For an actual pantry I agree. They said this is just for clothes and shoes though, the abuse should be pretty minimal. Doesn't mean you can't use hardwood, I just don't think it's required for such a low abuse application.

Depends on your skill level and budget. Melamine is great for shelves, though the size you mention may require good supports to prevent long term drooping. But it looks nice and there are whole assembly methods for it. Plywood is a good option for larger shelves. Get sanded interior plywood, not exterior grade. Takes more time to finish, normally you'd want to glue on a piece of hardwood to the edge, or use edge banding, to hide the layered edge. I just did a whole closet with 3/4 maple plywood that I stained white and then put a finish over. The most expensive option is solid wood boards. Getting something that comes 17"+wide will be really expensive. Likely you'll need to buy narrower and glue up the larger panels. Pine boards are fine, just spend the time finding clean straight boards. Hardwood boards are honestly overkill for shelves and will be your most expensive option.

Not an expert, but a front ripped through last night that was pretty brutal. I'm in NH, happened to be driving when it happened. I left my house and things were calm, then things were very not calm, car being blown around, branches coming down everywhere. By the time I got downtown the power was out almost everywhere. Like supermarkets with full parking lots just 100% dark inside. It wasn't like outages in used to where you'll see pockets without power, this was most of the town. Driving home was nuts, just so many trees down everywhere. Almost couldn't get home because 2 out of 3 routes were blocked by big trees and power lines in the road.

We've had some wild weather in the last couple years that I would have thought had cleared all the at risk trees, but I guess not.

There are a million and one ways to organize, you need to pick the way that meshes with how you work. I know people who do the cardboard thing, I can't, I get lazy hallway through and then have a pile of bolts that I'm not sure their origin. Same with bags. I like the storage cases with multiple small bins inside, because even when I get lazy with labeling I can do keep myself separating the fasteners by where they came from and that's enough to figure out reassembly for me.