Totally UNPREPARED

[SKR8PN]

There you go !

I don't have anyone to lift that barge and tote that bale, either. But it's a trade off I am willing to make.

The requirements I had to meet before my wife agreed to marry me, were:
1)Cooking
2)Cleaning
3)Sex when she wants it.





Back to the subject at hand. Rice and beans would be the first two staples I would stockpile. They are cheap, easy to store and have a long shelf life if kept cool and dry. Next I would find a way to insure you always had a clean supply of water and get your wood stocked up so you have heat. Those items, along with with what you already have on hand, would keep your family alive for quite a while.

 

[Wifezilla]

I have no money, not much space (under the stairs is it, no basement, closets etc.)

Just a comment on under the stairs....

My grandma had shelves under the stairs. She totally stockpiled food and kept enough under there for a family with 8 kids. My mom used to make fun of her for still keeping the stockpile after all the kids were out, but I always thought it was smart.

Looks like the hoarding gene skipped a generation

 

[FarmerChick]

Under the bed is good for canned goods. Use a roller type box. (if you have space to do this)



Hmm....finding space----first of all---NO JOKE here----CLEAN OUT YOUR CABINETS AND CLOSETS. You can literally find space...we all got it and have junk in it


Another is in the garage. Suspend a box with sides from a pulley system. Look above you for space. You can pulley that box down with junk you don't use alot. SPACE is everywhere.

Get 3-4 high sided baskets. Pretty ones. Stack in corner. Put stuff in these baskets. It becomes a "corner piece" and mega storage. On top of last basket, put a piece of nice wood or glass as a table top. Hidden storage, pretty unit.



OK everyone---kick in and find space to hide!

 

[ducks4you]

chickensducks&agoose, you are in right FORUM!! Start with being Positive. You ALREADY have a lot more than you think you have and it doesn't help to compete with what USED to be the status quo.
Most people who post here are enjoying relearning what Americans USED to do, and how we used to live BEFORE goods, services and foods were so available. Stocking up used to be considered normal. People did it in the Fall before the snows came. When I was little (1960's) everybody had canned soup and extra water in case the power went out or we got snowed in. And we lived in the Suburbs!

You can stock up on the staples in the postings ahead of this. Make a list of what you think you want. There are lots of ways to reuse items, too. Here's one I posted on "The Easy Garden":
I thought I'd share a recycling/storage idea that I came up with a few years back. I store: flour, sugar, and rice
in those really big popcorn containers that people give you for Christmas. I use a LARGE type ZIPLOC double seal bag for each tin. (The X-Large and XX-large are WWWAAAAYYYY too big for this!
If you're like me, you might only need a lot of flour for the holidays, then go through some parts of the year where it sits. If you leave flour in it's paper wrapper, it's bound to get bugs. I can stock up on these staples when there are sales, OR buy the really large size of, say, rice, and keep it on hand.
The labels are made with masking tape and a Sharpie, but, honestly my tins have different holiday patterns, so at this point I know what's inside. I keep them in my downstairs pantry, balanced on a piece of old landscape timber to keep them off of the ground and help stop rusting.

You DON'T need a name brand bag. Grocery stores STILL bag your food in plastic, and you can reuse those bags. You DO need a couple of GENERIC PERMANENT MARKERS. Put dates on your canned foods, and organize them--oldest to newest, so you won't waste any. Organizing will make you feel great. Break up your jobs into lists of 5-minute jobs...30 minute jobs...1 hr jobs--YOU get what I mean. Start believing that you have things and you aren't poor. You have FAR MORE than so many people all around the world have. I KNOW that I am grateful for the things I have, even though some people may think that I do without.

(BTW, We DID get snowed in for a week during the 1967 Snowstorm--drifts as high as a 1st story roof. Folks had to camp out at the Elementary School, one block down from us because they didn't leave soon enough.) ALmost 3 years ago we were snowed in for 3 days. Feb., 2007

 

[sylvie]

I have a dresser that I emptied and refilled with canned goods. It really holds a lot, but not quart jars.
I ran out of space under the bed because that doubles as my dog's den, lol. Half hers and half tomato products with a board separating the two spaces.
I am considering an interior wall's existing studs for storage by removing some drywall, adding shelves and door. I'd like to make it hidden so know one knows it is there by the use of woodwork or wainscoting.

I still don't think I am prepared enough.

 

[Dace]

Hey Ducks4you....if you run out of your cool popcorn containers, oyu can go to your local bakery or donut shop and ask them for buckets with lids. Mine charges me $1.25 for a 5 gal food grade bucket and lid. You can store a lot of stuff in those, they are rodent proof and easy to stack....even under the stairs

to Chickensducks&agoose...start small, but just start! Each little thing you tuck away will add to your piece of mind. Before I found this forum with all their wisdom I was a couponer. I bought lots of stuff with coupons and had quite a stockpile. At one point I had more than a years worth of shampoo/conditioner and toothpaste for a family of 6. All purchased at a fraction of the retail price by combining sales with coupons. Check out www.thegrocerygame.com for great ideas. Now I have moved away from the processes non-foods and I mostly only use coupons for non-edibles. Leaves more money in the budget for real food.....but I am getting off track!

Only buy what you will eat, stock up on things that are a good proice, learn how to can your own foods and start buying a just a little extra here and there. It will add up and you will slowly make room as you go

 

[Wifezilla]

Exactly Dace...

One bag of beans here....a can of tuna there....it starts to add up eventually.

Originally I tried stocking up on meats. My boys thought it was a personal challenge to see how much of the meat they could eat as quickly as possible. I SWEAR!!!

Anyway, now my emergency stash is beans, peas, lentils, corn, quinoa, dried tomatoes, dried carrots, dried onions, etc... In other words, I had to "disguise the food as ingredients" to get them to stop messing with the stash.

Hubby came up with that term....LOLOL

 

[chickensducks&agoose]

part of our problem is that it's a new house, and our contractor stank... we literally have NO closets. We've stuck those metal brackets with a shelf on top, and a bar underneath in every bedroom, so a designated portion of the room counts as closet, but no doors, and no real storage... no garage, no outside storage other than my husband's tool shed (which is where he sneaks out to smoke, so no chance of hiding anything there), and our house is built on sauna tubes, so no basement.... 3 bedrooms, 3 kids (the girls share), 1 1/2 bathrooms, my husband's office, the kitchen/livingroom/diningroom.... and that's it!I was arguing with DH the other day about how when he heads off to more training, or Afghanistan, I need to be able to survive with the kids, in case something happens. 2 years ago, the road parallel to ours was washed completely of the mountain by a bad flood... so something like that could happen to us, and we'd be stuck... he agreed that I could fill the shelves (very organizedly) of the old changing table, that is up in the tiny attic, with 'kitchen spillover', which I read as 'canned goods and extra bags of flour and sugar'... so i got an extra 5 lbs of flour at the store today, which is sitting on the shelf.... gotta get some money, so I can afford powdered milk, more flour and some water bottles.......

 

[Ldychef2k]

Because I am single and perhaps explaining why, I don't like men who make these kinds of rules and put limits on the way their wives keep the home. Sorry, but it makes me very angry. Too bad he didn't hold the contractor as responsible for the lack of closets as he holds you for what you can store, how and where. Sorry...I am very outspoken.

 

[Dace]

Ok so we all agree it is not the best set up....but you can make it work. Stop seeing the road blocks and start thinking of creative ways to just store a few things. Don't think about a year's worth, just think a few extra days right now.

Maybe use some of your anxiety now...since you don't have the money to shop do you have on hand what you would need to make and freeze some muffins? Pancakes? Cook up some rice and freeze it....just use that energy to DO something rather than fret about how your hands are tied right now. That is what I do when I feel like I am up against a wall and it helps.