Prepping and food storage presents its own challenges... Where do I put all this STUFF?!
Yes, there is a whole market of expensive ways to store your foodstores - from shelving which automatically rotates your canned goods, to stacks of drums sitting in your basement, to entire sheds buried in the backyard.
BUT what if we're not made of money? Personally, if I'm spending all of these dollars on food and prep supplies, I can't then turn around and fork out even MORE money on fancy shelves to hold them. These creative -and sometimes hilarious- answers will give you some good ideas on how to store your stores on the cheap!
DIVERSIFY: Wherever you keep your stores, make sure it's fully insulated, sealed, and in a cool, dry place.
Also, no amount of food will help you if you can't get to it. If you keep all your survival food in a bomb shelter in the country, what happens if you are stuck in the city when the SHTF? If you keep your food stores on a 1st or 2nd floor, how do you access it if hiding out in the basement? A good idea would be to diversify your storage. Break up your supplies, keeping some on each floor of your house, some in your 2nd shelter, and so forth.
DEEP FREEZE: If you have a deep freezer and keep it full of food, the benefits to this is if the power goes out and you KEEP IT CLOSED, the contents inside will remain frozen solid for several days before beginning to thaw. The emptier the freezer, the quicker the thaw.
CLOSET PANTRY: If you have a closet, it may seem obvious to clean it out and designate it for food storage. Another bonus to using a closet is the ability to lock the door and keep small hands and teenager appetites out. If you use traditional shelving in the closet, don't forget to rotate your supplies!
HOMEMADE AUTO-ROTATING SHELVES: It is fairly easy to build a homemade shelving unit that rotates your canned goods automatically. Like the soup cans at the grocery store, create vertical columns with the opening at the top and bottom, so you can put your new cans in the top and remove them for use at the bottom. There are several simple building plans online you can access, instead of paying thousands of dollars for prefab rotating shelves. Using a hard wood such as oak will last a long time; cedar lining will deter pests like insects.
REUSE, RECYCLE: Cleaned and well-dried empty 2-Liter
soda bottles can be used to pack dry foods such as beans and rice. Placing an O2 absorber in each bottle before sealing will extend the life and freshness of the food, maintaining higher nutrient levels over a longer period of time.
FOODSTORE FURNITURE: True story - I know several families who use their food store drums and boxes as building blocks for homemade furniture. For instance, two large boxes covered with a tablecloth makes a great coffee table. Water drums stacked between wood boards make a bookshelf, and so on. It's hilariously creative, and you definitely save money on furniture.
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