We’ve been counseled to get as much food storage as we are able. From six months to two years, whatever is feasible in our situation. Those with less are encouraged to work on getting more. It’s wonderful counsel. I endorse it, love it, approve of it . . . but the doing of it has turned out to be a little tricky. You see, I live in a trailer.
It’s a very nice trailer, don’t get me wrong. It’s 17 x 72, which means it’s wider than your average single wide and it’s arranged well. But it does not have a lot of storage space, so we rented a storage unit here in the trailer park. But how can you fit two years of food storage in a trailer? We have buckets of grain that we stored in the shed, but we can’t put items containing liquid out there – they would freeze in the winter and boil in the summer.
As we moved in and I began to unpack, I noticed that here and there, we have cupboards that weren’t really needed. In our bathroom, for instance, we have a row of cupboards that go under our sink, and then we have a stack of cupboards behind the bathroom door. By arranging our bathroom things carefully, I found that we could use the bottom cupboard in the stack and the right cupboard under the sink for food storage. For the last few months, I’ve been tucking cans into that bottom cupboard, and am tickled (nay, delighted) to report that it’s now full.
I took an inventory of it this afternoon, and I’m not positive yet, but I believe that with the grains we have, the contents of that cupboard will tide us over for two months. I want to make that cupboard complete, so to the seven cans of spaghetti sauce, I’m going to add seven boxes of spaghetti noodles, but beyond that, the cupboard is good to go and I can now start on cupboard #2.
I also noticed that in the back of my pots and pans cupboard, way back by the stove, I’ve got about a 1 foot by 2 foot space that isn’t being used. I’m certainly not going to push the pans I use all the time back there, so I can fill it up with food storage. I can also tuck some way behind my garbage sacks, behind my juice pitchers, and in the hallway where I’m not using an upper cupboard for anything important. I may not have a whole lot of room, but I can find a corner here and here.
The trick is to keep track of what I have and when it expires. I started that inventory today and wrote down the name of the item, how many there are, how many ounces each can holds, and when it expires, as well as which cupboard it’s in. I’ll put all that on a spread sheet which I’ll print out from time to time and keep in the kitchen so I know when I need to use up which cans. I’ll also know what I need to add – I can already see that I have more green beans than any other kind of vegetable, and I should add more variety.
I know that I won’t be able to amass a full two years’ supply while living in the trailer, but I can probably stash away a full year. And that’s a whole lot more than I first thought was possible.
Related Blogs:
Provident Living: Applying Principles of Self-Reliance and Preparedness
Food Storage Items Available Online