Food Storage shelves and organization helps

[Weedygarden]

This popped up and I thought the shelves and her organization are great ideas. My garage is not heated, yet, so I only store a few dry things, t.p. and the like there.

What are other ways that you store food?

 

[Bacpacker]

Nice shelving. I like the way the jars are repacked in the boxes. Keep them together in case of earthquake

 

[hiwall]

The key to saving space is custom shelves to fit the items that will go on the shelves.

 

[Weedygarden]

Nice shelving. I like the way the jars are repacked in the boxes. Keep them together in case of earthquake

I have always saved the box or cardboard crate from my jars. I type up a list of what is in the box or crate in a larger sized font and put them all on the end so I can tell at a glance what is in each one.

I have tried to figure out other ways to store like things together in bins, wooden crates, etc. It seems that trying to get organized never ends.

 

[Caribou]

My shelves have railings to keep the food in place. The system has been tested at 7.0 and 7.1 in the last 4 years. a more stable neighbourhood might not need the extra security.

 

[Bacpacker]

That was a really good video. Nice well built shelving and layed out so makes good use of the space. Her ideas on not really counting jar, cans, etc, but grouping by fruits, vegs, meats, dry mixes, etc make a lot of sense to me as well.

 

[Caribou]

I too assign an area to a certain food. I don't have the total space available that she does.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

We bought ready made metal 5 shelf shelving units with mdf inlay shelves for our storage room which measured 1830 mm H x 910 W x 410 D. We set them in aisles like a shopping centre and put them back to back so we have shelves 820 mm deep if needed. With the shelving units you are able to adjust the shelf heights so we have adjusted them to fit standard tin heights stacked 3 boxes high.

The food storage is organised into sections for example meat and fish, vegetables, paper goods, tinned fruits are all together and everything is rotated as we get fresh stock. We also store things in their cardboard cartons so they stack well and don't fall all over the place. The shelving units are also tied together with tie wire to make sure they don't fall over. The top shelves are usually used for light items like toilet paper or paper goods. Medical also has a dedicated double door pantry to keep all that together and the first aid kit we put together is on the top of the pantry.

 

[lonewolf]

metal shelving units, new purchases go to the back, older stuff is brought forward and used first.

 

[Weedygarden]

I always wonder if this is the same David Armstrong that used to be very active in our old group. Another really well stocked and organized series of pantries.

 

[Amish Heart]

Nicely organized, both of them. I use gorilla shelves from Sams Club. Just reorganized at the farm in the basement, and had to dump all the cardboard...too humid down there and got mold. So I bought strong plastic sheets and lined with those. I can bleach those if I have to. I tend to use an "aisle" by date at home. So, cans of beans can be in a cardboard flat, all expiring the same year. I stack flats. Current aisle expires this year, another aisle next year, way out expiration dates stored in another room. The trick has been to teach the grandkids to pull from the 2019 aisle before going to the 2020 aisle.

 

[Weedygarden]

I have often thought about ways to organize some spices in a BOB or camping gear. There are lots of possibilities, but this guy uses tic-tac containers! See them at 9:30. Maybe there is a better way to organize and keep some garlic powder and a few other things. How do you organize spices for your camping gear?

 

[Bacpacker]

For backpacking I have used film containers. Also have used small ziploc bags. But typically that was for very small portions.

 

[Weedygarden]

This is almost 27 minutes long.

"This Pantry Has Enough Food to Feed My Family For ONE Year."

 

[Amish Heart]

I like Alaska Prepper. Our pantries look similarly stocked, except I don't have bags of flour laying around. And not so many k-cups. I like how he says," Ladies and Gentlemen".

 

[Weedygarden]

I like Alaska Prepper. Our pantries look similarly stocked, except I don't have bags of flour laying around. And not so many k-cups. I like how he says," Ladies and Gentlemen".

I hadn't watched any of his videos before. I will look at more of them.

I like looking at what people are stocking and how they are organizing their pantries. It is also interesting what people like and do not like.

 

[Amish Heart]

I like looking at Pantries, too. And canning kitchens, and other storage rooms. Our own Lady Locust has a cool outbuilding kitchen. Homestead Tessie converted part of her garage to a canning kitchen. I hope to do this to the old milkhouse at our farm. And then on the outside of it, set up my outdoor cooking stuff under the patio.
I have a lot of cooking "stuff", and all the canning stuff, large pots, cast iron take up a lot of room. I would like another area out of my smallish kitchen to put this on open shelving for easy access. My storage pantry is in need of a good clean out; hopefully will be able to get to it next week.

 

[Weedygarden]

I have a lot of cooking "stuff", and all the canning stuff, large pots, cast iron take up a lot of room.

This is the truth! All the cooking stuff takes up lots of room. Then add in food storage and other preps.

 

[Amish Heart]

Yep. Ideally there needs to be a storage room for these things off the kitchen. Then off from that, a short term working pantry. Then off from that, a canning kitchen. Of course, with a staircase that goes down to the very large, clean, non humid basement with the excess food storage. And the kitchen should have a door going outside to the kitchen herb garden, with just a short walk to the vegetable garden and greenhouse. And the kitchen and canning kitchen need a small table and a few chairs for a work space and a place to take a load off and have a cup of iced tea.

 

[Weedygarden]

Yep. Ideally there needs to be a storage room for these things off the kitchen. Then off from that, a short term working pantry. Then off from that, a canning kitchen. Of course, with a staircase that goes down to the very large, clean, non humid basement with the excess food storage. And the kitchen should have a door going outside to the kitchen herb garden, with just a short walk to the vegetable garden and greenhouse. And the kitchen and canning kitchen need a small table and a few chairs for a work space and a place to take a load off and have a cup of iced tea.

Yes! It seems that even though homes and kitchens are bigger than they used to be, there is less of these basics.

 

[Bacpacker]

Yep. Ideally there needs to be a storage room for these things off the kitchen. Then off from that, a short term working pantry. Then off from that, a canning kitchen. Of course, with a staircase that goes down to the very large, clean, non humid basement with the excess food storage. And the kitchen should have a door going outside to the kitchen herb garden, with just a short walk to the vegetable garden and greenhouse. And the kitchen and canning kitchen need a small table and a few chairs for a work space and a place to take a load off and have a cup of iced tea.

The only thing you left out was the root cellar. Perfect otherwise.

 

[jimLE]

i need some longer and deeper shelves.seeing how the one's i have are to small for some reason now.

 

[LadyLocust]

Deeper shelves aren't always great. Mine are three quart jars deep (on purpose.) I have figured out that for me, I can still easily keep food rotated and "stuff" doesn't get lost in the back. Deeper than that and it becomes a mystery as to what's back there.

 

[Weedygarden]

Deeper shelves aren't always great. Mine are three quart jars deep (on purpose.) I have figured out that for me, I can still easily keep food rotated and "stuff" doesn't get lost in the back. Deeper than that and it becomes a mystery as to what's back there.

For me, it depends on what I am storing. For somethings, I keep them in a box or bin that makes it easier for me to keep like things together, such as gluten free, condiments, or pickles. These are usually store purchased foods. When I write the expiration date on the top, it also helps me.

I keep many dry foods in canning jars (lentils, gluten free, powdered sugar, etc.). I keep the jars in the original box, but print out what contents are in the box and put it on the edge of the box so I can see from the edge what is in the box. I type these up in a word document, cut out the list and put it between the plastic (which I leave around the box, but open the top) and the box. It would probably be better for me to keep like items in a box, but these get put together by what I have at the time. Jars and lids also get labeled.

 

[jimLE]

i originally went with 1x6's for my store bought canned and dry foods.while i keep cooking oil 1 container with the sygar im using to what ever on the top shelf.that always me to keep my canned foods 2 cans deep and stack and rotate them at the same time.now i need to go with 1x8..1x10 or 1x12.in which im leaning in the direction of 1x10's.

 

[Amish Heart]

I have some deep shelving (the gorilla shelves from Sams), but I run them down the length of the room like aisles. So some items face one way, and halfway through they face towards the other aisle. I stack canned food 4 times, each stack in a flat on a shelf. Same item in each flat. Had to redo that at the farm, though, because the flats had mold from the humidity. There I use plastic sheeting (Dollar Tree).

 

[LadyLocust]

This popped up and I thought the shelves and her organization are great ideas. My garage is not heated, yet, so I only store a few dry things, t.p. and the like there.

What are other ways that you store food?

She has a ton of food! Must have a large family. I try to keep just over a years worth or upwards to two years on some things.

 

[Weedygarden]

She has a ton of food! Must have a large family. I try to keep just over a years worth or upwards to two years on some things.

Some people try for a month or two, many a year's worth of food storage. Available space can play into this. A few try for 7 years worth of food. As I have been working on food storage, it has been trial and error. Many foods will not last 7 years.

 

[LadyLocust]

Some people try for a month or two, many a year's worth of food storage. Available space can play into this. A few try for 7 years worth of food. As I have been working on food storage, it has been trial and error. Many foods will not last 7 years.

Exactly! I think it is also important to be able to replenish the store. When I see all store bought or dehydrated foods, I think but what will they do when it's gone. If we can grow most or even some of our own food and know various ways to preserve it, 7 years isn't entirely necessary. (Though I am aware of the origin of that idea.) Then as you say, space is another consideration. Always lots to think about.

 

[Caribou]

The thing that jumps out at me in these videos is that none of them have rails on their shelving. I live in earthquake central so I do but everyone has a risk of quakes. If all you have are cans and paper products then perhaps you can get by without rails but I can tell you from experience that the clean up is so much easier with rails. Light stuff on the top shelves as these tend to not care if they fall and the upper shelves tend to sway more.