Practical Preparedness - Storage

All preppers that I know have a common problem.  Storage space.  It doesn't seem to matter how big your house is or how many outbuildings you have, when it comes to preparedness nuts, there is no such thing as enough storage space.  We have lived in everything from a 2200 square foot house with a shop and a barn to our current 1200 square foot "shouse" with no outbuildings (save our 40 foot shipping container) and precious little storage space. Regardless of our living situation, we never seem to have enough storage for our preparedness supplies.

Fold-top bins for clothing and boots

Over the years, we have refined what we store and how we store it.  In the beginning of our preparedness/survivalist journey, we stored anything and everything we could think of.  While, to us, this seemed like great wisdom, we eventually learned that if we don't use something now, chances are, will will not use it at the end of the world.  Storing 2000 pounds of buckwheat when you hate buckwheat not only is a huge waste of money, it is also a waste of storage space.  Guaranteed, the buckwheat will be the last thing you eat out of your stored foods, and no, you won't be "happy just to have it".  Storage is a commodity.  Store what you like or what it truly useful.  Don't waste time, energy and money accumulating substandard equipment, tools and commodities for "just in case".  If there ever was a time to have the best that you can afford, TEOTWAWKI is it.

Sir Knight and I have done a great deal of wrestling with the storage issue.  A couple of conclusions that we have come to are......

1.  Store what you like, for all of the reasons mentioned above.

2.  Organize, organize, organize.  If you are anything like us, you don't have a huge empty basement to fill with preparedness essentials.  Most of the preppers that we know have a nook here and a cranny there.  You have to organize and mark your containers so that you can put your hands on any given item when you need it.

3.  Inventory.  If you don't know what you have and where it is, you might as well not have it. It is important to know how much you have of any given item and where it is. An inventory is essential to properly plan your preparedness stores. Make sure you include location, amount and the date the item went into storage in your inventory. If you don't know what you have, you don't know what you need. I can't tell you how many times I have needed something and said "I know I have that here somewhere.....", only to end up buying whatever it is all over again.  It is a terrible waste of money and time and a frustration of immense proportions.

4.  Rotate, rotate, rotate.  If you have unlimited storage space, you might have the ability to stock so much quantity that if some of it goes bad, it really doesn't matter.  For most of us, that just isn't the case.  By rotating your food and supplies, you can be assured that your stores are fresh and usable.  And, if you rotate your food, it can be assumed that you are using it, which is the surest way to transition to a grid-down situation with the least amount of trauma.

5.  Use appropriate storage containers.  We have found that 4 and 5 gallon buckets are perfect for most of our long-term storage needs, however, certain items are more easily stored in larger or smaller containers.  When it comes to things like bouillon, #10 tins are perfect for our family.  The bouillon stays fresh and it is easily stacked.  We also employ #10 tins for corn starch, pectin and certain dehydrated fruits and vegetables.  When it comes to kitchen staples like flour, wheat and powdered milk, we don't mess around.  Our chosen storage option for these commodities is a 55 gallon barrel. We label the barrels and make sure that we have at least two for each item (so that we can rotate the barrels and refill them in turn).  We have also found that 55 gallon barrels are perfect for non-food, bulky items like bedding and toilet paper.  The beauty of storing these things in large, waterproof and rodent-proof barrels is that you can, conceivably, store them outside on racking or neatly stacked against a building.  Because of the non-perishable nature of towels, out-of-season clothing and boots, they are perfect candidates for 55 gallon barrels, stored in an out of the way location.

55 gallon barrels

6.  Find every possible storage location.  Sir Knight and I live in a shouse with no closets, cupboards or anything you could remotely consider storage space.  We have had to get creative and find storage space where none exists.  We snuck a 1 foot deep by 4 foot long rack in our bedroom and hid it behind curtains.  Here, we store canned foods and other items that can't take the heat or cold of our storage container.  Our coffee table is actually an old military medicine cabinet on wheels (in which we store bulk medical supplies).  A garage sale hutch was retro-fitted as a communications station, housing radios, batteries, battery chargers, 12 volt adapters and everything else having to do with long range and short range communications.   Every free space, whether it is under a bed or behind the bathtub is used for one preparedness item or another.

Our "coffee table"/bulk medical storage

Communications hutch

7.  Store items in appropriate locations.  Our storage container, as wonderful as it is, is not conducive to all of our long term storage needs.  It is blisteringly hot in the summer and bitterly cold in the winter.  Because many of our stored items require a certain amount of climate control, we are not able to store them in the container.  Canned goods, liquids and certain chemicals must be stored inside.  Paper goods, clothing and bulk dried goods store perfectly in our container.  Know what you have and where it needs to be stored so that when you need it, it will be in usable condition.

In-shouse storage of canned goods

Over the years, we have lost our fair share of stored foods and equipment due to poor storage techniques.  As challenging as storing preparedness items can be, it is well worth your time and effort to categorize, inventory and rotate your stores.  When the grid goes down your efforts will be rewarded with a plentiful, fresh, easily located stash of preparedness items.