Just because you don’t have a huge pantry doesn’t mean you can’t stockpile!
Not everyone has a full basement or a room that they can commit to storing their stockpile items. You may have very little space to keep your stockpiled items so you have to plan to cleverly store your stockpile without making your home look like that 1950s bunker we mentioned! But first, let’s talk about using your stockpile.
Organizing and Storing your Stockpile
Ingenuity can lead to so many brilliant stockpiling storage ideas.
Part of maintaining a stockpile is knowing what you have on hand and using it. Keep your stockpile organized. Keep a list of what you bought and how many/much you have on hand. And you need to know how long food stores and how to store it. There are great articles here, here and here (for more long term planning goals) on proper food storage.
Rotate, Rotate, Rotate
No matter when you buy your stockpile items, you have to have a plan to rotate. You don’t want to to invest your time and money into building a stockpile only to have it go bad sitting on your shelves. Always pull the older items to the front and put the newer items toward the back. When you plan your meals, consider your stockpile before you go on your weekly grocery run. Use what you can and replace older stockpile items with newer ones.
Storing Canned Products
Rotate your canned food to make sure you don’t let anything expire.
Every can of food sold in the United States has an expiration date. In order reduce the amount of food you lose to expiration, keep your canned items sorted by the type of product (beans, veggies, mixed veggies, fruit, meat, etc) and then by expiration with the oldest products closest to the front.
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