How do you store your stockpile?
Good storage of your stockpile allows you to take advantage of great deals without having your house overwhelmed with cereal boxes falling from the top of the fridge or soup cans falling on your foot.
I’m always curious as to how people store their stockpiles. Does your stockpile have its own designated space or do you just fit things in where you can? We struggled with our stockpile for a bit before we found a solution that works for us.
Here in Pennsylvania, I am about and hour-and-a-half from Lancaster and Amish country. The Amish make some beautiful wood crafts, among other things. It was there that we purchased first one, and then later another, pantry. They are made out of pine and have cut out hearts covered with little wire grids. We get a lot of compliments on them, and they weren’t very expensive at all. I think they were worth the money, just by the way they warmed up our living space.
The pantries stand in our dining-room, holding our immediate stockpile. These are items to use up first. When making a recipe, I simply go into the pantries and chose what I need. It is easy to see if something is getting long in the tooth or if I am running low on something.
Which brings me to the next part of my stockpile. My “warehouse” in a sense. My warehouse consists of a few shelves in the basement to store the rest of my stock. Fortunately, we have a very dry basement, so this works for us. Still, I make sure to keep items off of the floor, just to be safe. This is the first stop for anything I have gotten a great deal on, from paper towels to diapers, cereal to jelly. I add new items behind the old.
This system works well for me, because it is easy to rotate my stockpile and know what I have at a glance. It is also easy for my husband and children (well, oldest child) to replenish something they need. If it isn’t in the pantry, they know to go look in the basement.
If you are small on space, you can still use my pantry and warehouse idea. You pantry can be anything, some cupboards in the kitchen or storage under a microwave cart. Your warehouse can be even more creative, from under the bed storage to a broom closet. Do whatever works for you. When I married my husband, he was storing potatoes in an old non-working stove in that dining room. Not exactly my decor, but it worked for him.
What are your creative stockpile storage ideas?
New to stockpiling or want to improve? You can check out my earlier blog, 8 Practical Stockpiling Tips: Save Money!
Related Articles:
Adventures of the Stockpiling Queen (1)
Adventures of the Stockpiling Queen (2)