- Joined
- Oct 13, 2020
Long-Term Food Storage - Where do you stash YOUR big fuck-off pile of tinned beans?
- Thread starter Larkin N Likin
- Start date
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Nique la mere de Macron
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2021
Wouldn't you like to know.
I have to keep moving it because first my husband told the whole damn neighborhood and then after the divorce my idiot boyfriend did the same thing.
I have to keep moving it because first my husband told the whole damn neighborhood and then after the divorce my idiot boyfriend did the same thing.
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2018
Why not hide it from him and prevent his untimely bean-themed death when he reveals it again?
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2022
For my coffee table in my living room I use a big 27 gallon tub it's stacked full of cans and dried goods I could survive a few months off it
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2024
If you have a cellar, or somewhere under the floor that's pretty rodent proof, consider this for storage. In a situation serious enough where the local likelies are going from door to door to rob people for food, it would be better if yours was hidden. Also make sure you're using a cool and dark place. The cupboard under the stairs is better than nothing.
Store things in robust plastic storage tubs. The rats don't know you're waiting for the apocalypse, they are looking for food now, and a rat infestation in your house is basically the apocalypse anyway.
ROTATE YOUR STOCKS. People constantly forget to do this. Oldest tins/packets to the front, newest go to the back. Check dates on everything every six weeks. Anything that's aging out, take out and use it and replace it in your next big weekly shop.
Don't assume you will have access to water and electricity to prepare everything in there. Make sure there's a reasonable amount of stuff you can eat from the can, cold.
Every tub needs its own can opener stored in it. They will break, you will lose them... make sure you can safely get the fucking cans open. You'll also need some bottle openers and some strong knives and a sharpener.
One tub needs to be full of thin bleach and strong plastic trash bags. Toilet roll keeps forever and you can stock up when it's on offer. You will not regret having toilet roll. It was the first thing to vanish in the great UK Covid panic buying spree. You also need a couple of large plastic buckets.
You'll need vitamin supplementation; kids especially will start to wilt on this crap diet. Vitamins are cheap and they keep for years. Get some bottles in there.
You need clean water, a lot of it, and rotate it. Water storage containers are cheap on Amazon and you can change out the water every few weeks from the tap. if you are in the UK, you know how often the water companies turn off the water without notice, so make sure to have this even if you don't believe in holding stocks of stuff. No one ever said "oh thank christ I have no clean drinking water available".
You'll need cups and plates and cutlery. The plasticy picnic stuff is fine. It will all be on sale soon in the UK once the school holidays are over, so pick some up.
Store things in robust plastic storage tubs. The rats don't know you're waiting for the apocalypse, they are looking for food now, and a rat infestation in your house is basically the apocalypse anyway.
ROTATE YOUR STOCKS. People constantly forget to do this. Oldest tins/packets to the front, newest go to the back. Check dates on everything every six weeks. Anything that's aging out, take out and use it and replace it in your next big weekly shop.
Don't assume you will have access to water and electricity to prepare everything in there. Make sure there's a reasonable amount of stuff you can eat from the can, cold.
Every tub needs its own can opener stored in it. They will break, you will lose them... make sure you can safely get the fucking cans open. You'll also need some bottle openers and some strong knives and a sharpener.
One tub needs to be full of thin bleach and strong plastic trash bags. Toilet roll keeps forever and you can stock up when it's on offer. You will not regret having toilet roll. It was the first thing to vanish in the great UK Covid panic buying spree. You also need a couple of large plastic buckets.
You'll need vitamin supplementation; kids especially will start to wilt on this crap diet. Vitamins are cheap and they keep for years. Get some bottles in there.
You need clean water, a lot of it, and rotate it. Water storage containers are cheap on Amazon and you can change out the water every few weeks from the tap. if you are in the UK, you know how often the water companies turn off the water without notice, so make sure to have this even if you don't believe in holding stocks of stuff. No one ever said "oh thank christ I have no clean drinking water available".
You'll need cups and plates and cutlery. The plasticy picnic stuff is fine. It will all be on sale soon in the UK once the school holidays are over, so pick some up.
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2018
Upstairs in a spare bedroom, It's been over 70 years since a flood last hit the area where my house stands but better safe than sorry.
- Joined
- Apr 5, 2019
Rent a Kubota. Dig a 10'' square hole. Reinforce the sides. Add a roof. You are now the proud owner of a root cellar.
If you have an accessible subfloor in your house that also stays decently cool but it's not a great alternative.
Propane fridges are a good option if you can afford a $4000 fridge and full 500 gallon tank. (You can't lol)
Do not put canned goods in your attic. The temps in the average attic make the food degrade, separate, spoil, and get really nasty.
Dried foods like beans, peas, rice, legumes are a better option. (plus most bought grains aren't heat treated meaning you can just replant them in the spring)
Store water in those big food safe aluminum reinforced jugs. (IBC tanks, these ones)
OUT OF THE SUNLIGHT or any light if possible. I've known people who spray the containers black to keep light out. algae is a big problem with water storage.
UV makes these degrade and halves the life of the plastic.
Add about 8 tablespoons of bleach to 300 gallons to make it potable.
Fully cycle and wash about once a month if you don't use all the water.
Freezing is a major issue if you don't store them in a dark side room in your house or underground. If these freeze the whole thing cracks and you're out about 300 gallons of storage capacity.
You can get a harbor freight trailer kit for about $300 and tow strap one of these on the back. Fill from a well or if you need gray water you can source from a lake or something with a 12v pump. or a generator pump if you don't feel like waiting for an hour.
Keep the grey water and potable water tanks separate and labeled.
One of these tanks run about $100~$300 used, only buy used if they have been used for corn syrup or other food products.
Lots of these are used for pesticides. Do not ever buy them.
Chemicals stay in the pores of the plastic forever, you cannot wash the chemicals out.
Always ask the seller what was stored in them or if you can afford it buy them new.
Source: Grew up off-grid and we didn't have a well until about 3 years ago, almost never ran out of water, just filled the reservoirs once a week with a trailer with two of these. Always had water for showers, the farm, cooking, etc. A neighbor would trade well access for some gas for the generator. We had about 7 of these in a side room in the cabin, half for grey water, half for potable water. We also had separate lines for P and GW. If you can get a well. It makes life 10x easier.
If you have an accessible subfloor in your house that also stays decently cool but it's not a great alternative.
Propane fridges are a good option if you can afford a $4000 fridge and full 500 gallon tank. (You can't lol)
Do not put canned goods in your attic. The temps in the average attic make the food degrade, separate, spoil, and get really nasty.
Dried foods like beans, peas, rice, legumes are a better option. (plus most bought grains aren't heat treated meaning you can just replant them in the spring)
Store water in those big food safe aluminum reinforced jugs. (IBC tanks, these ones)
OUT OF THE SUNLIGHT or any light if possible. I've known people who spray the containers black to keep light out. algae is a big problem with water storage.
UV makes these degrade and halves the life of the plastic.
Add about 8 tablespoons of bleach to 300 gallons to make it potable.
Fully cycle and wash about once a month if you don't use all the water.
Freezing is a major issue if you don't store them in a dark side room in your house or underground. If these freeze the whole thing cracks and you're out about 300 gallons of storage capacity.
You can get a harbor freight trailer kit for about $300 and tow strap one of these on the back. Fill from a well or if you need gray water you can source from a lake or something with a 12v pump. or a generator pump if you don't feel like waiting for an hour.
Keep the grey water and potable water tanks separate and labeled.
One of these tanks run about $100~$300 used, only buy used if they have been used for corn syrup or other food products.
Lots of these are used for pesticides. Do not ever buy them.
Chemicals stay in the pores of the plastic forever, you cannot wash the chemicals out.
Always ask the seller what was stored in them or if you can afford it buy them new.
Source: Grew up off-grid and we didn't have a well until about 3 years ago, almost never ran out of water, just filled the reservoirs once a week with a trailer with two of these. Always had water for showers, the farm, cooking, etc. A neighbor would trade well access for some gas for the generator. We had about 7 of these in a side room in the cabin, half for grey water, half for potable water. We also had separate lines for P and GW. If you can get a well. It makes life 10x easier.
- Joined
- May 16, 2019
This is very important over the long run. You don't want to prepare for years, then the Big One finally hits, and you discover you're stuck with degraded food.
When Covid hit I had been lax about rotation for a while. When lockdowns and shortages hit, I had what I needed, but discovered a large portion of my stock was due for replacement in 2020. It was impossible to get certain things in 2020, extremely expensive to get other supplies when you could find them (nobody could refresh their Mountain House #10 can supplies that year). Some of these are only now becoming available again. If I had rotated annually, I could have saved a ton of money.
My recommendation is to intentionally store food in multiple places, and rotate directly into your kitchen pantry. This encourages its use in your daily routines, and when you get low you can make a trip to your long term storage to grab the next oldest batch.
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2021
My strategy is basically the "deep pantry" food storage strategy. I aim to store what we eat, so we're naturally rotating through it. I'm not trying to store a year of food, though. If I can have about 3 months of food, that feels about right. Over time I'd like to have 6 months and do better about storing things like dehydrated dairy, but I don't have a dedicated pantry and have maxed out the space available to me at the moment.
The main way I do this is is through a combination of bulk shopping (Azure Standard) and buying extras when I go to the grocery store. I store bulk food in 5 gallon food safe buckets (I got mine from Tractor Supply, but I understand you can often get them free or for a nominal amount from places like Firehouse Subs or the bakery in your grocery store) with a gamma seal lid. Gamma seal lids are a ring that you (gently) hammer on to the rim of your bucket, and then there is a central lid that you spin open and closed. I really like this system, the lids are kinda expensive but durable, and it's easy to get into them for regular use. I use these buckets to store bulk dry goods we'll finish within a year: white rice, beans, sugar, white flour.
I also store meat and vegetables and fruit in a chest freezer in the garage. And some canned goods, but only the stuff I regularly use in my cooking. This is all part of the regular rotation. I got to test out my system when Covid happened, we didn't need to go shopping until things had really calmed down. But I learned that I had stored too many different kinds of things rather than focusing on storing larger quantities of the things we use weekly. I had stored too many different kinds of beans, for instance, and some had been on the shelf long enough that they took a loooong time to cook. Now I focus more tightly on the staple foods we regularly eat so we're rotating them and there's no waste.
To be really secure, I need to next think about power in the event of an extended outage, and a larger water supply. Space is my big issue, so I have yet to figure this out.
The main way I do this is is through a combination of bulk shopping (Azure Standard) and buying extras when I go to the grocery store. I store bulk food in 5 gallon food safe buckets (I got mine from Tractor Supply, but I understand you can often get them free or for a nominal amount from places like Firehouse Subs or the bakery in your grocery store) with a gamma seal lid. Gamma seal lids are a ring that you (gently) hammer on to the rim of your bucket, and then there is a central lid that you spin open and closed. I really like this system, the lids are kinda expensive but durable, and it's easy to get into them for regular use. I use these buckets to store bulk dry goods we'll finish within a year: white rice, beans, sugar, white flour.
I also store meat and vegetables and fruit in a chest freezer in the garage. And some canned goods, but only the stuff I regularly use in my cooking. This is all part of the regular rotation. I got to test out my system when Covid happened, we didn't need to go shopping until things had really calmed down. But I learned that I had stored too many different kinds of things rather than focusing on storing larger quantities of the things we use weekly. I had stored too many different kinds of beans, for instance, and some had been on the shelf long enough that they took a loooong time to cook. Now I focus more tightly on the staple foods we regularly eat so we're rotating them and there's no waste.
To be really secure, I need to next think about power in the event of an extended outage, and a larger water supply. Space is my big issue, so I have yet to figure this out.