# Space for food storage



## blarg (Sep 26, 2011)

I'm trying to build up my 30 day food supply and I've run into my first big hurdle. I only have 2 kitchen cupboards dedicated to food. Yes I'm new to this in case that wasn't a dead giveaway to everyone. 

The space I currently have is only enough for 1 week of food. So I have two questions. 

How much storage space do you think a 30 day supply should take up. 

Are there online resources you use to calculate stuff like that?


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## mdprepper (Jan 22, 2010)

There are online resources, but for the life of me I just can't remember which ones were the most popular to use. You can Google and go from there. 

As for storage think "outside the kitchen". A tote in the bedroom closet. Flat boxes under the bed. I've heard of folks that stack cases of food in their living rooms, put a tablecloth over it and using it for an end table. The possibilities are endless. 

Oh, :welcome: to the forum!


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## tugboats (Feb 15, 2009)

So very much depends on what kind of foods you wish to store. We have a lot of water available so we have a lot of freeze dried and dehydrated foods in our storage preps. This is the bulk of our long term storage.

We have rice, beans,wheat. legumes, spelt, barley etc. stored in vacuum sealed bags that we then seal in mylar and then seal in 5 gallon buckets. We built a bed frame around the 5 gallon buckets and then added a matress on the frame in one of our guest bedrooms. 30 buckets fit under a queen size bed. We think this is good use of space for dry goods.

If you are concentrating on canned goods a great solution would be to convert a buffet into can storage. I built one for the "War Department" many years ago. I measured the cans she wanted to store and then installed inclined shelves to create a First In First Out storage unit. It cost about 50 bucks for the lumber alot of cussing and two cases of beer(you see: I don't work cheap) to complete. Our guests don't have a clue that they eat off of food and sleep on food.

An unused closet (if such a thing exists) is also a good area. If you have a basement that can be a good storage area as well. Your storage needs will be dependant on the type of foods you wish to store.

Good luck. There are some great people with great ideas here. Listen, wisely, plan well and have fun.


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## blarg (Sep 26, 2011)

tugboats said:


> So very much depends on what kind of foods you wish to store.


Sorry I should have specified that. My goal is to just expand the stuff we regularly use from a 1 week supply to a month. So no long term rations yet just canned / boxed food items.

I have extra closet space in my kitchen but I need to decide what I'm going to build for shelving. So my first thing is to figure out how many square feet of shelving I'm going to build which is the reason for this thread.


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## BillS (May 30, 2011)

Do you have a basement to store things in? I bought some heavy duty storage boxes at Office Depot. I have boxes of canned goods stacked 4 high.


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## sailaway (Mar 12, 2009)

I have some stuff stored in my office space at work, why have all of your eggs in one basket.


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## Tirediron (Jul 12, 2010)

blarg said:


> Sorry I should have specified that. My goal is to just expand the stuff we regularly use from a 1 week supply to a month. So no long term rations yet just canned / boxed food items.
> 
> I have extra closet space in my kitchen but I need to decide what I'm going to build for shelving. So my first thing is to figure out how many square feet of shelving I'm going to build which is the reason for this thread.


If you own your house or plan to be there a long time , the space between the studs in non insulated interior walls is excellent for can storage and can be hidden behind a "feature" panel, unfinished stairwells or inside of closets also works well


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## blarg (Sep 26, 2011)

BillS said:


> Do you have a basement to store things in? I bought some heavy duty storage boxes at Office Depot. I have boxes of canned goods stacked 4 high.


No I have don't have a basement. If I'm ever on the market for a house again though having a basement is really high on my list. I miss having one.


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## blarg (Sep 26, 2011)

Tirediron said:


> If you own your house or plan to be there a long time , the space between the studs in non insulated interior walls is excellent for can storage and can be hidden behind a "feature" panel, unfinished stairwells or inside of closets also works well


I love that idea! Inside wall stud cavities seems like free storage space to me.


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## Immolatus (Feb 20, 2011)

Crawl space?
A 'shelf' in the bottom of your bedroom closet? Just raise the floor in it by the height of a can, heck you could just put a pine board/piece of plywood over top of a whole closet bottom full of cans of food.


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## kyhoti (Nov 16, 2008)

Back when we lived in a tiny apartment, we had the same problem. We had to think outside the box, so to speak. The space on top of the fridge held our plates, bowls and cups, of which there were four each; they got washed daily. That freed up a cabinet for more dry goods. The pots lived on top of the stove, freeing up more space. The "extra" food went under beds and in the bottom of closets. Water jugs went under the coffee table, since they didn't rotate as often as the food. Under the bathroom sink was a great place for other non-perishables. We even took a curio shelf, loaded it with cans and draped a prett shawl across the fron of it; the top held some candles, an oil lamp and some knick-knacks, so it looked decorative. Be inventive, there's lots of places to stash stuff (as long as you can remember where you put it!). Good luck and welcome.


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## Clarice (Aug 19, 2010)

What about under the bed???? I have all my canned fruits under the guest bed and canned vegies under our bed. Also bought the large totes and store flour, sugar, salt, spices etc. in them in the floor of my closet with my shoes on top. Also bought some large decorative tins at yard sales for other items and have them setting around as decor.


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## NaeKid (Oct 17, 2008)

How would you describe your house? Apartment sized, mobile-home, duplex/four-plex, small "starter-home" or some other term? Also, do you own it or rent it? If you are renting, landlords are a little leary of you hacking into walls to create storage-space.

You could make use of "dead-space" at the bottom of a clothes closet or a linen-closet (somewhere cleaning chemicals are not stored), a cheap wooden shelf w/ doors or an armoire would be a great way to create storage space as well.


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## boomer (Jul 13, 2011)

I have decorator bankers boxes as end tables and trunks full of stuff as coffee tables. We also have furniture that we can fit drawers under (preferably on casters).


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## blarg (Sep 26, 2011)

NaeKid said:


> How would you describe your house? Apartment sized, mobile-home, duplex/four-plex, small "starter-home" or some other term? Also, do you own it or rent it? If you are renting, landlords are a little leary of you hacking into walls to create storage-space.
> 
> You could make use of "dead-space" at the bottom of a clothes closet or a linen-closet (somewhere cleaning chemicals are not stored), a cheap wooden shelf w/ doors or an armoire would be a great way to create storage space as well.


It's a small starter home and I do own it. I'm going to use the idea about getting under bed storage containers for sure. The floor plan doesn't have many dead spaces except for the seating under my bay window. That's dead space I could turn into easy storage.

This thread really got me thinking about all the places in the house where I have dead space.


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## beanpicker (May 25, 2011)

I just put some things in my closet an remembered this post. I have "a thing a ma gig ", I guess it is concered a shoe storage hanging thing, it has square opening to put a pair of shoes an it fits on a closet rod, Hook s on the rod with velcro ,I guess it hold a dozen pairs of shoes, but I use it for my supplys. 
In that closed I store container of instant mash pot, oatmeal , etc kinda light weight things , but I have transfered all the to the shoe storage an it works out great,, I want to find a couple more for it hangs fromt the rod to almost the floor an it is only about 7 inch wide.. . made of canvise so it is strong.


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## LilRedHen (Aug 28, 2011)

*I need storage ideas too*



NaeKid said:


> You could make use of "dead-space" at the bottom of a clothes closet or a linen-closet (somewhere cleaning chemicals are not stored), a cheap wooden shelf w/ doors or an armoire would be a great way to create storage space as well.


This thread has given me some great ideas for my tiny house, but hope it will continue. My house is 24' x 30' (on the outside) with one closet and not a lot of cabinet space. No basement and my elbows and knees and the crawl space don't seem to get along (not counting the claustraphobia) I probably have too much furniture, but can't seem to part with anything else. Keep the ideas coming, I really need more storage.


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## lotsoflead (Jul 25, 2010)

just remember when you start placing the buckets, they weigh betweem 35-40 pounds each, so when you put 30 buckets under a bed, you've put about one half ton there, better ck to see what is holding the floor up, if there's a carring beam under it.


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## denniscarmichael (Nov 29, 2010)

Inside the wall would also have an insulating effect, including sound.


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## denniscarmichael (Nov 29, 2010)

I bought bed risers from Wal-Mart for $10, and now full sized totes fit under the bed.


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## ZoomZoom (Dec 18, 2009)

blarg said:


> The floor plan doesn't have many dead spaces except for the seating under my bay window. That's dead space I could turn into easy storage.


Be careful under that bay window. That area may not be heated so I'd avoid items that can freeze until you confirm winter temps in that area.



lotsoflead said:


> just remember when you start placing the buckets, they weigh betweem 35-40 pounds each, so when you put 30 buckets under a bed, you've put about one half ton there, better ck to see what is holding the floor up, if there's a carring beam under it.


IMHO, 1000# spread under the bed isn't an issue. Put a couple adults in a bed that's sitting on 4 little legs and you have 100# per sq/in. 1000# over 30 sq/ft won't be bad at all.

Something that just came to mind, so I'll toss it out for consideration. If you have fake potted plants, put some stuff in the pots. E.g. Mrs. Zoom has some fake trees in the house, sitting in what are probably 5-gallon buckets. Remove the sand (or whatever) ballast in that pot and replace with canned goods. If it's a hanging plant, put in lighter weight things like rice.


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## NaeKid (Oct 17, 2008)

blarg said:


> It's a small starter home and I do own it. I'm going to use the idea about getting under bed storage containers for sure. The floor plan doesn't have many dead spaces except for the seating under my bay window. That's dead space I could turn into easy storage.
> 
> This thread really got me thinking about all the places in the house where I have dead space.


Sounds good to me. I just sold my 800sq ft starter-home and moved into a McMansion compared to it and I still don't have sufficient storage-space for my stuff, but, I am working on it.

If your kitchen is anything like mine was, I had only a couple of cupboards, small counter-top and no space for anything. What I did was to take a wall-saw and cut open the dry-wall between the studs and put in a "spice-rack" of sorts (only works on an inside wall - doesn't work with outside walls with insulation). I don't have any pictures of it, but, I plan on doing the same thing with my new place to open up some more room for the kitchen. See picture below of an artistic sketch that someone did and I stole from the 'net


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