Baby Steps: Make Room for Your Food and Supply Storage

Have you ever felt like no matter what size home you live in—big or small—that there is never enough space to store your personal belongings, let alone your food storage and other emergency supplies? If you have limited space to store your emergency items, all is not lost! This just means that you may have to get a little more creative with the places that you store your food and other supplies. Use your spring cleaning as an opportunity to clean out spaces in your home for your food and supply storage. (Spring cleaning is also a great time to rotate your food storage if it's not a part of your regular food rotation.) When looking for unique places around your home, remember that you want to store food items in cool, dry places. Here are some tips and tricks to Replace space for your storage supplies. Organize that Closet - Create an inventory of all of your storage items and attach it to the door or wall inside your storage closet. - Label and organize your items in groups so you can grab what you need quickly. - Store and stack up items on the floor and sides of your closet walls. - Use the top shelves in the closets in your guest room, bedroom, or hallway closet to store items. Put it Behind the Couch - Pull your couch out from the wall and store several #10 cans in the space between the wall and your couch (only if the space will remain cool enough). - Store items underneath or behind any furniture that you already have in your home that has enough space to fit items. Use a Book Shelf or Cabinet Afraid that bookshelves lined with cans will throw off the decorative theme of your home? Revamp your shelves to match the theme of your room. - Add decorative fabric on the back panel of each shelf to create a decorative backdrop for your cans. Check out how to do this DIY project at redouxinteriors.com. (We originally found this idea on Pinterest; click here to follow our boards). - create a curtain to go over your book shelf to hide your cans. - In addition to book shelves, you can also store your cans in cabinets, armoires, cube storage units, or dresser drawers. Take the extra few minutes to mount these cabinets or book shelves to the wall so they don’t fall over in an earthquake. Make an End Table - Stack up boxes filled with emergency supplies, or stack up cans to create a foundation for an end table. Place a wood board or circle on top to create a table top and add a table cloth to cover the base. Hide it under the bed - Keeping food storage under the bed will provide a cool, dry area to keep your food storage. Store it in the Car - Storing items in your car can help you and your family in both large and small emergency situations. Check out our tips for creating a car emergency kit for ideas on what items to include. Stock Up Your Medicine Cabinet - Check the expiration dates on the medicine in your cabinet. Replace items and consider stocking your cabinet with any over-the-counter medications that may be helpful in an emergency. Replace items in your first-aid kit as well. Stash it in the “Usual Places” - Basements are great storage areas because they are usually cool and dry if sealed properly or fitted with a dehumidifier. If your basement floods or has a tendency to be damp, you probably don’t want to store your supplies there. - Attics and Sheds are also good storage areas, but make sure that they are insulated well. These might be best for stashing non-food items like tents, sleeping bags, cooking equipment, tools, and the like. - Trunks/Chests are good places to store both non-food item storage needs as well as food storage. - Beneath the Sink is a great area to store cleaning supplies. - Kitchen Cabinets clean out one or more of your kitchen cabinets and designate it as the “emergency supply cabinet.” Store only food storage essentials or other emergency supplies in it. Make sure to rotate these items regularly. If you live in an urban area, and you're dealing with extra-tight quarters, there are more tips for urban prepping here. What do you think? Have you put any of these ideas to use?