When it comes to emergency preparedness, having a reliable food and clothing storage plan is essential. But where do you store these items? You may need to get creative and analyze the horizontal and vertical space available in your home. We've got some great ideas to get you started. It's always best to have emergency supplies inside the house so you can easily access them.
However, you should avoid storing your emergency supplies in a damp basement. Any storage area that has a moisture problem, such as a basement, must be sealed and repaired before being used to store your emergency supplies. If your area is prone to flooding, it's worth investing in raised shelves to ensure that your supplies aren't damaged should the storage area become flooded. Flash floods, tropical storms, blizzards - whatever the disaster, it pays to be prepared.
Emergency items should be stored in a disaster supply kit. Kitchen: Storing food in the kitchen is a no-brainer when you start looking for places to store food. You're probably already storing food there, so you can keep adding food to the kitchen until you run out of space. Most kitchens don't have enough space to store many months of food for a family, but they're a good starting point.
Once you fill up the kitchen, start looking for other areas to store your food. Basement: The basement is one of the main areas where people store their emergency food. The best thing is that you have a finished basement, but any basement will work. Most people can have a lot of space in their basements to store food.
If you haven't finished your basement yet, it's a good idea to add a food storage room when you do. This makes it much easier to find space to store food and water. I like cellars for storing survival food because they normally stay cool, even in summer, and allow you to put your food in an area that isn't visible to everyone who visits your house.If you have problems with insects or rodents, your basement may not be ideal for storing food. Some basements also have problems with water and moisture.
If you have these problems, be sure to fix them before you start storing food in the basement.Tracking spaces: an access space will be different depending on where you live. For some, it may have a basement with a mezzanine to allow access to pipes and other utilities underneath the house. If you have one of these mezzanine styles, you can easily use that area to store more survival food.It is important to note that if you plan to hide food storage outside, it must be tightly sealed. The last thing you want to happen is for little bugs to enter your food reserves.When storing food underground, keep in mind that you can only access it in an emergency situation.
Think about storing emergency supplies, such as a first aid kit, water packs, flashlights, and a gun.Store your non-perishable survival food in a cool, dry and well-ventilated place, away from the ground and out of direct sunlight. Storage temperatures must be stable, above 32°F and below 75°F.Food should be stored in an accessible location after a more likely emergency or natural disaster. If possible, you should have shelves in your storage space. Metal shelves are the best and the most durable, and are easiest to clean if a jar breaks or something leaks.
They will hold up quite well under the weight of canned food.Wood and plastic shelves don't offer the same strength, and your food storage could end up piled up on the floor. As a side note, food packages should never be stored directly on the floor. A small flood could destroy everything.When deciding on an emergency food storage location, keep in mind that light oxidizes food and moisture, high temperatures, freezing temperatures, mice, rats and insects can ruin survival food and, at the very least, will seriously reduce its shelf life.Canned foods damaged by very cold temperatures mimic the signs of canned food with botulism (deadly food poisoning).The hardest part of using extra shelves for survival food is that it can be unsightly to have 400 cans of food or buckets of dry goods in the center of the living room.For more information on long-term stored foods, see Ready Squirrel's full article Cheap Emergency Food Stock. The amount of storage space you have will determine the amount of emergency supplies you can accommodate.The optimal storage temperature for emergency food is above freezing but that's not realistic for the average preparer.
It's a good idea to store food and other emergency supplies together so you don't run around trying to find everything.Here are some general guidelines for rotating common emergency foods to ensure the best product quality: one approach to long-term food storage is to store basic foods in bulk along with a variety of canned and dry foods.If you make sure you can close these areas, your food will be fairly secure and you'll still have access to food from inside your home.Tubers have existed for thousands of years because they provide the ideal temperature and humidity for storing semi-perishable foods such as root vegetables canned and sealed foods.I like how you mentioned that it might be a good idea to include powdered milk in your emergency food storage.Wherever you store your survival food has a big impact on its lifespan - no matter where it is stored - it must meet certain criteria:.