Storage Places

Many of us are running out of places to store the food and supplies we are accumulating. I remember some interesting threads for other sites I visited. let me start.

Stack up cases of canned goods in front of the couch, cover it with a cloth and use it as a coffee table.

60g olive barrels work well. They are great on a farm for storing feed. I used to buy them at farm supply stores for $15 or $20 each.

They can also be buried. Now this is funny, I knew this guy a few years ago, prepper. He called me for a hand. He'd filled up his olive barrel with emergency gear then dug a hole. Afterwards he couldn't get the barrel in the ground because it was too heavy. lololololol.

I was dying laughing!!! Duh!!!!

Put the barrel in the ground then fill it up! I still laugh when I think about that guy.

Fill all the bedrooms (including your own).

That has the double advantage of maximizing prep space and eliminating the possibility of house guests (who are mostly an OPSEC risk anyway).

I must admit that I have wondered how many tons of downforce we are applying to the concrete slab our house is built on........but so far, so good - hasn't sunk yet!

From there you can only progress to barrels of bulk carbs/grains.

We have a lot of shed/barn space (some from before our time and some we built). Operating farms are good that way.

I have some in military trunks too - and I have been thinking about palletizing all of those to make them easier to move around.

About the barrels! The large black caps have a rubber O-ring. When you buy at a farm store there will be several to chose from. Sometimes the O-ring is missing.

The last time I bought some barrels I just checked the caps and picked the ones I wanted.

There is space behind your couch. You can stack cans, boxes, or jars. If you want to get fancy build a nice Woden framework out of 1X4 and 1X6, or possibly build shelves.

Honestly, I consider cramming the corners with stuff to be dangerous. Every few monthsI go on a rampage around the house, digging out all the stuff my wife....and admittedly, myself, has stuffed in the corners and throw it all in pile to be properly put away, or thrown away.

This is the thing, in an emergency, even a minor one, sometimes you have to move fast. You have to pull the sofa out from the wall in a hurry because the cat is murdering something behind it, or you spilled the bottle of leather dye and you have 5.4 seconds to mop it up before it leaks throught the floorboards and drips onto the carpet on the floor below, but in your way are sixteen #10 cans of beans. Or, its 4am and you hear your on demand pump running and you find a pipe has blown in the utility space under the sink, but someone has been storing glass bottles there and you have to dig them all out while water is spraying everywhere...as my how I know...

I really think there is a fine line between preping and hoarding....defined as when the 'useful' stuff you are storing, stops being useful and actually starts reducing your abilities.

I am outright paranoid when it comes to having too much stuff, improperly stored.

Some of this comes from my EMS experience when in other peoples houses stuff stacked up in the corners of the room as been a serious problem when trying to help people in medical emergencies. And for that matter, around the fire hall where people also tend to want to pile up stuff.

I am of course, often guilty of what I advise against. But I do try to avoid it.

For instance, the above suggestion of making a 'coffee table' out of cans is great....until all of a sudden you need need to roll a cote through the room and you go to move the coffee table and it weighs 400 pounds and the boxes break open and you have cans rolling all over the place...

When things get a little DEFCONy here, I will literally say "Clear the decks of action" to get people to pick up any clutter and get it out of the way in case 'action' where to be needed.

Anyway, back to the point. Yes, I am running out of space to store things. Absolutely. But I am treating this as a 'level' that I'm currently at, and telling myself to get past this, I can't just pile more stuff up in corners or under tarps, but that if I want to have more stuff, I need to build more homestead.

Hardcalibres said:

..I have some in military trunks too...

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Ditto, and this approach was my 'foundational paradigm', because I wanted to have Every 'core' thing that we'd Need for 1 yr (Food / Water / Camp / Clothes / Medical / Defense, etc) to be 'Quickly deployable' (and by that, I mean Movable / quickly-Loadable in the Truck, for a quick exit, Stage-left..)

..Thus, a bajunch of years back now, I invested in about a dozen 'Pelican 1660s' (just as a Size-ref) and got Many of them at a fraction-of-New cost, and stuffed them up according to 'Category'...

..Thinking was, that even IF we ended up 'making a Coffee-table out of 'em' (and, actually, that was an Intended-Use-idea, for the future 'transitional camp', until 'proper' tables could be Built, etc..) they are Quick to be able to toss / Move (because of the wheels..) and yet, everything is 'encapsulated' (vs a jumble of cardboard boxes, for all the reasons mentioned..)

Sure, there Are 'cardboard boxes' with stuff (ie: Pasta, Canned Meats, etc.) but those are in One place, stacked floor-to-ceiling, and not strewn about willy-nilly in several locations (Big time waster, if we've to 'Bug Out', etc..)

Aerindel said:

..I want to have more stuff, I need to build more homestead.

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..Have Framing Hammer and Trowel, will Travel..

.02
jd

We just added on.

Our steps have a popcorn tin on each one. I call it an extension of our pantry. Works pretty well and looks okay.

We use all levels of our house for two reasons. We have the room, and it is a hedge or a prep for earthquakes and tornados, both of which are distinct possibilities in this area. If one part of the house is damaged or collapsed or gone, we may still be able to access supplies in another area. At least some of the supplies that are in the garage are close to an exterior wall, so in the event of a disaster I know where to start digging to hit pay dirt.

We have a spare bedroom dedicated to storage of prep items. Canned goods, paper goods, water, etc.!

I learned how to weave rope together in 3 sections and could lift it with the boom on my tractor. I used 5/8" rope.

I live in a very small space so I really don't do in the home storage of bulk prepping items. Fortunately for me I have the land to build
outside storage and this is mostly what I use. I also bury things.

I am against cluttering up the common living areas of any style home. It can rapidly become a liability in an emergency. Not saying don't use the spare bedroom etc... but random boxes or piles of cans in the living room etc is not so good.

I'm in the "don't put all your eggs in one basket" camp. Especially in my home. A fire would wipe out everything I owned and all my preps. For that reason I keep very few preps in the house. Only items that benefit from a stable environment and a few others for convenience.

@SoJer the Pelican cases are a great idea.

Back on the farm, my Pops wasnt a pepper as such, but we did have some essential stuff under the basement stairs. To me that's a great place for preps - it's a good use of otherwise wasted space and the stairs are usually built heavy enough to afford some protection to the goods in case of a calamity...

I'm like some of the others and the whole clutter thing is a no-go so I can't handle it within open view even if covered w/ a cloth. I don't even like things under the beds, but I've developed a system for some of the lighter items and am using the space under the spare room bed. I buy coffee 6 cans at a time. I push them in from one side of the bed and pull them out from the other side so they are in my regular rotation but my store is increased. Also, recently, I discovered a convenient place to store some of the cases of Hubby's salsa (we've made about 105 quarts!) We have a roll top desk with drawers on both sides of the sitting space. That space is rather deep - 36ish inches??? I have cases against the wall in that space. They are not visible since the chair goes in the space when I'm not in it. The other thing is we have the cupboards that go to the ceiling. I've drastically pared back on the kitchen gadgetry. I've been washing out the coffee cans, removing the labels and putting bags of spices etc (smallish things) in them which fit perfectly up on that top shelf that is usually empty.
At one time before @Sewingcreations15 and her husband found their place, they were renting and she commented that she hoped their house wasn't tilting from their stores being mostly on one side of the house I still remember that.

Our stores are spread around, a good part of it packed and ready to move pretty quickly

I buy peanuts in metal cans with plastic, snap on lids. I store chocolate chips and similarly packaged items in them to keep any rodents from chewing through the packaging.

I have a full basement under my house & it is full of stuff, not all edibles, some tools, containers, clothes. so it is on to the bedrooms.

DWinCO said:

Our steps have a popcorn tin on each one. I call it an extension of our pantry. Works pretty well and looks okay.

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Thats the kind of thing that I would consider a war crime in my house

Aerindel said:

That's the kind of thing that I would consider a war crime in my house

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DW did that with gallon jugs bleach, I had to remove them for fear of landing on the floor covered with five one gallon jugs of bleach.
Got them on sale & bought more than would fit in the cleaning closets.

Shelves can be placed under the treads of stairs.

The Princess makes use of under stairs storage.



And for something completely different...



I needed a root cellar to sore spuds. I built 6 galvanized trash cans into a retaining wall. One is a small faraday cage to protect my solar wind charge controllers and backup electronic test equipment.



Ben

Under the bed.

I got every bed in the house on folding platform frames. They are 14" tall and you can fit the plastic totes under them. We use to keep the girls toiletries in totes under their beds but they would dig in the totes and play with the shampoos or toothpastes. Not fun getting tooth paste out of carpet. Our toiletries are under our bed.

Aqua bricks turned into furniture.

http://www.calamityjanet.com/

Caribou said:

Shelves can be placed under the treads of stairs.

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Yes one of the first places I filled up, can not even see what under it now, but it is non food supplies that will be useful after the fall.
It can be used as a safe room also, I do not have one, for fear of someone burning the house down, plus no children to hide.
I will just use up my ammo & die, if it comes to a fight, to old to run with a back pack into the night.

I am trying to go through my preps and to get them better organized, again. The cardboard rotator bins in the last image seem to have disappeared. Maybe one of you knows where to find them?
Thrive Life foods had a rotator shelf for #10 cans, but it seems that they are not available now. Maybe someone else makes them?
I know that some of you have made the vertical rotator storage container, but you need the right space to attach one of them. If you have the space, they seem to be the most efficient, space wise and for first in, first out.

I have been storing cans and other products on shelves and in bins, but would like to improve the ability to rotate the food, store it neatly and each one contained. I actually think that someone with a CNC could cut out a variety of them of plywood, similar to the cardboard ones in the bottom photo.

Does anyone have a nice rotational system? Do you have any suggestions for a system that is space efficient and can line up neatly? Thank you.

Weedygarden said:

I am trying to go through my preps and to get them better organized, again. The cardboard rotator bins in the last image seem to have disappeared. Maybe one of you knows where to find them?
Thrive Life foods had a rotator shelf for #10 cans, but it seems that they are not available now. Maybe someone else makes them?
I know that some of you have made the vertical rotator storage container, but you need the right space to attach one of them. If you have the space, they seem to be the most efficient, space wise and for first in, first out.

I have been storing cans and other products on shelves and in bins, but would like to improve the ability to rotate the food, store it neatly and each one contained. I actually think that someone with a CNC could cut out a variety of them of plywood, similar to the cardboard ones in the bottom photo.

Does anyone have a nice rotational system? Do you have any suggestions for a system that is space efficient and can line up neatly? Thank you.

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That's awesome!!! You nailed it!

Weedygarden said:

I am trying to go through my preps and to get them better organized, again. The cardboard rotator bins in the last image seem to have disappeared. Maybe one of you knows where to find them?
Thrive Life foods had a rotator shelf for #10 cans, but it seems that they are not available now. Maybe someone else makes them?
I know that some of you have made the vertical rotator storage container, but you need the right space to attach one of them. If you have the space, they seem to be the most efficient, space wise and for first in, first out.

I have been storing cans and other products on shelves and in bins, but would like to improve the ability to rotate the food, store it neatly and each one contained. I actually think that someone with a CNC could cut out a variety of them of plywood, similar to the cardboard ones in the bottom photo.

Does anyone have a nice rotational system? Do you have any suggestions for a system that is space efficient and can line up neatly? Thank you.

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What kind of space do you have? A closet, spare room, pantry, back of doors?

LadyLocust said:

What kind of space do you have? A closet, spare room, pantry, back of doors?

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All of the above, except pantry space. The space is mostly full and I am going through, purging, re-organizing, so I want to find something that will help me improve rotation and first in, first out.

Weedygarden said:

All of the above, except pantry space. The space is full and I am going through, purging, re-organizing, so I want to find something that will help me improve rotation and first in, first out.

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We all seem to have a little different space, but what I've had to do is keep a "working supply" in the pantry then the bulk stores elsewhere. For items under the bed: I date them, push them in from one side and pull out from the other side. In the pantry, I only have the jars 3 deep so I work from right to left as far as pulling from the shelf. As I restock, I add the new in to the right side. For spices, I've been putting the extra in clean coffee cans and in the top shelves in the kitchen which I usually have empty because I can't even see up there let alone reach them. That might not answer your dilemma, but maybe it will give you ideas.