Storing Food for Emergencies

Everywhere I read about how we should be storing food due to fires, water shortage, etc. I store dry foods like rice, beans, oats, pasta, bulk foods and noodles by leaving them in their packages dating and storing them in plastic snap lid buckets.

Smaller foods like dry onions, etc., I store in glad storage snap lid boxes. They stack nice in the pantry and can be labeled and dated on the buckets. This keeps the foods from getting bugs in them.

Don't like the labels on the buckets?, Decorate them with wallpaper in patterns to match your kitchen colors or decor. Makes a fun craft project. Nice buckets are available from restaurants and ice cream parlors for free, they are glad to get rid of them. Some charge 50 cents for the buckets and lids. I use the same system for my sewing room for lace, trims, ribbons. etc.

By Jane from Otis, OR

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By 03/19/2010

My basement is set up like this, my son is a grocery store manager and thus, use that system. Open shelves, supplies on it, I keep non food items in another section. Don't forget to buy bottled water--sealed in a case, etc and they have a long shelf life. I restock and use.
I have a full stock of tupperware and gallon jars used to seal food in. When buying groceries, all items go into another storage container, unless sealed in a can. I buy alot of things in bulk.

By 03/18/2010

When I was a kid living in the South, my Mom had a saying that she stored foods by: "If it doesn't come in a can or a bottle, it goes in the fridge". I still use the same principle with some variations. Now I say, "if it doesn't come in a can or a bottle, it either goes in the fridge or in a plastic snap-lock container". Plus for all my emergency food storage, I have a large cabinet set aside specifically for this purpose. Each item is labeled and dated and has the "rotate out" date on it. It is rotated out one month before time for it to be trashed, so that I have a chance to eat it before it goes bad. Taped to the inside of the door I have a list of what should be in there and how much of each. This way I don't have to guess at what I need.

In another part of the house I have one closet set aside with shelves floor to ceiling with all the non-food emergency supplies we may need, all in plastic bins that are large enough to hold a lot without being too heavy, each one's size depending on what is in it.