We're on a roll....We've learned the principles behind the guidance. We've talked about water storage. Now it's time to discuss where we are going to store our three month supply and long term storage.
Here are a couple amateur videos of my food storage room...
Food Storage Room-Part 1 (Location, Fridge/Freezer, Rotation Shelves)
Food Storage Room Part 2-(Short Term Storage)
Food Storage Room Part 3-(Long Term Storage)
Food Storage Room Part 4-(Mylar sealer, Cleaning/Personal products)
This isn't rocket science. But here are a couple tips to keep in mind:
- Food is suppose to be stored in a dry, cool, environment-less than 75 degrees. This means that you should not use your attic or garage.
- If you can't get to the food, you'll never rotate it. Now, this could be an ok thing, or a not so good thing. I'll come back to this...
- No matter what your home size, you can store something-be creative!
- You don't have to go purchase a room full of shelves at once. Start small, and purchase your shelves as your storage grows.
- Adjustable shelves are nice if you're storing a variety of different sizes of foods and cans.
- Do what fits your needs and budget!!
If you do not have a specific room, or basement for your storage, you'll need to seriously consider where you want to store your food. Believe me, the food gets very heavy when you're carrying it from room to room, trying to decide the best place to store it. I've moved mine way too many times!!! lol
Here is a handout to get you started, if you're dealing with small spaces. It's fromwww.foodstoragemadeeasy.net . Download Smallspaces (click here for the handout)
Basically if you're working with small areas, you need to decide how you want to break up your food. Do you want to put all of one food item in one location, or store a one month supply of the basics in one location? Make sense? You can line up your bags or cans in such a way that you can rotate them, even if they are under the beds. Fill from the right, and take from the left.
If you're using the mylar bags, and you have an animal problem (ie. mice, etc) you're going to want to store them on shelves, off the ground, or place in rubber bins (with lids). When we first started, we purchased large rubbermaid bins and filled them, and then stored in the back of a closet. Worked great if we didn't want to get to the food. But it was a hassle unstacking the bins (which are HEAVY when filled) and getting what we needed.
If you have a lot of cans, and want to rotate them easily, and have the money, a rotating system works great. But the are EXPENSIVE! You can make your own though, or scale it down some. If you want to invest in the large systems, www.shelfreliance.com is who makes them. I purchased two of these for all my cans, and the best deal was at Costco (online-free shipping). There are several different heights, widths, and can size configuration so make sure you're buying what you need.
If you don't have the money for those, you can build your own if you have the space. Here are some simple plans to get you started...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCnXfO7YMfk Totally love how she did this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wadjAWcR5M&feature=related Similar to the one above but you can see more detail to the shelves.
If you're serious about building your own, take a couple minutes and google it and you'll find several sets of plans-or make up your own.
If you already have shelves, but want to do something to help you rotate your cans, you can make or purchase plastic or cardboard units that will rotate your cans.
http://www.thecanorganizer.com/pantry.html These are small cardboard organizers that you purchase and fold together really easy to make the rotator.
If you have cardboard and want to take the time to build your own, here are detailed instructions:
I believe that www.shelfreliance.com and others have plastic ones that you can purchase also. Here again, google it and you'll find a lot of choices.
One last thing, if you don't love the location where you're storing your food, you can change it. Don't stress. I've moved mine lots of times. Right now you may not have the time to use your long term storage, so put it under the beds for a couple years. Then, when your kids are in school and you can devote time to using it, you can always find a better place. Don't give up and store nothing because you don't have the "perfect" food storage room-none of us would ever store anything!
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