Hannah's food storage update:
One food storage goal that I set in January was to figure out what to do with my food storage as I prepared to move. Several weeks ago I told you all that I had decided that we would eat through it now, and with the money I am saving at the grocery store (pretty much only buying perishables), I would re-stock my food storage shelves after the move is over.
Well, for an update: my shelves are looking pretty bare, and I'll admit that I love it! Sure, I feel a little bit uneasy not having my closet full of food, but I have a nice bit of cash that is burning a hole in my food-storage-only money envelope... just waiting for a big shopping trip to Sam's Club or Costco once I settle in our new home in Virginia (I'll write a post about my shopping trip when the big day comes!).
And speaking of new homes...... we found ours! My husband and I took a couple of days and went up to Virginia to look for a place to spend the next 12 months. It was actually a really disheartening trip. We found a place that we loved (a three bedroom townhouse), but it was at the very top of our budget and when it came down to it, we just couldn't sign on the dotted line! Has that ever happened to you? I don't know if it was a case of cold feet or what, but in the end we settled on a small 2-bedroom apartment for a couple hundred dollars less per month than the townhome. To be honest, we are not too excited about it but for the most part I feel good about our decision.
So what does this have to do with food storage? Well, I am racking my brain trying to think of where in that small apartment we can store food! I'll definitely be looking right here on our blog at recent posts about where to store food storage, but I'm asking you all now:
Where do you keep your food storage? Do you stash it under your beds? In the back of the closet? Do you like in behind your couch like Abbie does? Is it in the garage or basement? (if you have a basement I am extremely jealous of you. Actually, I am jealous of your garage, too!) Any unorthodox places that I should think about? Let me know!
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
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11 comments:
We have a two bedroom townhouse, too. A previous owner had built a closet under the stairs (something easily done), so we built our pantry in there.
We had a lovely HUGE linen closet in the hall. The linens are moved (except for the 6'high shelf), and it is stuffed with storage. Hmmm - I have to figure out how to stuff in a bit more!
Our food storage isn't hidden. It's in the hallway between the bedroom and the bathroom and fully visable from the living room. It's also probably against the fire code.
I live in a small 2 bedroom apartment and use half of our master closet for food storage. It's a walk-in, which helps a ton. I have also stored a few things under our bed and all of our extra toiletries are stored under our bathroom cabinets.
I am also eating through our food storage since we also move next month so I'll probably have the same problem again in finding a place to carve out for food storage. Good luck!
We live in a little 2 bed basement apartment. Our landlords turned the area under the stairs into a closet, and also closed off the stairs from the top, so we have that too. We store stuff on both sides, plus a few extra things in the 2nd bedroom closet.(We don't have kids yet, so we can do stuff like that.) But we're not worried about keeping more than a three month supply at our place because we live pretty close to family. If anything happened, we would try to leave within three months. We've started storing things at both of our "escape points". An uncle's house and my in-law's house.
My husband and I both drive Ford trucks and keep our 72-hour kits in hiking packs in our trucks. We're also saving up for a small covered trailer that we can turn into a short-term living space if we need to. (We live in an earthquake-prone area.)So, we'll keep some food and water there too.
In one apartment we stored food in a bookcase (with a decorative curtain held up by a spring-loaded rod). In our tiny dining area, our kitchen table was enclosed by one long wall and two short ones. Padded benches ran along these walls, and the benches swung open to reveal toy-box-like storage underneath. There was plenty of storage room there.
I have known other people to buy dressers, bookcases, and stand-alone closets at yard sales and use them for food storage.
We have food storage on the floor of every closet.
We know a couple with a ramp under their bed with wood dividers to store cans. They roll new cans down on the right side of the bed, and remove cans from the bottom of the ramp on the left side of the bed.
We have all our bathroom stuff, rice, oats, flour, wheat, and salt in the garage. We put weather proofing stuff on the door to protect it the best we can. We cans in the bottom of each closet. Our hall closet is full and both pantries are full. No, I don't even have a 3 month supply YET! We are working on it. We are a big family and we have little space. Good luck to you!
Here is an idea that would work in an apartment or in a home. It is surprising how much can be stored!
http://amatterofpreparedness.blogspot.com/search/label/Storage%20Space
WE are lucky in that we have an unfinished basement. My husband built me some awesome shelves down there and it makes me happy to see them neatly packed with food storage. When we lived in an apartment, we bought those bed lifters, and was able to store quite a bit of food underneath. It was the only available space in our tiny apartment.
http://www.stacksandstacks.com/bedroom-bed-risers
Our "long term" storage is under the beds, all the beds. and in the kids closets and our closet....
We created a wee bit more storage space under our bed by buying those plastic risers that lift it up about 6 inches. They work, and I actually kind of like having the bed higher. I live in a small house, too, so I can really sympathize with you about lack of storage space. But, I think you made a good decision on the house. Hang in there. I'm sure the house of your dreams is waiting just down the road, so to speak.
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