Organizing Your Food Storage

Remember how I said we have a certain closet? I call it the food storage closet since it has our gigant-o can rotation system in it as well as a bookshelf full of macaroni and cheese. But the kids call it the TREAT CLOSET since that's what they care about.

I just went to the store: new Oreos, Chip's Ahoy, Slim Jims, almond packs, fruit snacks, mini-bags of popcorn, and Gatorade on top of the bookshelf.


It's very nice to have something to bribe reward the children with.

I'm lucky enough to have a closet to dedicate to food storage.

But here's the thing. Even though I *do* have room for a lot, there's no way all this would last us more than 2 months. Isn't that crazy? I don't know how someone would truly store enough for a year. But that being said, I really do like my shelf reliance rotation system. It's like at the grocery store, where you take a can of soup off the shelf and the rest of them roll down. I especially like something to help me take stock of my #10 cans. As you can see, I have room to add more tracks.

This is my pantry.

If your pantry / cupboard / closet shelves are deep enough I'd definitely recommend the cansolidator system. Shop around for the best deal; I ordered mine through costco.com and the shipping was free. It also operates on the first-in-first-out method. It's very easy to see what you have and what you need (and apparently I am out of canned pineapple).

Even if your kitchen is small I think you could find a place to put some of these (even if that place is in your linen cabinet or bedroom.) In my pantry I have two sets of the two-pack bundle at costco; 2 1/2 shelves on the top shelf and 1 1/2 on the bottom one. They fit together like Legos.

These three tubs at the bottom of the pantry hold rice, flour, and sugar. I wish they had flip-top lids . . . then my life would be perfect.

My goal is to make the food storage accessible and usable. I figure the more I rely on pantry staples the better off I'll be in the case of a shortage or emergency--meaning I'll know how to use what I have.

My friend Melanie has a list on her pantry door. She knows she wants to keep a certain number of everything (let's say, 24 cans of corn) and when she uses a can she notes it on her list. Then when she goes shopping she gets a can of corn to replace what she used. That's a great idea, don't you think?

As I'm writing this I realize I'm in no way an expert and I really have nothing amazing to offer you. But I do like my shelves. I guess I'm an expert at buying shelves and having Bryce and his dad put them together for me.

What do you use to help you keep organized?