Storing food:
A common adage is “First in, First out” which means that you need to rotate your stored food items. What sense is there in buying hundreds of dollars of food to store, tuck it away, buy more to eat now, then have the food you’ve already purchased be so out of date that it isn’t safe to eat? One of the ways I accomplish this is to date the items when they expire. The expiration dates on the cans are either on the bottom of the can or on the label. I use a magic marker and circle that date, then store it oldest first. The older, like items are pulled forward on the shelves and the newer items are placed in the back.

Racks designed to store food and automatically rotate the older items are wonderful, pricey if you buy them (WalMart once had a food storage rack that stored roughly 400 cans of food and it cost about $400.00) or you can build your own. As you plan that unit, take into consideration the width and length of the cans you’d like to store. Build the shelves on a slight incline to the front, nail a small board to the front of the rack to act as a stop for rolling cans and you have it! The only thing with this is that you need a fair amount of storage space to either load from the back or you must build the racks deeply enough to be able to place your hands and the item over the top of the other items to reload the newly purchased items. Either way, they are nice. The only downfall to this is that they are designed to hold only canned items. Glass items and liquids (vinegar, catsup, juices, etc.) are not recommended to be stored in these types of storage units. Liquids inevitable will leak and glass items may break. A friend of mine did store home canned products upright in these storage units but placed newspaper between the jars to prevent them from banging against each other. Her husband built the shelves at a slightly less angle than those that stored canned goods.

Something else to take into consideration is where will the foods be stored? Foods must be kept in a climate where they will not freeze in the winter nor get excessively hot during the summer months. If you have a large pantry or a dry basement, you are blessed. Others simply do not have that type of space. Where then, can food items be placed?
· Closets
· Under the bed or a stairwell. One friend even has a 55-gallon barrel with
water stored this way under her basement staircase.
· Create a table of milk crates, stacked with your stored foods, place a board
over top and cover with a sheet or a pretty tablecloth. No one will know the
difference and you have a nice storage space. I’ve used milk crates and an
old door to create a great craft table! I tacked a piece of fabric to the
edges of the door to cover the milk crates and it works wonderfully!
· Have a room that’s not being used? It will turn into a wonderful pantry.
· Under beds. My dresser has space under it. When we lived in a smaller house,
I used this space to store boxes of canned goods.

Attics, surprisingly, are not recommended for storage of food items. Quite simply, unless the attic is temperature controlled and rodent proof, foods will not keep well in these sorts of conditions.

Another thing to consider is how you will store food items. Obviously, canned items are safe from insects and rodents. But, you’ll want to store grain products like flour, wheat, oats and corn meal as well as sugar and beans. These will keep indefinitely if stored properly. Consider using metal trash containers for storage. Why metal? If the lid fits properly, they are impermeable to rodents and insects. Glass containers, gallon jars obtained from restaurants or flea markets, or food grade heavy plastic pails with tight fitting lids, also obtained from restaurants, schools or bakeries, are excellent choices for bulk food storage. I recommend removing foods such as flour, beans, wheat and corn meal from paper packaging. Paper tends to hold moisture and, personally, I have had more problems with weevils forming in grain products that were stored in their original packaging. I empty mine into food grade plastic, 5 gallon pails, label it and store it. These pails can be stored 3 high without concern for the lower ones buckling or collapsing under the weight. I store sugar that way also. As an added precaution, I seal the edges of the pails again, with duct tape.

Wishing you the best in your acquisitions.

Recommended publications:
“Essentials of Home Production and Storage” http://ldscatalog.com Go to the quick order tab and type in this item number in the order box. The cost is $1.50. Item #32288000

“Food Storage for the Clueless” If you’re just getting started and have no idea where to begin, this is a good resource. ISBN: 9781570086809

“Food Storage 101” The basics in food storage ISBN: 9781893519008

“Simply Prepared” available for about $13.00 @ http://www.simplyprepared.com

“The Ultimate Food Storage Cookbook” has what to store and wonderful recipes to create from stored foods, including dry milk, whole wheat, honey, oats, etc.

http://extension.usu.edu/files/publications/publication/fn_500.pdf A Management Plan for Home Food Storage


Coming next: Food and Water Storage for pets and livestock