One of the most common limiting factors of preparedness is space. In the early days of preparedness, it can feel like money is all that stands in your way, but before long you come to realize that space might be an even bigger problem.
You can save up for that next purchase of long-term food storage or an upgraded medical kit, but once you are out of square footage you have to address an entirely different kind of investment. With interest rates and the housing market being what they are right now, it might be better to stay put.
So, how do you make the most of your storage capacity when it comes to food? Food storage must be kept in a climate-controlled environment or else you increase the likelihood of spoilage. What’s the point of storing food if it won’t be there when you need it most?
Storing more food in small spaces allows you to take full advantage of each room in your home.
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Step 1
Step one in storing a year’s worth of food in small spaces is understanding how much food that is. I cannot know your personal situation, so it’s up to you to calculate how much food you need for a full year.
We are going to first break it down into calories. The goal should be to store 2000 calories per person per day. No matter how large or small or how old or young, you should store 2000 calories per person.
So for a 4-person family, you are going to have a caloric requirement of 8,000 per day. Once you understand how many calories you need per day to feed your family, you simply multiply that by 365 to get a years’ worth of food.
365 Days Per Year x 8,000 Calories Per Day = 2,920,000 calories per year
The foods you decide to store is very personal. However, you should stick to some staples in order to get the most bang for your buck when it comes to bucket storage.
Step 2
Step two is to start to understand how much food 3 million calories really is. Let’s use 5-gallon buckets as these are standard for prepper storage. For example, a 5-gallon bucket full of white rice is around 30,000 calories. So, you need around 100 buckets of white rice to meet that 3,000,000-calorie requirement.
Of course, no one could survive a year of nothing but white rice. You wouldn’t even want to survive on that! So, the key is to mix things up with your food storage so you can make delicious meals that your family will enjoy.
Here are some examples of dry food staples that you might store to meet those caloric requirements.
Fats and oils are going to provide you with the most calories. Sugars are right up there, too. However, it’s rough on the body to eat meals that contain lots of sugar and oil for dinner. So, incorporate them into recipes like cornbread which take advantage of both in one recipe.
If you have no other sources of food, i.e. gardens, chickens, goats, fish, then you are going to need around 100 buckets of food for a family of four.
Step 3
The final step is to understand how you take all that food and spread it around your property and beyond in small spaces. Buckets can be hidden and used to spread food around, but you are going to have to get a little more creative if you want to hide food in small spaces.
Of course, the key to storing dry food in smaller spaces is smaller safe containers. You need smaller storage options that will protect your food if you are going to store a year’s worth of food in small spaces.
Mylar Bags
If you store your food in 5-gallon buckets, it makes sense to buy 5-gallon Mylar bags. I buy both 5 gallon and one gallon. You can use the one-gallon bags to fill buckets but also to slip food into small spaces.
1-gallon Mylar bags can be placed all over the house! Some of the best places are in cabinets, closets, and even behind clothing in dressers.
As long as it is in a climate-controlled area you can slip these little bags in almost any small spot.
Canned Foods
Canned foods are probably the perfect food for storing in small spaces. You can stack cans in shoe boxes in a closet and people would be none the wiser. Cans can be used to hold up furniture. Stored behind larger things in cabinets.
I have seen people fill the entire space under their bed with canned foods. Small hidden pantries can be placed all over the home and filled with canned soups and canned proteins.
Jars
Years ago, it might have been strange to have a pantry full of home canned foods. I think we have crossed the threshold and now we are at a point where having a rack of ball jars filled with home canned goods is just impressive.
Canning is one of the best ways to store lots of food in small spaces. These jars can not only be stored in hidden places, but the craftier folks can hide food in plain sight and use these jars as decoration.
PVC Caches
When you consider hiding food, you probably only consider places in your home. However, people have been storing food underground for thousands of years.
One way to do that is with PVC caches. I like the 4-inch PVC for this. These can be cut to your desired length and then sealed with caps on each end. As long as you bury them beneath the frost line your dry food will keep for years. The introduction of an oxygen absorber would help, too.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, 3 million calories is a lot of food. Storing a year’s worth of food takes some planning and some management. You must check up on this amount of food and be sure that it is still protected from infestation.
More important than how you store this food is assuring that you store the types of food your family will enjoy. Store the kinds of food that you know how to prepare. If you break these rules, then you are going to wind up with a whole lot of food that no one is interested in eating.
The more creative you get with spreading storage around the better. I have seen people create entire storage areas beneath the staircase inside their home. Your storage capabilities are really up to how creative you wish to be. Another great solution is digging out a root cellar which will give you a whole new space to store food!
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