Ark Prep 101 - A Few Ideas for Food Storage in Small Spaces with NO Basements!

When you live in a Small Space with

No Basement, Storing Food can be a

Serious Challenge and Rotating the stored food,

Well . . . That can throw you right over the edge!

Here are a few ideas to help keep you

from jumping ship all together . . . I hope!

You do have to be a lot more creative, BUT . . .

Where There's a Will . . . There's a Way!

I'm sure the spaces mentioned below are ones you've

heard before, but hopefully I can give you

some new ideas for using these spaces.

Here are some of MY Favorite Spaces: 

Under the Bed

Solution Idea #1:

Did you know that you can store a 1 Year Supply of

Food Storage under a twin bed?

(Go all the way to the bottom of the post if you want to

make a food storage nightstand like the one in the picture above!)

Remember the Long-Term Food Storage Basics don't

have to be rotated as often.  Most of the foods have at least

a 20 year shelf life.  If you are just starting out . . . don't

worry so much about rotating LONG-TERM Foods.

Just work on stocking up!

When you do need to use the items, make sure you

load new items on one side of the bed, and rotate them

from the other side.

Solution Idea #2:

If you would like to use the space under your bed

to store some of your 3 Month Supply, you will need to

rotate this food often.

Here's an EASY Food Storage Inventory Form

to help with that:

Easy Food Storage Inventory Form PDF

Just list each of the food items you plan on storing.

Highlight with a highlighter the quantity you have on hand.

Put the page(s) into clear page protectors.

Mark an "X" in the square of whatever food item(s) you use.

(I use a wet-erase marker.)

When you plan your shopping list, just replace the marked items.

After I replace the item, I just use a wet wipe to remove the "X".

This might sound complicated . . . But I PROMISE

 it's SUPER EASY!

(I included an example sheet with the PDF File.)

Now, back to what we were talking about . . .

A 3 Month Supply of Foods could include:

Canned Goods, Bottled Foods, Water, and Boxed or

packaged foods.

Here are a few ways to Rotate these foods:

Store Foods in Meals

Grab all of the ingredients you will need to make a meal and

put them into Ziploc bags.  They even have a 2 1/2 gallon sized

Ziploc bag for meals that use a lot of canned foods.

For Example:

Chicken Rice Casserole

Spaghetti

Stew

and even Desserts like:

Apple Crisp

A bag of Shepherd's Pie ingredients would include:

Canned French Cut Green Beans, Canned Corn, and

some Potato Pearls.

(Recipe included in Food Storage Meals and Menu Planning.)

Storing Food in Meals makes rotating very easy and

is a simple system to maintain.

Make sure to refill the bags after you use them!

You can also store bottled meals or meal starts, like:

Taco Soup

Stew Meat can be used in tons of recipes.

The possibilities for bottled chicken are endless as well!

There are tons of options in this area.

Check the Preserve It . . . Canning Corner for more

Ideas and Recipes!

Store Prepared Soup Mixes

 Soup Mixes are easy to put together.

They can be stored in JARS or FOOD SAVER BAGS.

(Make sure you include an oxy pack to extend the shelf-life.)

We post a Soup Mix Recipe the

first Friday of every month.  

When you're ready to make them, just put all the ingredients

into a crockpot and add 8 cups of water!

How GREAT is that?!?

 Store Prepared Cookie or Breakfast Mixes

This is a jar of cookie mix.  I keep these on hand for

Birthday's and quick after school snacks.

If you have little one's

and you're planning on storing food under

their beds, here are a few things to keep in mind:

If you store jars that are not sealed, like the cookie mixes,

or soup mixes, make sure you put something in front of them.

I would store them behind a box of wheat, rice or oats.

You can use pillow cases to cover the not-so-cute

boxes, hiding the contents inside as well.

(Just make sure the sewn side of the pillow case faces out.)

You can get pillow cases for super cheap at Walmart!

This is the PERFECT place for bottled fruits, jams, meats . . . etc.

And YOU can't even tell!

THIS IS MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE

FOOD STORAGE SOLUTION:

You will need:

A piece of material or a curtain.

(I got mine on clearance at Target.)

A Picture Frame or a Piece of Wood

(Cut and Routed around the edges.)

Measure the boxes you are using to know the

size of the picture frame or wood piece.

Paint

3-4 Boxes of #10 Cans

(I used Wheat!)

1 Fat Quarter-Sized Piece of Material

This is what you end up with . . .

Let's See That Again . . .

Here's what I did with the piece of fabric and the frame.

With just a few supplies and about 15 minutes

You end up with . . .

A Super Cute, Super Creative

Food Storage Nightstand.

Wowie, That's Impressive!

These are just some of the ways you can store food

in small spaces with no basements as well as

some easy ways to ROTATE and USE that food!

Next week I'll show you some ways to find extra closet space,

even in a cramped apartment as well as storing food in a dresser,

and behind the couch!

Isn't Food Storage FUN!