Where to put the food storage?

[MorningStar]

What I find even more challenging than affording food storage is finding a place to put it. I feel guilty that I don't have a year supply, but our pantry is packed, another closet is packed, and we have as much as we can fit in our storage unit. We're in a two bedroom apartment with three kids and I don't know how the heck we could store a year supply. According to this food storage calculator I found, my family is supposed to have 675 pounds of wheat alone. And that's just the wheat. One of our biggest reasons for wanting a house is so we have a garage to put food in and a garden to supplement our food budget.

Any ideas?

[Jenamarie]

We're a family of four in a 1000 sq.ft. house, and our garage is not ideal conditions for food storage (detached, uninsulated) so all of our foodstorage is inside. What we did with our wheat, rice, and beans, since it's all good for decades, is store it under our queen bed. It means lifting the mattress and boxspring off of the frame when we want something, but as that stuff is good for 30+ years we're not too worried about taking our sweet time rotating it out.

[MorningStar]

Thanks! Now I just need to move the stuff I keep under the bed somewhere. :P

[Misshalfway]

You can be prepared in other ways. Make sure you have cash on hand. Make sure you have liquid assets -- a few months salary put away.

I agree that it is difficult to store large items in a smaller living space.

[WillowTheWhisp]

We had a load of stuff stored in our loft - but mice got in from the empty house next to ours and had a feast! Right now I'm trying to work out better storing places and ideas too.

[Loudmouth_Mormon]

cool and dry and dark - them's the marching orders for good food storage that lasts a long time. The warmer it is, the quicker it loses it's value as food. The wetter, the more it gets ruined. The lighter, the more mold and fungus and bacteria and stuff will grow in it.

I know some preparadness enthusiasts who recommend burying it. But that's mainly because they're worried about food rioters.

If you don't have a basement, how about a crawlspace?

[MorningStar]

My parents have a crawlspace, but it's pretty damp under there.

[Alaskagain]

Spray paint the number 10 cans in your favorite decorator colors. (Remember to mark them somehow as to their contents)

You can make shelves using lumber and these painted cans as shelf supports and organize your books, toys, dvd's etc, at the same time. It's so chic!

You can stack them two high, hot glue them at the rims, make a solid rectangle of them, top with a plexiglass sheet and voila! a unique "coffee" table for your living room, or make a taller tower and make a crafts desk, computer table, whatever.

You can take a wheat barrel and top it with a plywood circle and floor length tablecloth for a nice lamp table (matching, of course!) one at each end of the sofa.

Hmmmm, drumming my fingers on the table . . . . what would Martha (Stewart) do?

[MorningStar]

Martha would probably build a big food storage shed out of popsicle sticks. :P

[Jenamarie]

My parents actually used their plastic buckets of wheat to support the plywood shelves that hold their cans. It's in their garage though