Prior to storing your food and emergency supplies, you have to choose a location in the house that will best suit your needs. The most appropriate storage place would be a dedicated room close to the kitchen that you can use to place your emergency food supply.
Your food should be stored in a dry, cool area that is away from sunlight and remains at constant temperature. This condition is important, because, as we have already discussed, temperature fluctuations can degrade food quality and reduce its shelf life.
You should, therefore, seek the coolest location in your house, which will in most cases be the basement, and make sure that it is away from all possible heat sources. Alternative locations could be garages, preferably insulated, crawl spaces, spaces under stairways, and spare rooms. If you have no alternative but a room that contains a fair amount of moisture, be sure that it is regularly ventilated so as to avert the accumulation of moisture in that room.
Having your food storage located within the vicinity of your kitchen will have its obvious advantages, for example you will be able to rotate the food more easily. Those who are fortunate to have a basement in their homes will discover that the temperature is more even and suitable for long term food storage. I must remind you to keep your food away from vents and other heat sources.
Areas of The House To Use For Storage
People usually mismanage a lot of aspects of their lives, such as their time. One other area that most people have a hard time managing is the space in their homes. Space especially under stairways go wasted. A lot can be done with those areas of the house that go unnoticed. Storage shelves can be installed to accommodate freeze dried food supply, evacuation kits, emergency water supply, medical supplies, canned goods, etc.
If you have empty, unused closets in your house, you might as well convert them into your invaluable pantry. You'll be surprised how much food and supplies you can store in them. There is a caveat, however. You have to make sure that the lowest shelf is high enough so that you can stack the heavier buckets and supplies underneath it. Containers stored underneath the first shelf are easier access by sliding them out. However, food containers, excluding plastic ones, should never come into contact with the floor as moisture will eventually rust the cans, penetrating them and spoiling the food.
The ample room in the garage usually comes to mind as the best storage space in the house. However, if the temperature in the garage is extremely unstable, then that is probably not the best location as your food will deteriorate faster than you can consume it. Food maintains its nutritive value a lot longer when it is stored in an area that is cool and with a constant temperature. Nonetheless, the garage is an ideal place for emergency equipment, and consumer products, which you can place in your garage to make extra space in the house for other things like your pantry.
You should never even attempt to store your food in the attic, because as we all know the attic gets really hot in the summer. We all know what kind of an effect hot environments can have on stored food. In addition, you should be mindful of the fact that the farther away the food is from you, the harder it becomes to get it and thus rotate it. You'll needlessly be making life more difficult for yourself by using the attic as a food storage area.
Emergency preparedness experts commonly advise people to utilize their utility rooms for additional purposes, like storing food. This is in fact not a bad idea. You can build shelves on empty walls for extra storage space. The possibilities are endless with what one can do with a utility room, just make sure it is organized. The added benefit of using utility rooms as food and emergency storage spaces is that they are usually near the kitchen, making them more accessible -- and easier to rotate the food.
Unconventional Use of Space For Apartments With Limited Space
Especially during these difficult times home ownership seems to be becoming an almost impossibility. For those who own an apartment or are renting one, and have very limited space, your best option is to make intelligent use of whatever space you have available. Stashing your food in spaces out of sight is probably what will you choose to do. There are many ingenious ways you can camouflage your emergency food storage so that it fits in unnoticed with the surroundings.
Space under beds normally goes unused, and is suitable space to store food, such as freeze dried food in #10 cans, canned goods, and other non-perishable items. Whatever you may store underneath your bed, just make sure to correctly label all items and properly record what you have.
Empty walls are another part of the house that go under utilized; walls in my opinion should never be empty. Installing shelves to store containers containing food is another option for those who have limited space. If you have no free walls, you can use wooden planks to serve as shelves by placing the food containers of equal size to fit on opposite ends between the shelves to build yourself a shelf. You can store whatever you wish on each shelf, and then cover the shelf with a drape to conceal the food from sight. Your imagination will limit what you are capable of doing with the limited space you have for your food storage.
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