Earthquake experience

[ORChick]

We have sliding doors on some of our cabinets and I keep the stuff in jars on the lower level. So they won't go far and hopefully wont break. If they got shook out of the cabinet, the house would probably fall down too So I am not worried about the canning jars.

FD, in the Loma Prieta 'quake, mentioned above, I happened to be in the garden when it occurred, and could watch what was happening. The sliding glass door into the house closed ... and opened ... and closed ... and opened again during the shaking - freaked my poor cat out, as she wanted to run in and hide under the bed .

 

[TheMartianChick]

When I was a kid, my mother never put any heavy groceries (cans, jars, etc) in the wall cabinets. That stuff was stored in the base cabinets under the counter. I never asked why, but she is quite short so I guess that I assumed that she was afraid that something heavy could fall on her head when she was reaching for it. We didn't live in an earthquake zone, so I doubt if that was her motivation.

As an adult, I tend to do the same thing in the kitchen. If I extended that thought process to my pantry, then I would probably only keep toilet paper, paper towels and lightweight boxes of foods on the upper shelves.