Looking at pantry porn—like the pristine white shelves and meticulously stacked paper towels that recently garnered nearly 65,000 likes on Mandy Moore’s Instagram feed—I start to believe that I too can live my best life. All it will require is a few clever IKEA hacks and 20-30 matching containers to store flours, beans and nuts in. It’s not just me. In the year 2018, we’re more interested in where celebrities are storing their toasters than in who they’re sleeping with. Progress?

The dream of a pantry is all about two things that most of us perpetually wish we had more of—space and time. Housing prices have risen dramatically, and even as HGTV and its ilk bombard us with a constant stream of remodels and dream homes, making the most of small spaces has become the urban norm. In that context, having room for a pantry is a definite luxury.

It’s not just any pantries we’re fetishizing. The ideal of a beautiful space for all your dry goods, extra wine glasses and heavy enameled dutch ovens speaks of a life in which you plan each week’s meals well in advance and have time for long braises and dinner parties. It’s a larder stocked against both last minute takeout—and the desperate hope that there are still rotisserie chickens left to buy when you get to the grocery store at 6:15pm. So I’ll be the first to admit it—I wish I had a pantry and the time to organize it, too.

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