction.

Where I live, walk out basements are common because they just build the house directly into the hill side.

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imissher4ever@reddit

You can have underground high speed transport in New Orleans.

Believe it or not there’s a high speed train that runs under the English Channel. It’s called the Eurostar.

Tunnels exist in America too. I have been the

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IanDOsmond@reddit

I took the Chunnel from London to Paris once. It worked well.

I also live in Boston where we put the primary through-the-city traffic artery underground. It took sixteen years and cost 24 billion dollars in today's money.

Putting a tunnel under a working city is not easy. Putting a tunnel under water is not easy.

katarh@reddit

I've only been in one apartment that had a giant walk in pantry, and it doubled as the washer/dryer room and bicycle storage. It was kind of weird, honestly, since it didn't have direct access to outside.

I didn't understand until we got the house we live in now, and we have to keep our bikes in the living room because there isn't a good place to put them anywhere else.

The pantry in this house is built in to the kitchen, and is a reach in closet with 4 wire shelves and a lot of bin space in the bottom.

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turquoise_amethyst@reddit

I’ve only ever seen them in the Midwest, east, and some places in the South. Western states just don’t have them (we don’t really have basements, either)

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maclainanderson@reddit

My home has neither closet nor room. My pantry is just a tall cupboard. Granted the home is 30 years old and doesn't really fit your qualifier, but I think large pantries were common even in the 90s

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100percentEV@reddit

My house was built in 1942, but the kitchen was redone in 2006. No closet. Our pantry is a tall cabinet with pull-out shelves.

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awolfinthewall@reddit

Not in Utah and Idaho 😆 I have friends with pantries larger than my home office. Some of them have counters and appliances in there.

It’s a pantry

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ReddyKiloWit@reddit

I doubt most Americans have a full room sized pantry, but there's often a closet in or near the kitchen with shelves for non-perishable foods, and maybe room for a broom or mop, etc. I'd probably call it the "kitchen closet", but "pantry" works too, and may be more common in some regions*. And I've heard "pantry closet" too.

That's a common thing in the US, wildly different terms from region to region. The classic is what is "soda pop" commonly called in the US? Answers include: soda, pop, Coke (no matter what flavor or brand), soft drink, phosphate, dope, etc.

The very in size depending the type/size of the home. In some it could be like walk in closet that you can literally stand inside of, and some would be more like a large cabinet, or reach in closet.

Regardless of the size... it's still a pantry

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North81Girl@reddit

A small closet used for food storage

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BowTrek@reddit

Pantry is a small room with shelves, usually near the kitchen, where we keep non perishable foods. Rice, beans, canned goods, candy, etc.

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Queer_Advocate@reddit

PAN-TREE is how we say it. I haven't ever heard it called anything else and I'm from the US and lived all over it.

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Vast-Combination4046@reddit

My parents pantry was just a closet for food. Shelves filled with dry goods, cans, napkins and snacks.

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Ruth-Stewart@reddit

Am American, I call it a pantry.

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FloydetteSix@reddit

Born and raised a nearing 50 in a few short years. I’ve lived on 3 coasts here and it’s always been a Pantry. Now, perhaps a few generations back you’d hear “cupboard” for a smaller pantry maybe. I’ve never had a large one. Mine have always been like a coat closet with some shelves. We keep some canned foods, herbs and spices, pasta, rice, maybe some kid snacks and things like cold medicine and bandaids. That sort of stuff. Hope this helps!

Oh and for those who don’t have any actual pantries, they’d likely use a cabinet in the kitchen. Or perhaps some shelves in the basement or garage, which they may also call the pantry lol.

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firebox40dash5@reddit

˙ʎllɐǝɹ 'ɥɐǝ⅄ ˙ʎɹʇuɐd ɐ pǝllɐɔ s,ʇI

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nutlikeothersquirls@reddit

So my mom (silent generation) called it the pantry, my husband and I (Gen X) call it the cupboard. It’s a closet for food. Ours is regular closet depth front to back, and double doors for width (probably like 5-6 feet wide).

I call the cabinetry for dishes, cups, and pots and stuff my kitchen cabinets

PsychologyGuilty1460@reddit

A lot of places in the US have what they call built-in pantries which is not so much a room but a closet or at least a deep cupboard where you can store dry goods. But a walk-in pantry is definitely a desirable feature in a kitchen. So is a root cellar actually, lol. Do you have those in Australia?

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JessicaGriffin@reddit

I call it a pantry.

Mine is the size of a coat closet, so let’s say 1 meter square or maybe 1.4 meters square. It has shelves on two walls, hooks on the third wall, and I have a spice rack mounted on the inside of the door.

I have two pantries and I call them pantries. Most grocery stores also refer to many items as pantry items. Canned goods, dry goods like pasta and cereals...

They are freestanding cabinets about 7 feet tall.

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MILFrogs87@reddit

We call it a pantry. I've heard some call them food closets but we don't.

In the current house our pantry is a small closet with metal white wire racks. Same style and size of door that's common in homes. About 7 racks spaced out and going all the way up. They suck honestly. After a time they start to bow in the middle and the cans/jars and boxes starting rolling off.

The last house didn't have a pantry so we just stored our dry goods in the cupboard. They hold significantly less than pantries.

A pantry is essentially a closet in the kitchen. Cabinets are non-full-height storage spaces in the kitchen. Some big houses have walk-in pantries, just like some big houses have walk-in closets in the master bedroom. It's been fashionable for the last thirty years for American houses to have a giant kitchen, and of course a large (though not necessarily walk-in) pantry to go with it. Older houses may have a small kitchen with a small pantry or none at all and just cabinets.

It's also popular to have an open plan house, where the kitchen, main living room and entry area are all combined into a single very large space. Which means when you're entertaining, your guests circulate around the whole space including the kitchen. Which means you can't really be cooking there. So some very large houses have two kitchens, the one with the Sub-Zero fridge and Cutco knives and All-Clad pots and pans to impress your guests, and the smaller, more utilitarian one where the caterers set up and actually cook things. The purpose of the main kitchen is less to be a work area for cooking and more to give the impression (note: the impression) that guests have been invited to an intimate personal area where the hosts are "just folks."

Pantry is a smash room off of the kitchen

Some houses don’t have one. Some have a small closet and some have a room size closet. There are even houses that have the hidden pantry where it just looks like full length cupboards, but you open it up and you can walk inside and there’s like a whole room with shelves and everything. I’ve even seen houses, where they have like a full second kitchen inside of the “pantry” with a fridge and a sink. We also have places in the community called a food pantry where people made donations so needy families can go and get food for free.

DimensionNo8864@reddit

We call it a pantry. I did had friends growing up that lived in smaller apartments where they didn't really have a pantry, in in those cases I've heard the space where dry food is stored referred to as simply a cupboard or cabinet. But as someone who now lives in a small apartment with no pantry space, I call the cupboard with my dry food "the pantry"

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bloobityblu@reddit

In America, a pantry is a closet or small room with shelves specifically for food storage. Shelf-stable food storage because we have refrigerators now lol. Canned foods, jars, dried goods, snacks, pasta, etc. Just a small room you can enter physically to store food in.

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WellWellWellthennow@reddit

We have what we call a pantry in our kitchen, which is a large built-in full length cabinet that matches our kitchen cabinets but meant for food storage. It has shallow drawers on rollers that pull out where we store all of our our non-perishables, spices, cans, boxes, pastas, bottles of soy sauce and vanilla, baking flours and sugars. In the top are cookbooks and cereals etc.

My pantry is basically a small closet in my kitchen that has 5 shelves. I store dry goods and non-perishables in there. Top shelf is bulk boxes, cereal boxes, overstock condiments (when I’m low I buy the next bottle before I run out), and items I don’t use often. Next shelf is canned items and disposable dinnerware/silverware. Next shelf is pasta, small bags of various rice, beans, and other dry meal components. Next shelf is snacks. Bottom shelf is baking supplies like various sugars, flours, nuts, and chocolate chips. I store some large items on the floor, like the dog food bag, the 25lb bag of white rice, and sacks of potatoes.

My neighbor across the street has a much larger pantry that you can indeed walk into. Size definitely varies.

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Spyderbeast@reddit

Not all American homes have pantries

An average middle class home, you have a tiny room with shelving, and that's a pantry

Wealthier people would have full on big rooms for a pantry

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Superb_Yak7074@reddit

We do call it a pantry, which is usually a floor-to ceiling cupboard or small closet lined with shelves to store canned goods, other non-perishables, and seldom used small appliances or baking dishes. There are homes with a separate room-sized pantry but the home is usually very large and the people are wealthy.

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I'm fortunate to have a room I call the pantry. It stores some nonperishable food, extra drinks that don't fit in the fridge. A spare freezer (because cabinet-depth refrigerator/freezers are terribly small). And small appliances I don't use every day, like a stand mixer, waffle iron, etc.

A pantry is where you keep your dry and canned cooking ingredients, usually in the kitchen or nearby (like a hall closet). In some instances, a pantry may be in another area of the house (cool, dark) to preserve home-canned good you only need once in awhile. However, that kind of storage goes by some other names too.

A food pantry is where the community goes to get free food, also called a food bank.

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maomaochong_@reddit

We call it a pantry

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Derwin0@reddit

a pantry

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vamartha@reddit

I have cabinets and I don't have a pantry. I do believe there was a pantry in a house I lived in with my parents 50 years ago, but that house is 100 years old this year and is 6700 ft.

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Mind_Melting_Slowly@reddit

I'm currently in California, and I've always used pantry. In my childhood home, the pantry was a set of shelves in the attached garage, where my mother kept the canned good. Other non-perishables were kept in well cabinets in the kitchen, and we just called those by their location or what was on the shelf (e.g. the cereal shelf, the baking shelf, the shelves above the toaster).

dogatthewheel@reddit

If you live in a very small space the “pantry” might end up being the last row of cabinets or sometimes a free standing set of shelves tucked into a space by the kitchen.

In slightly larger houses it is usually a closet of some kind. Very common for a door to open and have floor to ceiling shelves. This type is not a walk in pantry, it’s more similar to a linen closet; all the interior space is taken by shelving.

Walk in pantries are a bit more of a luxury. The amount of space varies a ton but most commonly there is only enough room for a person to stand in the middle with shelves on 2 or 3 sides.

We definitely use the word pantry, and every pantry can be different. In my house the pantry has:

cabinet with canned goods, next bottle of ketchup, boxes of pasta, jars of tomato sauce, etc.
cabinet with small kitchen asundries like a lemonade pitcher that is only used in the summer, assorted paper and plastic shopping bags, extra paper plates, a few cookie sheets, spare water filters, etc.
washing machine and dryer.
cabinets with dog supplies, detergent, bug spray, candles, and come to think of it, a lot of junk that we don't really use.

I think for most of us a pantry is a 3'×3' (~1sqm) closet, with shelves in it to hold shelf-stable rounds like cans, boxed goods, and so on.

Sometimes, people have larger ones you can actually walk into, and some folks don't even have one and have to store those things in their kitchen cabinets/cupboards.

But we definitely call it a pantry, and not a larder or root cellar or something like that, which are different types of food storage.

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rulanmooge@reddit

Pantry is the generic term...mostly. If it is a separate room or in a separate building or garage, it might be called a store room.

A pantry description can vary based on many factors that you might consider when writing for your characters. Some: Age of the house 1930's or 2026. Location...like New England vs Arizona. Climate. City or rural. Wealth or income level of the characters.

A pantry can be anything from a tall cabinet built into the other cabinetry in the kitchen that might or might not have pull out shelves to store canned goods, dry goods, drinks/sodas and other non perishable items....to an entire separate room or alcove off of the kitchen. A butler's pantry in much older homes (like 1930 built) would also have storage for kitchen utensils, shelves, drawers and counter tops.

If your characters are living in an apartment or condo it is unlikely that they would have a pantry of any kind.

We are rural and have a large built in double door cupboard in our kitchen cabinetry with some pull out shelves. In addition we have a 10X12 ft concrete block well/pump house building separate from the house within 10 ft from back deck that functions as a pantry with LOTS of canned/dried goods/extra kitchen items like foil, plastic wrap /BOOZE and wine......as well as where we store kitchen/cooking equipment that we don't use every day. (dehydrator, canning equipment/pressure cooker canner/baskets for potatoes and onions and other garden produce). Also ammo and some guns that we rarely use (the rest are in the gun safe in the house).

A pantry in the United States is basically a closet for food and kitchen goods. Sometimes you can walk into them, sometimes you cannot. However, they are almost always the size of a closet, whether it's the depth of a shallow closet or a walk-in closet. They are usually built into the home, though you can buy a very large cabinet that is the height of a wardrobe and call that a pantry if you don't have a built-in pantry. That usually only occurs if you live in an old home that didn't include closets when it was built. They have to be very old though.
American homes have included cosets and pantries for many decades. However, I think most people would call that a cabinet (but it could vary by area.) In the US, a kitchen cabinet is a constructed piece of furniture meant for storing food and/or kitchen goods. They are usually attached to walls, but sometimes they are free standing, as in the example I just gave.

Of course, we have cabinets in other rooms as well. Most commonly in the bathrooms, living rooms, garages, or storage rooms.

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fsutrill@reddit

A food closet.

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bisme4@reddit

I call my pantry a pantry.

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DeathByFright@reddit

For most of us, a panty is a small closet in the kitchen with shelves for storing shelf-stable items.

Those big walk-in pantries you see in movies aren't normal by any means.

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SimpleAvocado8064@reddit

The pantry is my food's closet

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TeamTurnus@reddit

Pantry

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TodayIllustrious@reddit

If it's a space for non-perishable foods its a pantry in the US.

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ContraHero@reddit

I’ve always called it a pantry. That can look very different depending on the house, but it always means dry storage for nonperishable items.

In one house it was in the cellar, the difficult to use space under the stairs. We used cinder blocks and plywood boards to make shelves whatever length worked.

In one house it was a really large cupboard in the kitchen, next to the other cabinets, but we still called it the pantry.

My current house it’s kind of a tiny room (or maybe more like a large closet) that is in the kitchen. Has its own door, but you open the door to shelves and food items. Can’t walk in, and it’s shallow enough to reach the back without worry.

I’ve also seen in larger homes what is called a butler’s pantry. That is an actual room. Not only does it store food, but it has power and enough shelving for small appliances like coffee maker, toaster, electric mixer, maybe a wine fridge, etc.

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andrewrbat@reddit

My grandma calls it a cupboard (“cubburd”) but everyone else i know calls it a pantry.

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hornbuckle56@reddit

Pantry.

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Various-Try-1208@reddit

It is like a small closet with shelves for canned goods and shelf stable foods. They can be built into the house, usually off the kitchen, or a stand alone unit.

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DearGabbyAbby@reddit

We call them pantries. A place to store long lasting food staples. I have 2 pantries. One is in my kitchen. It has double doors with pull-out shelves so it’s easier to get to things.

I have each shelf organized with similar products so it’s easier for my family and myself to find things.

So top shelf has bottled goods - cooking sherry, various vinegars, larger containers of soy sauce, olive oil, Worcestershire Sauce, etc… to refill

Below that would be canned goods, glass jars, plastic bottles - tomato paste, sauce and whole tomatoes, various beans, tuna, vegetables, and fruit. Peanut butter. Chicken, beef and vegetable broth, etc… and extra bottles of ketchup, mustard, mayo, relish, bbq sauce…

Below that more of the same as above; the overflow. Canned goods are heavy so I don’t want them all in one shelf

Bottom shelf use to hold snacks for my kids but they’re grown now and taller than me so it holds top ramen, cup a soups, packets of gravy mixes, sauce mixes…

Above the pull-out shelves, I have 3 more pantry shelves. My pantry reaches to the ceiling. These shelves do not pull-out. The bottom shelf holds boxes of breakfast cereals, oatmeal, chia seeds, pancake mix, bread goods like white and grain loaves of bread, tortillas, naan…

Next shelf above that are baking ingredients - different types of flours, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, yeast, chocolate chips, etc… Stored in the same shelf are various kinds of pasta, rice, cous cous, dried beans, lentils.

Finally, top shelf is narrower so I store napkins and various things I don’t have space for in my other kitchen cabinets

My second pantry is next to the kitchen. It use to be a coat closet, but my husband turned it into a pantry. The top shelf has bottles of liquor. Below that are 2 shelves of pots, pans with handles, lids, baking pans, glass pans

We call the wooden boxes that sit on the floor or hang on the wall "cabinets." If there's a separate room from the kitchen where people eat, we call that a "dining room," although a lot of people eat in their kitchen and use the dining room to store a fancy table and cabinet full of dishes that never get used.

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PraetorianHawke@reddit

From Minnesota, we call it a pantry. I've heard my grandma refer to it as a larder.

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ShadowDancerBrony@reddit

Maybe clarify for us Americans what you mean by pantry?

A pantry is a room off the kitchen (sometimes dining room), from the size of a small closet to a modest sized office lined with shelves used to store non-perishable goods, small appliances and extra dishes.

In the US, a pantry is usually a very small room off the kitchen that is full off shelf-stable foods. Canned food, rice, marinades, sugar, flour, appliances, lesser used or bulk seasonings, paper towels, extras cans of soda or bottles of water, etc... some pantries could be as small as a big cupboard that you can't even walk into (not really a pantry, but they might still call it that), to a large room with shelves to the ceiling, like you talked about. On average, I would say a pantry is larger than a hall closet, smaller than a walk-in closet, and I feel like it oftentimes has an odd shape to it. Like it was just squeezed into the largest unused space off the kitchen.

Sometimes they’re a closet. When I was a kid we had a pa try that was like a little walk-in closet with a window at the end. Very nice pantry.

Sometimes they are just a freestanding thing.

They can also be built in cabinet style or slide-out.

That being said, the word pantry brings to mind just a butler’s pantry or walk-in pantry to me. An actual small room.

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Entire-Garage-1902@reddit

When I was growing up in a big old house, the pantry was a room off the kitchen lined with shelves, and a small prep area in the middle. In newer homes, it’s usually a closet type thing. A storage and prep room between the kitchen and dining room is a butler’s pantry. Hope this helps.

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First-Ad-7855@reddit

I think I always called it the cupboard growing up.

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Hazel-Oliver@reddit

You just gotta imagine us saying it in our accent and then it'll sound right. Trust the process.

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TieDye_Raptor@reddit

I've always called it a pantry. I can't think of any other terms for it that are commonly used here. Not all places of living have them, but many do - mine's basically like a closet (basic closet, not a walk-in) in the kitchen area that has shelves and is used to store food.

A full-on room would be... so nice, though.

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huckleberryfawn@reddit

I’m from the Midwestern US. I almost exclusively use the word “pantry”. To me, a pantry is a closet in or near your kitchen, usually with built in shelving that is purposely built to store non-refrigerated foods like canned goods, cereals, dry pasta, snacks like crackers and chips. Basically all the foods you don’t store in the refrigerator or freezer.

They can vary in size and layout by the home. In some homes it’s a small closet that’s basically just a door you open and there’s shelves but not really big enough for you to walk inside like a room. And in some homes it’s bigger, like a small room with shelves on multiple walls. I’ve even seen pantries that have cabinets in them like in the kitchen, or have a freezer or refrigerator in them as well as shelving. It’s really dependent on the home. They mostly look like other closets in the house. They usually have a regular interior door like the other rooms in your house with a door frame and knob. So they look from the outside like a room rather than a cabinet usually. But that’s typical construction for all closets in the US. Typically closets are behind an interior door just like the doors that are used for the bedrooms/bathrooms.

They are very common in US homes and apartments but not universal. Some older homes don’t have this purpose-built closet. It’s hit or miss if you will have one if you live in an older home. My grandmother’s house built in the 1950’s did not have a pantry and my apartment that I lived in during college that was built in the 1920’s did not. If a person’s home doesn’t have a pantry, usually they use some of their cabinets in their kitchen to store their dry foods or add some shelves somewhere in or near the kitchen. But in that case, people usually just say the cabinet. “I keep the rice in the cabinet” rather than “I keep the rice in the pantry”. This may be regional, but that’s how I’ve experienced people using those words in the Midwest. The word pantry to me means specifically “the closet in my kitchen with shelves” rather than “the place I store my food”.

In the US we also use “pantry” for another purpose. We have the term “food pantry”. A food pantry is what we call the establishment where a person in need can go to get free groceries. Food pantries are usually ran by a place of worship or another type of charitable organization. And you can get free grocery items if you are struggling financially. These would be actual groceries like milk and eggs and vegetables. That you would take home to prepare. We have a different type of place that serves food to people in need and that’s a “soup kitchen”. A soup kitchen serves prepared meals to people in need, like a cafeteria that’s free and you can go get a free hot meal if you need.

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ThisWitch67@reddit

I'm in California and for much of my life I didn't live in a home large enough for a pantry. We just used one or more of the regular kitchen cupboards and since it was mostly canned food, we called it the "can cupboard." I thought a pantry was something rich people with big houses had.

Our current home is over twice the size of our first, "starter home". It was built in the late 1980s. The developer who developed our subdivision (not exactly a suburb of a larger city, but about two hours from a large city in the Midwest) MUST have been a man who had never done anything in the kitchen other than eat, because we don't have many upper cabinets, and our pantry is, although larger than our first one, not by much. It's definitely deeper.

Washington State here. It's called a pantry.

It's used for dry goods like canned items, jarred sauces, rice, flour, boxes of noodles/cereals, snacks etc and so on. Depending on the size, other kitchen things are kept in it.

CatnipCricket-329@reddit

Pantry. Could be a pantry cabinet: tall cabinet that runs floor to ceiling, with tall hinged doors or separate doors for upper and lower pantry, adjustable shelves or rolling shelves. Pantry closet 18 inches to 6 feet wide, with either hinged doors or sliding bypass doors. A walk-in pantry, either big enough to stand in, or a butler's pantry which is a walk-in big enough to actually walk around in. The size and form of any pantry depends upon how rich you are, the size of house, the period it was built or remodeled. Some small houses or apartments do not have a pantry while other small homes do. Usually only large wealthy homes or homes built before 1920 have a butler's pantry.

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e1p1@reddit

Supposedly pantry comes from the French paneterie, meaning bread room. Seems to me that saying the French word quickly with a Southern American accent results in pantry.

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Freypaints@reddit

A pantry is a room/ closet adjacent to the kitchen where non perishables are stored along with seldom used cooking items. We also have a term ‘cold room’ which is usually in the basement where there is no heat but controlling ventilation where root veggies and for us, home canned stores were kept. It doesn’t freeze but is dark and cold. It is like a cave/ cellar that would be outside a house that is used here in Nebraska for storm shelter and food storage.

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Lilythine@reddit

It's a pantry. My current one is a door that opens straight to shelves. I'd say it's about a 2x2 space of wire rack shelves.

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ms_directed@reddit

in the south anyway, a “pantry” is a small closet in the kitchen with shelving where the dry goods and potatoes are stored because its a dry, low moisture place. sometimes if the pantry is more of a walk in than a small closet size, items like step stools are stored in there and aprons, some small appliances that don’t get used daily…

hope that helped to paint a picture for you! :)

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Upside_Down_2025@reddit

It's a pantry here too

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Mindless_Earth_2807@reddit

We call it a pantry. But most homes (at least the ones I've been to) do not have enough space for a pantry. We put our perishables in the fridge, and non-perishables in and under the kitchen cabinets. We might have a commercial metal rack containing snacks and other foods. Cereal goes on top of the fridge.

-a native New Yorker.

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littlecloudyskye@reddit

We have a closet with food in the kitchen and we call it a pantry. Super common usage in the US.

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RosyClearwater@reddit

We call it a pantry. Some families might call it the cabinet if it’s a very large cabinet and isn’t a walk-in space. Some homes do not have a walk-in pantry.

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coloradomama111@reddit

We have a pantry that’s a small closet that holds our non-perishable foods like canned goods and pasta.

A pantry is a small closet for storing dry/canned food goods in. We may also have a cupboard instead of a pantry, which is usually like a set of double stacked cabinets that serves the same purpose.

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SallyJane5555@reddit

It’s a pantry

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-Lysergian@reddit

Its a dry/canned food storage room/closet.

Usually for stuff like crackers, soups, canned whatevers, pastas. Often used for cooking or serving dishes overflow as well.

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MuppetManiac@reddit

Pantry to me is a larger space - floor to ceiling (may or may not have a door). Living in a condo, I don’t have a pantry. I just call them cupboards or cabinets - where I have shelf-stable food stored.

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Njaala@reddit

Food library.

Thestars-wholisten@reddit

We call it a pantry as well lol I’m on the “just scraping by” side of wealth and ours is like coat closet sized but with shelves. You absolutely cannot go in there

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RektInTheHed@reddit

Food closet

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PrairieGrrl5263@reddit

A pantry is where the shelf-stable food in kept. It may be very simple or very elaborate. More affluent homes may have a walk-in pantry.

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Ok-Parfait2413@reddit

Pantry is usually a closed off area for food staples. Can range in size from a closet, walk in or like half a room

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snazzysid1@reddit

I call it a pantry and it is a walk in windowless room (maybe 5feet by 8 feet) that has shelves on all sides (excluding the door which opens into the kitchen).

I've also heard it called a larder but maybe 2x in my whole life. I'd never refer to it that way.

A cellar is similar but would be either in the basement or outside underground to store food. We don't have one of these.

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cmhoughton@reddit

A pantry could be simple shelving, a single cabinet, or something bigger like a closet or even a small room. It doesn’t matter the size, but a pantry is used for storage of non-perishable food and (if big enough) seldomly used countertop appliances.

A pantry is where you keep perishable foods in a small closet (sometimes a walk-in sized closet).

Gooeslippytop@reddit

We call it a pantry. They're mainly in the south. Being from LA and having lived in northern states, I'm always devasted when I don't have a pantry.

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FormicaDinette33@reddit

Most kitchens come with a closet lined with shelves. That is where we keep cans, pasta, rice etc. Maybe spices and some equipment.

Sometimes it can be a walk in closet.

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justanothernomad1@reddit

All pantries are different. Mine is closet sized and is right next to my refrigerator in my kitchen. I have five shelves that hold dry goods (rice, pasta, canned goods, snacks, extras of stuff in case we run out of something while cooking) and a long wire rack on the door that holds my spices, vinegars, hot sauces, etc.

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Gini555@reddit

We call it a "pantry". My pantry is just a small closet size space with some shelves. Some houses have small rooms that are their pantry.

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Claxton916@reddit

This is a pantry cabinet.

This is a walk-in pantry

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ComputerGuyInNOLA@reddit

Food closet.

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Fats_Tetromino@reddit

You're probably thinking in an Australian accent. Listen to this song why not

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Darkrose50@reddit

I jokenly call it a food closet.

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Elivagara@reddit

Pantry. Often small rooms you can walk in.

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Baymavision@reddit

Our pantry is a slim door (skinnier than a standard doorway) with a small floor space inside, maybe 2ft deep and 3ft wide, and six levels of shelving.

I grew up with one slightly wider that also had shelves on the sides line a C shape and you could stand inside it.

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old_mans_ghost@reddit

We call it pantry… you’re not anything special.

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IndependentTrust4594@reddit

I call it anything in or near the kitchen that is used to store perishable food or kitchen necessities.

Our “pantry” is a tall narrow cabinet that is the height of the fridge and is a modular piece of our standard cabinetry but not above nor below counters, sinks, nor appliances. My former home didn’t have any type of storage other than traditional upper cabinets above counters and lower cabinets with a countertop.

Some people have rooms they call pantries. Usually entered only through the kitchen or hallway just off the kitchen close to the backdoor. They do have a doorway but may or may not have their own door. They may be shallow (long width but short depth) or be a walk-in closet type feature.

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brookish@reddit

I have a pantry that’s just basically an armoire that’s full of dry goods.

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No_Calligrapher_8508@reddit

Midwesterner here. It's still a pantry = dry goods kitchen storage. Shelf stable foods, extra paper towels, a bag full of other plastic grocery bags, etc.

Size depends on how big the home is. Mine's essentially a small closet with u-shaped shelving all the way around, not too deep, so i can find what i'm looking for, and some 5 gallon foods are buckets with locking lids for bulk flour storage. (I have a 2Bed, 1 bath home that's ~1100 sqft).

Some homes have pantries that are like walk in closets.

Certain folks (typically but not always "mormons" (members of the church of laterday saints) and/or disaster preppers (aka "preppers")) will have 3+ months of canned/dry goods and fresh water laid by in case of emergency that may even be stored separate from their regular pantry goods.

If you're writing about American kitchens, see also "garbage disposals" and "appliance garages". The former is fairly common. The second is trendy/upscale for folks with large kitchens. And most American households have microwaves. Either countertop or over-the-range (stove/cooktop)

Large kitchens will often have an island with bar-stool height seating, and design elements incorporate the "triangle" of cooktop, sink, and fridge, which is touted for efficiency. (Versus having them all in a line like in galley kitchens)

Adrianilom@reddit

A pantry is a closet in your kitchen set into the wall rather than vabinets that protrude from the wall. Some of them are shallow and the size of half a door, and some are walk ins built into a corner with shelving on two sides (think diamond shape). They are typically floor to ceiling on the inside.

I have a double-door (exterior size) entrance to my pantry that has two sets of shelves and is a little more than 6 feet in width and 4 feet deep. I set dunnage racks on the floor to hold the really heavy stuff like my 20 12-packs of energy drinks.

Then there is the Butler's pantry, which you'll find only in older homes that once had an actual dining area separated from the kitchen. It was kind of like an antechamber or a slim room that was nothing but cabinets on top, with a lot of counter space to set up individual platters so that the servants could grab and serve people especially when synchronicity was key. I lived in a 100+ year old hotel that had one of those, and I have wanted one ever since. It was also a place for the servants to help with prep that didn't require a sink of any sort. Usually plating. Some of these pantries were big enough that you could fit a thin table for standing and eating around when there wasn't enough time to sit and eat.

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Ya know, it would help if you told us what YOU mean by pantry…

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getdownheavy@reddit

Our food is stored in a pantry.

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KayoticVoid@reddit

We call them pantries as well. I guess it is a funny sounding word though. 🤔

As far as what it's like, it can vary greatly depending on a lot of factors but I would argue a bigger one being economic class. Just something for you to consider for your character. If they are more wealthy they would just about guaranteed have a walk in pantry and likely a large one at that. The super rich people might have it hidden behind a door that looks like a cabinet or something.

Middle class may have a walk in where it is big enough to step in and close the door but not big enough to truly walk in. It is also possible middle class might just have a decent sized reach in pantry.

At a certain point with lower economic classes you might find they don't have a pantry at all and either have to use added storage options or a kitchen cabinet or two.

Hope this helps!

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BikeInternational412@reddit

As everyone has said, a pantry (if your house has one) is for keeping things like tinned food and cereal and pasta, etc-the full in rooms you refer to would be called a “walk-in pantry”. I’d love to hear about your story! What are you calling it, and what is it about?

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donuttrackme@reddit

A pantry.

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turquoise_amethyst@reddit

Pantry is an old word, we still use it but it’s not that common. It’s synonymous with a storeroom, which aren’t that common either… they’re mostly in very old houses in the Midwest and East.

Nowadays the only time I really hear it is to say “in your kitchen pantry” or “pantry items”, which refers to food staples in a kitchen cabinet

Pantry items are just things that you always have on-hand

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AidenStoat@reddit

I say pantry, what else should I call it. Unless you use pantry to mean something else.

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Whybaby16154@reddit

Can be a walk-in closet, a floor-to-ceiling cupboard or just a cupboard used for staples like baking supplies and food ingredients.

I had pantry shelves made 12” deep and 36” wide floor to top cupboard height for my baking a n staples.

ParadoxPath@reddit

If it’s a separate room/space it’s a pantry. Otherwise it’s just a cabinet. Most urban settings won’t have the space for a separate pantry and their stuff will stored in cabinets in the kitchen

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IZC0MMAND0@reddit

We call it a pantry. When house hunting my eyes light up when I see a proper pantry or a butlers pantry. Not just a cupboard dedicated to holding your canned and dry goods in the main kitchen.

A pantry is a small room or big closet, or even a glorified cupboard where we keep foodstuffs for the kitchen. I have a utility room off my kitchen that has my washer and dryer and my pantry cupboard is in there. If the washer and dryer weren't in there that room would be a walk in pantry.

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sweetT333@reddit

My pantry is essentially a closet for the kitchen.

Currently my pantry is behind a pair of bifold doors with shelving about 12" deep (10 cm??). It's too shallow and I find it annoying. The width is about what you'd find in an American bedroom.

My previous pantry had more of a large (floor to nearly ceiling) cabinet door. Was about 3ft (1m) wide and 18-24 inches deep.

My grandmother's pantry was more like a walk in closet. House was nearly 100 years old. There was a full length window on the left and shelves with a couple of low cabinets in front of you and to the right. Shelves were wood floor to ceiling. It also had a "pigtail" light.

My friend's pantry in her old house was a wall of cabinets which included the refrigerator.

We keep food, appliances, and other odds and ends in our pantries. My tool box is on the floor in mine.

Good luck with your story.

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Electric-Sheepskin@reddit

I'm not sure if anyone has said this yet or not, but I've heard them talking about pantry cupboards, pantry closets and pantry rooms, but they're all pretty much universally referred to as "the pantry." I've never heard anyone's say pantry room, but I have heard "walk-in pantry," which is similar to a large master bedroom closet, just with more shelves.

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Seidhr96@reddit

A pantry to an American is either a closet or full on room where non-perishable food is stored, such as dried or canned foods, rice, noodles, snacks, etc. A lot of times people also put some extra cookware/devices in there.

Not all American homes or apartments have pantries but they are incredibly common at least in the closet variety—full rooms are usually found in large homes.

For most Americans, a pantry is a closet in your kitchen where you store food.

If you are very rich your pantry might be a small separate room attached to the kitchen. But for most Americans it’s just a closet with a few shelves.

We also call it a pantry.

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Plenty_Vanilla_6947@reddit

Some people say “pantry closet “ or just “kitchen closet”. Our kitchen closet had a single door and the shelves were perhaps 15 inches deep and 30 inches wide. It definitely wasn’t a room like the decorating tv shows have. It contained spices on the back of the door. On the shelves were cereal, baking supplies, dried fruit, unopened snacks, canned goods. On the floor was soda and a bag of potatoes.

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Gentle-Wave2578@reddit

A pantry is both a small room with shelves and a concept - like “my stash.”

It’s a very old fashioned word that only our grandparents would use where I’m from (coastal blue state) and I’ve only heard it recently in the context of peppers. But it may be regionally more popular.

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SirGeremiah@reddit

We call it a pantry.

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Krieger1229@reddit

Pantry here is where we store canned goods, snacks, basically any food that doesn’t need to be refrigerated. It’s also a place where we can store KitchenAids, trash bags, etc.

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o_simple_thing@reddit

Midwest here: Pantry is where dried goods are stored. It can be an area of the cabinets in the kitchen, some people have nice big calluses that have a whole little room that is a pantry, or a little pantry closet. Some people have a pantry out in the garage.

Swanky houses even have something called a butlers pantry! But that's far and away from my economic place in the grand scheme of pantries.

Here is an example that would come from my house.

"Hey babe, can you get some rice from the pantry?"

Or

"Did that sound come from the pantry? I swear if we have a mouse in there."

Or

"Do we have cake flour?" "I don't know- check the pantry"

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Vexatious-itch@reddit

I had the same alternative pop into my head. Kind of old-fashioned, but still heard occasionally in the midwest.

But I would say pantry myself

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LunarVolcano@reddit

It can be anything from a small cabinet to store food to a tall cabinet to a small room. Pantry works, as long as there’s food stored there and it’s not cold!

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Kaethy77@reddit

It's called a pantry, IF WE HAVE ONE. Most middle class people do not have one.

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PNW_OlLady_2025@reddit

A pantry here, to me at least, is a small room directly off a kitchen where you store your dry goods, larger pots/pans, small appliances, can also be used for cooking and baking prep, etc.

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Slight-Big8584@reddit

Pantry is the older term, usually for designated dry storage room with food products.

Pantry is what high end real estate calls a little walk in closet off the kitchen.

Before it became real estate speak, the word pantry had a wider range and often was used to just mean the stock of food you had on hand. So terms like “a pantry staple” just meant things you buy in bulk like flour and have on hand.

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LivingGhost371@reddit

Pantries as small rooms adjacent to the kitchen and as large freestanding cupboards exist and are called pantries, but aren't standard features of modern construction.

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NoFunny3627@reddit

Dry goods closet

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RockabillyBelle@reddit

It’s a pantry.

Mine is basically a tiny closet that shares space with our water heater where I try to Tetris all my dry storage foods while channeling my inner Home Edit energy.

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melrosec07@reddit

I mean I have a small kitchen so the pantry is just the one tall cabinet, also have a free standing large cabinet in the sunroom that is our backup pantry 🤷‍♀️

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No-Handle-66@reddit

A pantry is a closet off the kitchen where non-perishable food is stored. Stuff like Flour, sugar, dried pasta, cereals, rice, canned goods, etc. Sometimes you also store kitchen appliances in them like mixers or crock pots. Small pantries are just open shelves behind a door. Large pantries in more expensive homes can be a small room you stand in, and can even have cupboards, countertops, a wine fridge, and a small sink. These are called butler pantries.

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a pantry in the USA….

in the kitchen or just near it you have a closet space for kitchen storage. This coukd be the seldom used large pans/ kitchen equipment. It also includes things like 12 packs or large bottles of soda, food jars that can stay at room temperature. Some might have this space with lauby or coat storage.

There’s pantries- which hold dry food, some are closets of various sizes, some are big cabinets.

Then there’s butlers pantries- those are in bigger houses usually, they’re not so much for food storage but more for “hide the mess of food prep for dinner parties” (I think- I don’t have one). Or for food staging. I think they’re technically supposed to be between the kitchen and dining room, but I often see them as more of an off-shoot of the kitchen.

the butler’s pantry aligns more with the British use of pantry, I think they’d call food storage a larder, at least historically, idk what they do now.

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Sondari1@reddit

We call it a pantry.

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SnowblindAlbino@reddit

Ours is a "pantry." Some really old folks, or very rural in some regions, might call it a "larder."

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Queasy-Ad-9930@reddit

We did say pantry, but we also say cupboard, sometimes interchangeable.

If you force us to delineate, I imagine most people would say a pantry is a full- body-length door with shelves from floor to ceiling, whether it’s a “room” or just an outward facing set of shelves.

YourGuyK@reddit

I'd call a walk in food storage closet a pantry, but not just a food cupboard.

My pantries are two closets between the kitchen and the dining room. One is just shelves, accessed by standing in front of it with the door open. The other, larger one, has a little bit of walk-in space, but is mostly shelves. These two pantries are full of canned goods, boxed pastas, rice, flour, oil, honey, jams, etc. Also, aluminum foil, cling wrap, parchment paper, ziploc bags, etc.

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Giddyup_1998@reddit

Has the four day weekend corrupted your brain?

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EducationWestern5204@reddit

Can you explain what an Australian pantry is so we know we’re actually talking about the same thing?

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eirinne@reddit

Butler’s pantry or larder (New England, US)

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Shadow_Lass38@reddit

A pantry is a little closet (or, if you're wealthy enough to have your house on a decorating show, a room) with shelving that holds packaged foods: cereal, pasta, Rice-a-Roni, unopened jars of green olives or beans, crackers for soup, baking supplies, salt, oatmeal, cake mixes...

If you search Zillow for “Butler’s pantry“ you will find many hits.

You will also find several for “Butler’s panty.” I don’t think any of these is a sly reference to Green Acres, but you never know.

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PhilipAPayne@reddit

Where I grew up “The Pantry” is a chain of convenience stores, most of them with gas pumps outside. When I went to school and said my grandparents had a pantry the other kids thought I meant they managed a gas station. That was about 45 years ago and I still do not know what those other kids’ families called the little side room where the dried goods were stored … or if they even had them.

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Pussy-Wideness-Xpert@reddit

Pantry in the USA is a closet where you store food. It can also be just shelves holding food. The difference is that a pantry has a standard looking full height door, not cabinet doors of half height.

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Donald_J_Duck65@reddit

We call it a pantry. It contains canned goods, dry goods, baking supplies, condiments, etc., probably the same as you.

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ImLittleNana@reddit

My pantry is not a room. It’s floor to ceiling deep shelves with a small door on top and a larger door, about 4 feet tall on the bottom section.

It differs from ordinary kitchen cabinets because it’s flush with the wall and much deeper.

My parents’ pantry is the small closet type. Walk in room that’s 8 feet by 4 feet. It feels shallower when you’re inside. I can’t be in there with the door closed and I try not to stay in longer than I need to instant at the door and look for what I need, then dash in and quickly grab it.

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Sparky-Malarky@reddit

You may also hear about a food pantry in some locales, as in "I volunteer at the food pantry," or "I had to go to the food pantry when I was unemployed." This would be a place run by a church or other charitable organization, which gives out food to those in need.

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Main_Understanding14@reddit

If you're writing about American food habits with characters that have a sufficiently large house to have a pantry (very common, but not like a tiny studio apartment), don't forget the old fridge in the garage that holds drinks and overflow sauces or whatever. There has to be salad dressing that expired 3 years ago

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RobinFarmwoman@reddit

We call it a pantry. Not every home has one, but in the homes that do, they are somewhere between a closet and a small room filled with cabinets and shelves, maybe a counter. Some also will have the laundry facilities in the pantry. Homes that don't have a separate room or closet will sometimes have a large cabinet made for holding non-perishable foods. This is called a pantry cabinet.

JadziaEzri81@reddit

Americans would use the term pantry for any cupboard (I.E stand-up shelves with doors) that store mostly dried goods, canned goods, potato chips, and the like... it might be a cupboard that was part of your house. Or it might be a stand-up cupboard that you added to your kitchen area, or it might be a giant walk-in area of your kitchen. If you're like the US, cupboard means the area with dry goods whether it is large, small, walk-in or not.

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brizia@reddit

It’s a pantry. They range anywhere from a small closet, to a walk in closet, to a room. Some people, like myself, don’t have a pantry.

grumpyhost@reddit

I should add, in my experience "kitchen cupboard" usually refers to built in cabinets. It is fairly rare in the US to see kitchen cupboards that are freestanding pieces of furniture, although I am aware that may be more technically correct use of that term. if someone here says kitchen cupboard you can usually assume they mean something built in.

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WaldoJeffers65@reddit

We call it a "chuzzwambler"

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Persis-@reddit

Mine is a big closet. Not a walk in. Just along the wall. We call it a pantry.

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Fuzzzer777@reddit

I think the issue is that many newer and smaller houses are build without a separate small closet for food. Mostly because people don't prepare large meals like they did 50 years. There are exceptions.

Our new house has lot of cabinets, but after we got all our dishes put away we realized that there was no place to put the canned/dry goods. We found a tall stand alone pantry and it works well.

I'm not sure what the percentage is, but many houses in the USA just have put food in the cabinet because there is no pantry. So... food cabinet.

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pubesinourteeth@reddit

If they have a more modest home they just keep food in the cupboards

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No-Contact6664@reddit

Full on rooms.

Generally, we call it a 'pantry'

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water-sloth@reddit

I have a reach in pantry. We store canned goods and things like rice pasta crackers chips soda and cereal in there. Lots of carbs.

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GrowlingAtTheWorld@reddit

A pantry may or may not be walk inable. My pantry is just an installed large cabinet where I store my canned goods. My aunt live in old farm house and her pantry is a walk in room full of shelves to keep her food and small appliances.

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3X_Cat@reddit

I'm having a house designed and I (American) kept calling it a larder. Turns out we call it a pantry.

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No-Kaleidoscope-166@reddit

The condo I had with my ex had a separate pantry, which was just a closet with shelves. No shelves in the bottom for taller things, like maybe a trashcan. I didn't use it for my trash, but we stacked cases of soda in cans there and stuff like that. Wasn't tall enough to store a broom or mop. The pantry itself was built into an awkward corner, so it had an angled side. It worked.

The place I live in now was built in the 80's and we have a laundry room off the kitchen and I have shelving in there I use for my pantry. Pantries come in many variations, but it's basically where one stores their dry goods.

My parents bought a house built in '68. It doesn't have a pantry. They did a kitchen reno a few years ago and still didn't put one in. 🤷🏻‍♀️. I would have if I was them. Lol. I do like having a pantry closet, even if it's just a closet.

This house where I babysit, they added in a pantry cabinetry. Like, it's part of the cabinets. It's as tall as the top cabinets and goes to the floor. It also doesn't include shelves to the bottom, kinda like my former condo pantry.

But some folks buy a separate unit sold as a standalone pantry (kinda like a standalone wardrobe for clothes).

American (US) pantries have a pretty broad range from small rooms with shelves to a dedicated cabinet.

My brother’s pantry is the size of a small room. Like, I could see it as a small office, it’s so big. I’ve also seen a larger cabinet or a very shallow closet used as pantries.

Mine is a small “wardrobe” freestanding in my kitchen. Kind of like Bluey’s pantry, but 1/3 the size (there’s no way we could hide in it).

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Toob_ular@reddit

I couldn’t think of the word pantry one time and called it a food closet. My dad laughed so hard.

But that’s what it is in my house, like a step in closet. Wish I had a walk in.

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Remarkable_Inchworm@reddit

Pantry is where you keep the food that doesn't need to be refrigerated. Canned stuff and dry stuff and potatoes and onions and snacks and such.

Sometimes it's just a cabinet in the kitchen, sometimes it's more like a closet.

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Asparagus9000@reddit

Ours is just the hallway closet closest to the kitchen. We installed deep wire frame shelves.

That's our Pantry.

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Anachronism--@reddit

My area has a lot of old houses and the Pantry was a small room off the kitchen that had most/ all of the cabinets and usually the sink. Stove and refrigerator were almost always in the main kitchen.

a closet with shelves for food is a pantry. a small walk in room with shelves for food is a pantry.

a cabinet above or below your kitchen counters is a cabinet.

I have a pantry. It's about a meter deep and has 5 shelves. I keep dry goods, canned goods, staples (that we literally call pantry staples) and storage for large pots and pans.

I had a walk in pantry at one time. They're very popular these days, especially if you don't have a basement or root cellar.

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PabloThePabo@reddit

we call it a pantry

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Visible_Sleep2723@reddit

Pantries were common in older homes as there were no pre boxed and few canned goods. My childhood home had a room with zinc lined drawers for different flours, sugars, salt etc. When the kitchen was renovated circa 1974 , the pantry was replaced by shallow floor to ceiling cabinets which stored boxed and canned goods. Nobody was buying 20 lb sacks of flour anymore.

Older homes were built before electric or kerosene refrigerators, so the space allotted to cold storage as opposed to dry storage was minimal. Even in my childhood (I’m 64) we had milk & dairy delivered and chicken & eggs delivered.

babassu_seeds@reddit

but i can't imagine an american calling it a pantry, it just doesn't sound right.

MyUsername2459@reddit

We call it a pantry.

Organic_Salad2910@reddit

It’s a pantry. Mine looks like a small walk in closet with 3 rows of shelving going around the walls of 3 sides. The 4th side is a sliding door.

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Cheap_Coffee@reddit

My pantry is a cabinet in my kitchen.

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Nottacod@reddit

In one of my homes, the pantry was just a long closet( double doors) full of shelves for food storage. My current pantry is a small walk in closet lined with shelves. I've lived in several homes and apartments with no pantry.

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jafnharri@reddit

My house growing up had a walk in pantry - a small room with shelves floor to ceiling for storage, on the south side of the house so it was never in the sun and wouldn't get hot. Several apartments I have lived in since have what they call a pantry but it's just a floor to ceiling cupboard in the kitchen.

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Just “pantry“.

May I add that the nicest pantry that I have ever seen was actually in a Airbnb in a suburb of Perth (Warwick Grove) where I stayed three years back.

It was a full on walk-in closet that was completely hidden behind a cabinet panel that made it seem like a seamless part of the kitchen cabinetry. The only indication that it was anything other than a blank panel was a small recessed pull to open the door.

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Wastedgent@reddit

We call ours a pantry.

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bouquetofashes@reddit

I've lived here my whole life and always called it a pantry. My parents called it a pantry for their whole lives too. Everyone I've met from anywhere else in the country has called it a pantry.

Having a distinct food storage room is rare in modern homes. Sometimes we have a closet in the kitchen that we call a pantry; my father bought a 1920's home that had a cabineted pass-through between the kitchen and the dining room with freely swinging doors we called the pantry. I live in a tiny cottage that I gutted to the studs, no room for a pantry, but my kitchen is absolutely stuffed with cabinets. I spent time as a child/teen in a 1905 apartment that had a walk-in pantry off the kitchen. Modern open-concept designs often don't have much in the way of dividing walls, leaving the kitchen and dining and living spaces conjoined.

Many Americans have no pantry and store their food in kitchen cupboards/cabinets.

I happen to have a walk-in pantry that has shelves in an L-shape and store, in addition to packaged food and canned goods, larger serving platters and bowls, small kitchen appliances (blender, mixer). Cases of drinks sit on the floor.

Additionally, items like flour, sugar, spices and other baking items are in there. I use plastic storage baskets to organize like items to keep it neat. Canned goods are stored on plastic risers on a shelf so I can see them easily.

I also have aprons hanging in a hook.

I’m fortunate to have a pantry of this size; many are much smaller and may simply be a recessed area in the kitchen, complete with shelving (often white vinyl-coated wire) but cannot enter. One would open the door and be faced with floor-to-ceiling shelves.

Having a dedicated pantry for food storage is a very desirable thing for Americans.

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therealdrewder@reddit

A pantry is a enclosed, room temperature, dry storage area primarily used for Food.

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_WillCAD_@reddit

Pantry is a somewhat nebulous term in general use. It's most often applied to a small closet or cabinet just off the kitchen, used for un-refrigerated food storage.

Pantries can be many different sizes and shapes; I've seen them as small as a single cabinet with shelves, and as large as a walk-in closet with enough space to store barrels and sacks of bulk foods.

The word primarily brings to mind a small closet, as opposed to a large room or a small cabinet, but it can apply to any storage space off a kitchen.

There is a fairly common variant, "pantry cabinet", which is mostly applied to a full-height kitchen cabinet, roughly the size of a refrigerator, full of shelves for such unrefrigerated food storage. Since most home kitchens are not large enough to have a dedicated closet for food storage, those pantry cabinets are very common.

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Lavender_r_dragon@reddit

I have never lived anywhere where you could stand inside the pantry- they have all been closet-like in various styles (for instance I think my mom’s is deeper but not as wide as mine).

Some apartments don’t have a pantry and the last house my Mamaw lived in, which was built in the early 1950s, did not have one.

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Purplehopflower@reddit

My house has a pantry, that’s just basically a closet with shelves. It also has a Butler’s Pantry, which is a short hallway between the kitchen and the dining room. It has cabinets, and a counter top. Theoretically, it’s where you would store dishes and “stage the food” before walking it through to the dining room. Mine does store dishes, but it has mostly turned into our bar. There’s a larger laundry closet on the other side. So, when we don’t have guests, that area usually has laundry baskets sitting in it.

I’ve had 4 houses and only one had a walk in pantry which was also half laundry room. Strangely, the large walk in pantry was in the smallest house.

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azorianmilk@reddit

A pantry is a small closet for dry goods in a kitchen.

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LABELyourPHOTOS@reddit

Picture a closet with food.

If it’s not a whole room/closet then it’s “the cabinet”.

I’ve never had a pantry.

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invisiholes@reddit

Lifetime American here. I've always called it a pantry. If pantry is a small room or closet sized area with dry goods in it. Also keep in there paper towels, napkin, paper plates, cleaning supplies, light bulbs, other stuff that gets forgotten about. I've only heard it called pantry but some people might just call it a food cabinet? I think you're safe w pantry.

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Annjenette@reddit

Pantry

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emmasdad01@reddit

It’s a small encloses area for storing food.