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59 Comments

  1. I threw money at the bee thing for a few years. Lots of money. The learning curve is absolutely huge and at least in the north east the bees are an extreme challenge to raise. I had 5 hives and lost them all.

    The idea of having your own honey supply is wonderful, but for the money invested I could have purchased a few lifetimes worth of local honey, and if stored correctly the honey won’t deteriorate.

    1. Bees are not only for honey which you can then trade or sell the excess. Bees also increase crop production many times over which is the main reason for keeping bees. If you want mediocre harvests don’t keep bees.

      If your bees are non-hygienic then a whole slew of problems will follow. You need a proven strain of survivors like MN hygienic and VSH Queens or Zia Queen Bees.

        1. Using native bees is a cheap alternative and helps protect diversity, however, many times native apis breeds focus on specific plants and then move on to other plants when the bloom is finished on their preferred plants.

    2. I agree! I raised bees in ME and between winter kill and bear predation, it just wasn’t worth it. I tell prospective beekeepers “the first jar of honey costs about $1,000, but it gets cheaper after that”. I loved beekeeping, and may give it another try with a purpose built shed to keep the hives in.

  2. Are you able to donate to a food closet or charity? I realize you are probably pretty far out from one, but I have found out local one looks very closely at expiration dates for legal reasons. That makes FIFO, overall stock, and donations to alleviate space a tad bit difficult. Thank you for the ideas and your experience in a real world environment.

  3. That is an excellent article, very concise, and explains prepping to the masses.
    That being said, I was also involved extensively in prepping for the past 30+ years, unfortunately, everything I had accumulated was totally lost in a house fire in June 2017.
    Fire is the one thing that is almost impossible to prep for.
    I thought we could handle almost any situation, and had a pretty good handle on fire suppression.
    We also live in the rural as does Mr. Rawles, firefighters take time to get to the house, ours was totally engulfed when help arrived.
    My shop was unharmed, and a good portion of food buckets were stored in the shop.
    Now, at ages of 70+, my wife and I are debating whether to start over or just go with me the flow.
    We are rebuilding in the same location, time will determine our future course.

    Keep in mind, fire is the hardest SHTF situation you will probably endure.

  4. Great article on storage space. Several years ago I commented on another web site about a gentleman who everyone listened to and followed. He always had a comment on how to do everything.
    He told everyone that they needed the biggest and best of everything. Including farm equipment. When I asked the man if he has all of this himself because there was no way possible he could store what he told everyone they must have. The only responses I got came from everyone who followed his word.
    He wrote books that told you how much to store and nothing about how much space it would require.
    As you know you can’t leave equipment outside and expect it to last.
    I keep spare parts for everything I can. And that alone requires lots of out buildings.

  5. re:
    Beyond ‘best-by’ dates

    For expired crackers and cookies and individual-wrap finger-size snack-bars, we bring them to church for social-time after service.

    After sitting for two hours, those people eat anything.

    PS:
    Yes, that packaged stuff is good for decades. Sure… but it’s so much fun buying more, newer. Bright colored boxes. Just like Christmas!

    1. Sounds like Jim Cobb types. I call them urban preppers or snake oil salesman. Good advice they copy from other sites and use it as their own. Often they write short books about it too.

      I think a lot of new preppers get swindled into it.

  6. Years ago we had an invasion of field mice in one of our storage areas. The mice ate the cardboard boxes the canning jars were stored in, then went on to eat the labels off of #10 cans. A few mylar bags were destroyed and everything was a horrible mess. The jars, cans and buckets survived but all had to cleaned, relabeled and packed in protective clear storage containers. It took us about 6 months to empty and clean the storage area plus clean jars and relabel cans but now everything is easier to find and pretty much mouse proof.

  7. My biggest challenge in food storage is the enormous selection of food thats available.. buying a case of anything means you are committed to that particular brand, flavor, and type until it’s gone… different varieties means more shelf space so it doesnt get ‘lost’. My wife likes rolled oats with blueberries, I like steel cut oats- once in a while.. so instead of stocking one type of oats, we now have two spaces taken up for oatmeal. Canned foods pose the same problem how many different variety of canned beans can you stock up on before shelf space becomes an issue? pintos, northern, black, red, kidney,…If I bulk store them, it means i have to crack open the bucket, then im committed to that type of bean until it’s gone. Lowering my appetite for variety to free up shelf space for a * new * item seems to be one solution. Every once in a while I enjoy a rice pelaf dish, But not enough to justify a whole stored case.

    1. A buddy showed me the way I do now. Cut large mylar bags into smaller ones and use a curling iron to seal the cut edges then put commonly used components into the bag. Also, try to find an old copy of Make A Mix paperback cookbook. It tells how to pre-mix components which you can then seal as meals in a mylar bag. Now I put 6 to 12 mylar-bagged things into one bucket, including packets of spices and baking supplies.

      God Bless.

    2. For the foods that you store in bulk, having a Gamma Seal lid on one bucket of each keeps you from now having to eat all of those beans or rice until they are gone. You can open the bucket, retrieve whatever amount to store for more short term use in the pantry, close the lid and you are good until your pantry amount is gone. Also, storing several smaller mylar bags in your bucket means you can grab one mylar bag and use it until it is gone, without pressure of having to eat it all day every day until it is gone.

    3. Dave,went through that as a child it will change your life(almost always negatively) but be resilient and view it as opportunity. Take the insurance money(hopefully) and diversify and travel

  8. Whenever something is used from the pantry I immediately add it to my shopping list. This cuts down on the frequency of taking inventory. I am fortunate to have a deep pantry of frequently used items and have the luxury of waiting to purchase them when they are on sale.

  9. I would like to mention T-post drivers for those who need to do fencing. Most of the ones sold in my area are about 18″ long with the handles at the bottom. BAD DESIGN! They can easily slip off the top of the post when you are aggressively pounding that post, and because of the design and weight they seem to gravitate towards the operator. Well-made ones are about twice as long and have the handles closer to the middle. If you’re new to this homesteading thing, or even if you’re not, save yourself a trip to the ER (or worse) and get the big one. Unfortunately, like many things in life and prepping, one never knows about design defects and construction shortcuts until one spends his hard-earned money on dangerous junk.
    The picture of the storage area is a thing of beauty! I completely understand the difficulty of being redundant and keeping things organized and secure from vermin (of all types).

    1. Get rid of the handles. Don’t need them. Just grab around the main body. Works in both Johnson and Sheridan counties, anyway. Just spray the unit bright red like I did to distinguish it.

      1. Thanks, but I live on top of a boulder field – I only have about 10-12″ of soil! But my well water is shallow and delicious, and plentiful, so I just deal with it. Fortunately most of my fencing is in great shape, I just needed a few posts around new trees, the garden and bird patch!

  10. Jim,
    Several thoughts:

    During a recent inventory of a storage shed at my retreat property, I discovered a horrible mistake made during my early days of prepping: MOTH BALLS! Although 100% effective at keeping the critters and bugs at bay, the smell has permeated EVERYTHING, regardless of storage medium. From plastic Ziploc bags to vacuum-sealed bags of pancake batter, the smell, and I assume the vaporous pesticide, coated everything. Even items inside of sealed storage totes bore the smell. VERY expensive lesson learned. Even if the food were safe to eat, the mental hurdle presented by “mothball macaroni” would be impossible to overcome.

    Digging through my oldest preps is like walking through a time capsule of my mindset. The newer stuff is always neat, organized, and practical. The deeper I go, the more they resemble the mind of a lunatic. Some containers had items that were haphazardly thrown in and resembled what one may do if a given 30 minutes to gather belongings after a tsunami or wildfire warning. More than once, I would just stop and ask, “What the h@#$ was I thinking?”

    40 years, huh? If nothing else, you are a man of conviction.

    1. If it comes to a hoarding complaint, the receipts will only help if common sense is engaged…oh! Wait…accusing someone of hoarding and taking their stuff means you didn’t have the common sense to prepare. Hmmm……

  12. Storage here is an issue for the food preps. We had to buy more shelving and put them up in my sewing room. That’s all the “space” we have left and it is filling up fast.

    Three years ago I dealt with the mouse invasion. We are way more secure against rodents now, but we lost quite a bit of dry food stuffs.

    1. Think again ! We had galvanized trash cans at our business, someone left food in the can ,lid was on tight but a hole was on the side of the can and chicken bones were gone. You can’t keep rodents out of anything..

  15. The single most important things we have discovered is that cans rust, and cardboard holds moisture! We tried many things to solve this issue, and it has come down to this…EVERY CAN GOES IN A PLASTIC BAG!!!. We put canned goods in a Zip lock baggie with a small desiccant pack then place them in their cardboard boxes. #10 cans go in a veggie bag from the store with a desiccant. Spin the bag and seal with tape.

    Since adopting this method we have had zero rust. It also prevents losing a case if one can leaks, which can happen. Both the baggies and desiccant are reusable. The veggie bags are a one time deal, but are cheap. Our grocer sold us a roll for just a few bucks.

    I can’t stress this enough. DO IT!!!

    1. Cardboard not only holds moisture(and mold) but also is a favorite food /hiding place of many pests. Anything you buy has travelled thru a warehouse and is likely contaminated.

  16. I always vacuum seal food (and ammo) in gamesaver (foodsaver) bags before putting it in plastic buckets or ammo cans….has worked pretty well for the last 15 years for me. Also prevents freezer burn for frozen meats, etc.

    1. Do not vacuum seal ammo. It can deactivate primers. You never find surplus or commercial ammo vac sealed. It is waterproofed and airtight but not vac sealed.

  17. Mark, I would not give up on bees so quickly. Especially now that you have all the gear. I keep bees at 7800 feet above sea level. While challenging, it is quite doable. I’ve lost quite a few hives but I have split and created quite a few as well.

  19. Receipts also come in handy if you want to sell a piece of equipment, such as a generator or rototiller. Seeing the receipt when being shown the owner’s manual will temper a buyer’s urge to lowball you on the price!

  21. Just a few thoughts- defense in layers is a very handy concept when trying to protect your preps (not just your food) from critters. Sealing up possible entry points so they can not enter, lots of traps both at possible entry points and around preps, and then of course good storage containers as the last line. A few cat outside isn’t a bad idea either. My Mom taught me to use lavender in stored clothing, blankets and sleeping bags to keep mice and bugs away. Seems to work. We also use plastic cups with cotton balls saturated in mint oil to keep mice away too. When we got our BOL home mice were a big concern and tried the electronic rodent deterrence devices and those seem to work as well. We demand that food is only eaten in the dinning room at the BOL so crumbs become meals for mice.

    Although keeping like items together has many advantages there is a concern that doing so can be putting all my eggs in one basket. For the most part I do this but I try to keep a small stock of items in a protected part of the BOL. Specifically I believe that I am outside the blast/shock wave area of a large nuclear device exploding over the closest city. But seeing what garbage the Soviets made and knowing their technology isn’t the most accurate there is a possibility that any nuke could be a little off target. Would that blast take out my pole barn and all the equipment/supplies stored in there? What about if it got hit by a tornado? “One is none and two is one” but if the two are stored together you could face a scenario where two or more stored together is none.

  22. When it comes to food storage and prep supplies a ” how can I” attitude will really help. We lived in a small home with 5 children. We stored a lot of canned goods under our king size bed. My husband raised it up a bit and I was able to put 8 banana boxes of canned goods full under each side. I made a map of what was in each box and where it was placed under the bed. I taped the map on the inside of a kitchen cupboard door for easy reference. We used the space under our kids beds and built storage shelves in our sons closet, leaving them some room to hang their dress shirts. Dry goods like dried beans, corn , wheat, etc. Can be stored in an outside shed up here in the north. I liked to line 5 gallon buckets with plain unscented white garbage bags in case the lid cracked due to something heavy put on top. Just a few ideas. Use your creative mind Where there’s a will there’s usually a way.

    1. Sis, research those garbage bags carefully—most are treated with pesticides to keep vermin out. I don’t comment on websites at all, but I felt compelled to offer this information.

  23. In no particular order:

    Organization is the key, but it requires space; if you know you have Item X but can’t find it, it’s worse than not having it because whatever it is represents an investment.

    Plastic bins, well labeled and “familied” (meaning sharpening stones are in a labeled bin adjacent to the labeled knife bin, not in another room, etc.) save huge amounts of time and time is often more valuable than money. Shelving is expensive in both $$ and space but immensely valuable in time.

    5-6-7 gallon buckets can easily be stored horizontally on wire rack shelving, which is available in a wide variety of shelf widths and depths; special flat “S hooks” can be used to support shelves between existing 4-post shelf units – no additional posts required (check on Amazon and elsewhere). Boxes 12X9X9 hold 24 standard (15.5 oz) cans and weigh 27 lbs (tip: tape P-38s or P-51s under the lid, put plasticware (knives, spoons, forks) in the gaps between cans, package as “food units” – 8 cans of protein, 8 of veggies, 8 fruit, date the boxes, useful for “complete grab ‘n’ go” packages).

    If doing FIFO with canned goods, remove and save the label as the can is emptied, a stack of labels is what the next shopping list is built from.

    A detailed inventory, whether spreadsheet (my favorite) or ledger is valuable; knowing you have 2 each of various sharpening stone grits – and their location(s) – prevents buying 2 more 1000 grit stones because you can’t remember if you have them. Including purchase price (easy with a spreadsheet, as is purchase date, plus spreadsheets are easily searchable) alerts you to deals worth pursuing. It’s also valuable for FIFO rotation – it’s easy to search for “all entries with XX date”.

    A detailed spreadsheet inventory also easily supports “multiple baskets for multiple eggs” allowing better control of deliberately dispersed (decentralized) storage.

    Fire protection: it’s hard to have too many extinguishers, and they need to be varying types (dry chem, pressurized water, CO2, and K Class for kitchens) but they require humans to operate (use the CO2 first, dry chem if it fails because DCs make one heck of a mess). Some jurisdictions allow Schedule 40 plastic pipe for sprinklers if it’s protected by a 1-hour fire barrier (= to 1.25″ of standard drywall, 5/8″ of fire code (Type X) drywall (also available in 3/4″) or 2X lumber – be mindful of gaps, overlapping layers to eliminate “gap paths” is required – meaning they can be run inside a closet or in a room corner if covered by a chase; be mindful of exposure to freezing temps). Fire rating depends on the entire structure – drywall, studs, fastening system, overlapping layers (if required), panel joints, not just on the drywall used. Schedule 80 plastic pipe is available – thicker wall, higher pressure rating – but may require going up in size to maintain flow capacity. The new high-pressure fog sprinkler systems do more with less water than the low pressure high volume sprinkler heads (and cause less water damage), so they’re well suited to pressurized tanks rather than requiring constant-delivery pumps.

  24. Very interesting! As a Canadian living in downtown Vancouver I value the advice. Knowledge of farmers and food storage practices from a bygone era regularly cross my mind. I can’t do canning in my setup but buying 30 day supplies of canned food and water and using camping stoves or the BBQ for cooking has been my practice. And a plan to load up gear and drive to a country location that is already setup. Canada is a dictatorship and the exit bridges and routes will be blocked as the signage from Y2K initiated as the yellow Emergency Response Route signs still declare. But if one has a heads up or insight to head out of the cities 24 hours before an Emergency Response and shut down of main roads and confiscation of gear then a 5 hour drive to a cottage or farmhouse gives one a fresh start. And one that is already setup with water, firewood, wildlife and gear (including canned foods) as mentioned in this article and website.

  25. My blood tracking dog has a pretty good nose, and he usually alerts me real quick when a mouse gets into my storage area. He not only directs me right to the mouse while while I move buckets and boxes, if I’m not quick, he’ll. ..er,… uh,… dispose of it for me as well.

  26. For our 5 gallon bucket storage, most of it is in mylar bags. Since we eat every day from our food storage, the most frequently used items (rice, sugar, flour) also have a “daily” bucket where the item is not in mylar bags. It is just free inside the bucket. It is convenient.

  27. the ideas here and advice are great,I too have been stocking up, Just bought a bigger house and have a built in pantry, It’s the size of my huge kitchen, plenty of shelves and can organize better, also make meals in a jar to store because of time saving and just plain good food, you can control salt and calorie content. Thanks for the ideas.

  28. The insights you folks share adds so much to the richness of the original article. I learned a great deal from the piece by Captain Rawles, then your contributions polished the gem.

  29. Patriots was the first prepper book I ever read! Loved it and now read two or three PA fiction books a month now. The entire guest bedroom and closet at my house are full of my preps. I could probably put two more stand-up shelving units in, but that is it. I keep half of the preps at my house, especially the bedding and clothing (I want climate control so the clothes and boots/shoes won’t mildew, a certainty here in Florida without AC). I also keep at my house plenty of long term foods and the canned foods for eating in a short term emergency. I have the other half of the preps at the BOL in a fully insulated and supposedly mouse-proof storage shed. In 3 years, I have never seen any mouse droppings in there, so I think we’re good. Two cats there kill everything from squirrels to snakes, so mice don’t have a chance. I only keep half there because it is near a horse pasture and I am afraid of a grass fire burning everything. At home, I don’t worry about food rotation. I don’t cook: the blessing of being retired and divorced. I nibble on this and that, make salads, eat out, and really don’t ever cook. So in the fall, when the grandchildren come over to my “Walmart Room” to get canned and boxed foods to donate at their schools, I just give all the canned and boxed foods away. The kids get kudos, the poor get a bounty, and those shelves are cleaned off. Then I buy some more canned and boxed goods. Life is too short to be looking at dates and rotating cans.

  30. I am reminded that I used to store canned goods behind books in my floor to ceiling built-in bookshelves my husband built for me.

    Unless you knew they were there, they were out of the way yet accessible. Always looking for unused space to fill.

  31. We live in north east florida so cant have any type of basement. Every available space has been filled with prepping items, under beds, closets, etc. I mean it EVERY AVAILABLE space (you cant tell me a space I haven’t figured out already). Need other ideas…… if we could store items in a 20ft container we would get one but it gets too hot. We are remote so can store on our property but then again its hot.. and mice would find it.

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