Category: Storage Spaces

Two Letters Re: Buried Cache Retrieval

Dear JWR: After reading the post this morning on buried items, I would like to share a thought. If you bury items in PVC pipe and use threaded fittings, you will have to use a pipe dope to seal out moisture.  If you do this, unscrewing the fitting is going to be an ordeal.  You would have to dig out an area big enough to swing a very large wrench if you have one.  Or you would have to dig out the pipe and put the pipe in a large vise if you have one.  Or cut the pipe in the ground …


Letter Re: Buried Cache Retrieval

I recently found an old issue of American Survival Guide magazine (now defunct), with an article that described a cache that had been buried 20+ years earlier, and how well it had fared. Extremely well so the article went, but the land and landmarks had changed over that length of time and it almost wasn’t recovered. For long-term storage like that, remembering where you stashed your cache could be a concern. You might find that a fire has removed all of the trees, and erosion removed any other landmarks you may have used for a benchmark. Or the area has …


Constructing and Finding Hiding Places, By Eli in The Southwest

I am a law enforcement officer by trade. The area I work, as more and more areas often do nowadays, has an unfortunate problem with Meth. Most often, Meth is carried in 1.5”x1.5” plastic baggies that are usually folded up. As you can imagine, people get awfully desperate when trying to hide them.  As you can also imagine, a large portion of my time is spent trying to find them. If you imagine something about the size of a postage stamp or SD card that will give you a pretty good idea of the size we are dealing with. I …


Digging a Root Cellar/Storm Cellar, by Marlene in Indiana

We decided that our family needed a root cellar for maintaining root crops, cold storage and for more extensive water storage, here is our story. Hopefully, others can learn from us and not make the same mistakes. One Sunday afternoon, we went out to the yard and sized up the area we wanted, and marked our spot. Our property borders Federal land that occasionally has people lingering around, we have even caught people in our other shelters on the back of our property, so I wanted to keep this one as close to the house as possible. When we purchased …


Letter Re: Another Hidden In Plain Sight Storage Tip

Howdy, Great site, thanks for a wonderful resource. My tip of the day for hidden in plain sight storage, is a hollowed out heavy bag. I mean one of those ubiquitous kickboxing bags languishing in so many garages, covered with dust, and often stuffed into a corner and unused for years. These can be found used and cheap and have minimal resale value, thus a low likelihood of being taken in a burglary, especially as they are usually quite heavy. If there is no food or anything inside attractive to a dog or a bear, that is good of course, …


Letter Re: An Interesting Hiding Place

James: Basically this product is a flush-mounted interchangeable decorative panel for kitchens and possibly other areas in the home. The panels can be purchased pre-made or created by the customer; the site shows options such as artwork and more substantial-appearing materials like ceramic tiles and mosaics. The panel has a push-to-release mechanism behind it, and the idea is that a homeowner can swap one panel for another as desired. The installation instructions explain the details. It isn’t designed as a hiding place, and there isn’t much room behind it as it is, but it would be fine for smaller items. …


Letter Re: Shipping Containers — A Retreat on the Cheap

James, to follow up on the recent article, here is some additional info your readers might find valuable on shipping containers for storage and housing….  We have over a dozen at our ranch that we use for storage, so I’ll share a bit about that use for containers.  These containers are the cheapest space you can “build”.  They are weatherproof, earthquake proof, will probably make it through tornados and hurricanes, in short, they are excellent all around space. If you can afford them, you should stick to the “one trip” containers because they will be in near perfect condition — …


Shipping Containers — A Retreat on the Cheap, by Frederic W.

I would like to shed light on the convenience, structural soundness, and affordability of ISO shipping containers [commonly calles CONEXes] as potential add-ons, storage, or primary structure for your retreat or year-round compound. As an individual of efficiency, I am writing this article with the intent of casting out some research I have done on these containers; what they are capable of in a capacity form, and their versatility as a livable space. I hope many find this informative in its purist sense. Availability: Due to the nature of our global economy, especially in reference to the U.S. and its …


Letter Re: A Flooded Basement and Rusting Canned Foods

Hello Mr. Rawles, Regarding the man who found his canned food rims rusting in his basement. I can recommend OSPHO, which is a liquid which will upon application changes the rust to a more stable compound. I was in the Merchant Marine and we used it on the ships and it works very well. You can get OSPHO through Amazon.com or at a ACE hardware store. It is basically phosphoric acid [suspended in a coating.]   He may also want to invest in a tabletop buffer or wire wheel to quickly remove surface rust before applying the OSPHO which improves the …


Letter Re: A Flooded Basement and Rusting Canned Foods

Greetings Jim, I hope you can help me figure out if much of my preps are imperiled. I had water leaks in my basement a few months ago after major storms overran my roof’s gutters and caused water to seep down into the front half of my basement. So I turned on the dehumidifier I keep in the basement and let it run until the basement floor was dry, then let it run an extra 24 hours just for good measure. Well, there appears to be a bit of residual moisture in the air in my basement, and when I …


Letter Re: Observations on Post-Tornado Cleanup

James, We have been volunteering at the remains of a home of a prepper here in Ohio for the past two weekends.  Their home was destroyed by a tornado.  I have some simple suggestions that you might incorporate into your future work.                 1.  Store / Organize photos and documents in Ziploc bags.  In this case, they had the preverbal box of pictures stored on the second floor of a three story 1860 brick home with brick interior walls located flood plain.  The tornado remove the upper story plus half of the second floor.  The box of pictures was found …


20 Reasons Why America’s Next Bank Holiday Will Be a Nightmare

The world is on now on the brink of a global credit crisis that could be far worse than the tumultuous events of 2008. The ongoing sovereign debt crisis in the southern reaches of the Eurozone indicate that bank runs in the region will continue, and that more bank closure “holidays” will be declared. Under a bank holiday, virtually all deposits could be frozen and irredeemable for days, weeks, or even months. The key question is: Will this crisis spread to the rest of Europe and then even to the United States? I urge SurvivalBlog readers–particularly those in Europe–to be …


Earthquake Preparedness for Preppers, by Janet C.

Prepper fever has gripped the nation!  While I can find no exact numbers on how many of us there are, public awareness is gaining momentum. The National Geographic Channel has a television show on the subject, which showcases some of the most colorful preppers in the United States, and their approach is as varied as their personalities.   You Tube is full of videos teaching old time skills that were a way of life for generations before us, such as cooking beans from scratch, making fire with a bow drill, or raising and butchering rabbits for meat.  With a little spare time, …


Three Letters Re: Commercial Storage Space Thievery

Hi Jim, To follow up on the recent letter on Commercial Storage Space Thievery, I had a very similar experience with my storage locker.  I have a locker from Public Storage in Saratoga, California and had the very same thing happen.  I checked out my unit one night and another lock was on the unit.  I had the Sheriff come by and they did the usual.  The problem I am having presently is the insurance company hasn’t really done much and its been three months [since I discovered the theft.]  I had all the receipts from Amazon.com and Costco.com so …


Letter Re: Commercial Storage Space Thievery

JWR, Not to share my misery, but this is a warning to anyone that has items in a climate-controlled rental storage unit.  My unit was hit and no one knows when it and all the others were hit until one guy noticed some items missing and filed a police report.  The facility owners chopped off all the locks to all of their climate-controlled units and put their own locks on it.  Then they started calling the owners and verified what was in each unit.   Here is what happened: The robbers chopped the locks off, burglarized many items, and then …