Food Storage at Hannah's house

Yesterday, Abbie shared some pictures of what's going on in her life, and how she plans to utilize her new home's space for food storage.  Today, it's my turn!


(For the life of me, I cannot find the pictures I took of us moving!  But, here's one we took just a week later, when we celebrated my daughter's second birthday.  I know it's not the same thing, but.... here's what we all look like! :)

My husband graduated from the same school as Abbie's, just one year earlier.  So, in May of 2010 we moved from Georgia and spent one year in a little apartment in Virginia (near Virginia Beach).  Since we were only there for one year, I didn't focus too much on acquiring much food storage; rather, I just saved as much money as I could so that I could stock up quickly after moving into our more permanent home.

Which brings us to now!  My husband finished his internship in Virginia and now we're in Florida for 4 (possibly 5) years.  (If we don't stay here for that fifth year, we will do another one-year stint somewhere else.  Yes, my husband will be 35 before finishes this whole thing and gets his first "real" job.  Whew!) Thankfully, we were able to buy a small home here so we have a little more space than Abbie does (but, no basement, so I'm pretty jealous of hers!).  We are liking it so far, but it. is. HOT.


Anyway, I loved all of the pictures Abbie shared yesterday of her new home.  I took a walk around my home this morning and snapped some pictures of great areas for potential food storage.  I am excited for all the possibilities!


First, the laundry room.  My "laundry room" is no more than a pass through between our garage and kitchen, but it does the job!  And there's actually a lot of empty space that I can utilize for my food storage.


There is a lot of empty space on either side of the dryer - wide enough for #10 cans to be stacked on either side.  That is definitely a possibility!  I have also been toying with the idea of building something like these shelves with wheels, one for each side (that link is a great tutorial!).  What do you think?  There are also equal amounts of space on either side of my washing machine.

While Abbie has a lot of food storage space down in her basement, I don't have that option.  So, I've been looking up.  Look at all that empty space above my washing machine!  There is one shelf on that wall, but there is so much wasted space underneath.  That shelf could be lowered, and then I would love to see some shelves go up the wall - maybe even three or four more shelves, all the way to the ceiling.  Of course, we would have to ensure that they are installed well and sturdy, but I am sure it can be done.  Also, I would keep the foods light.... flour, oats, pasta, powdered milk, etc.  I could also use those shelves for things like toilet paper, paper towels, medicines, etc.  Whatever isn't too heavy. :)

 And look at all that space above my cabinets!  Again, I will have to be careful about weight, but that is a lot of empty space that can be utilized.  Would I love to keep that space empty and "airy" feeling?  Yes.  In truth, this will probably be a "last resort" place, after all my other options have been filled.  But if I have to do it, I will!  I'd rather be caught by the "home decor" police than the "too little food storage" police (you know those exist, right? ;)  Oh, and see my itty-bitty pantry there on the right side of the picture?  It's tiny, and it's all I've got!

In our master bedroom, we put our bed frame on 7" risers (bought them at Walmart).  That is where we currently store all our #10 cans, and I'll be writing a whole post about that in a few weeks.

Another area of potential is in our master closet.  Look at all that empty space!  I can see a second shelf up there, lined with food storage.  What about you?

And finally, this dresser.  We have a good sized master closet but it's still too small for this piece of furniture, so it's in our bedroom.  However, we don't store any clothes in it because our clothes are in the closet!  So, this is a definite option for some food storage.

I am excited to be in our new house, and seeing all these potential food storage spots gets me excited to start stocking up again!

Where do you like to hide food storage in your home?