Saturday, February 11, 2012

Make a Survival Foods Pantry

A few months ago, hubby and I decided that we needed to stock up on survival foods. Unfortunately we really didn’t have much kitchen cabinet space, so we had to make another plan. We had turned an unused bedroom into an office, and the room has a closet in it. Basically, we had been using the closet to store some holiday decorations and some winter coats and sweaters. We decided that survival plans were more important, so we went to work cleaning out the closet. The winter outerwear was squeezed into the closet in the master bedroom, and the decorations went to an outdoor storage building.
Once everything was out of the closet, hubby added storage shelves. He used five storage shelves, and he left an open space at the bottom of the closet for storing large items. As soon as the storage shelves were in place, we began filling them up. Every time I went to the grocery store, I’d always pick up an extra canned item or two for the survival food storage closet. I watched the papers for sales, and I’d take advantage of them, too. Our survival closet is almost full now.
The survival foods we have in the closet in the way of canned goods include beef stew, chicken, tuna, Beef-a-roni, diced tomatoes, kidney beans, corn, green beans, tomato sauce, black beans, chili beans, chili, Vienna sausages, green beans, okra, pineapple, peaches, fruit cocktail, evaporated milk, and lots of different types of soups. In addition to canned goods, we’ve included other types of survival food, too. We have sugar, salt, spices, peanut butter, jelly, ketchup, mustard, powdered drink mix, barbecue sauce, boxed stuffing mix, coffee, creamer, and dietary supplements. On the top shelf, we store dried beans and instant mashed potatoes in closed plastic containers. In the space at the bottom of the closet, we have large jugs of water and gallon containers of cooking oil. By the way, I store rice, flour, and cornmeal in my refrigerator.
We use the closet for more than just survival food, also. In it, we made room for plastic food storage bags, garbage bags, flash lights, batteries, candles, matches, soaps, paper towels, toilet paper, and feminine pads, which make great bandages. We keep most of the other first aid supplies in bathroom cabinets.
I’m telling you – just seeing all that survival food stacked neatly in the closet gives me a great sense of security! If some disaster occurred, or if we went for awhile without money, I know we’d be able to eat for a long time. It’s also made me more aware of sales, and since I now have the storage room, I can really take advantage of sales items. It’s also nice to be able to grab something from the survival closet when I run out of something in the kitchen. No more unplanned trips to the supermarket! Take my advice – clean out a closet, insert some storage shelves, and start buying your own stockpile of survival foods.

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