Food Storage

In the fall of 1999 amongst the big to-do about Y2K, I was in a bad situation. I was pregnant with Chandler, living in a home that rent was $700 a month. My husband at that time didn't have a job until Decemberish (and then it was only at Burger King). My teaching wages were being garnished for said husband's unpaid bills so my paycheck was just over $1,000 each month. (As memory serves me it was something like $1,024.) I paid $270 in tithing and if you are any good at math, you can see that there wasn't much left. What was left bought gas and groceries for a month. So at that time, the concept of needing food storage for reasons created by computer glitches worried me because I didn't have any. Tough, worrisome times.

Ever since then I have prayed for a way to be made for me to have food storage. I'm here to tell you that is a lot of years of prayers! For the past few years I have been able to make a lot of progress. When Tom and I bought our home just over 3 years ago, one of the first things we did was build a storage room. There was an unfinished room in the basement perfect for a storage room. Except for a little help from Tom's dad with the ceiling, Tom and I hung the sheetrock, taped, mudded, sanded, textured and painted our little storage room ourselves. Ladies, if you've never had the opportunity to sheetrock, you haven't lived!! It is very character building (well, maybe it is only character building if you're a wimp like me ;). Then my dad came and helped us build the shelves. (which was greatly appreciated because we about gave up at that point!) So we started filling those shelves. It was so satisfying even though progress to get all we needed seemed slow. Here is a picture almost 3 years ago.
I think I should state my philosophy on food storage because I have run into many. All are good. But my storage reflects why I do it. While I do have wheat and rice, dry beans and powdered milk etc. as the church suggests, my idea is broader. I want to have things on hand so we can live off of it for more than disasters and such. Personally, I want to have supplies in case Tom loses his job or is disabled or our income is changed for some reason. It also saves us a lot of money from month to month. Because I spend a lot of time shopping sales and getting the best prices that I can, and because I store things we use every day, we save money. I always stretch the monthly shopping trips out a few more days because we eat out of our storage room. And staying out of the grocery store saves us money. So for us it is good in so many ways.

Also, food storage is more important to me than nice furniture, vacations and other things. So there are a lot of things I sacrifice to keep it up. But it brings me peace of mind and when I've prayed for it for so long, I feel like I need to do my part.

So with all that, here are few a pictures of where we are now. This picture is what you see when you walk in the door. The shelves on the right are double width and you access those from the other side (we have two aisles). On the back wall, I have canned vegetables, oils, pastas and things for the kids' lunches (granola bars, drinks etc.) Along the bottom of the whole room we have buckets filled with rice, beans and wheat.This is the right side of the first aisle. I have condiments and drink mixes on the top, creamed soups and evaporated milk on the next shelf, the rest of it is canned beans, tomato sauce, mac and cheese and spices. (There is a great store close to me that sells spices in bulk. I have about a pound of every spice I use regularly in my spice cabinet.) This is the left side of the first aisle. On this side I have baking goods, canned fruits and powdered milk.This is kind of the 'junk' area, but I also use it for nonfood supplies such as soap, hygiene stuff and paper and plastic products.This is the left side of the 2nd aisle. We only have a few food products on this side, cans of potato pearls, pickles and flour. We also have lots of water. (We also plan to use what is in our water heater also in case we need water.)
I didn't take a picture of the other side because that is really the junk area! We keep Christmas stuff, camping stuff, empty useful containers, fabric scraps, clothes for kids to grow into and other accumulations on that side. I love going into this room because it reminds me what happens when you pray and work so hard for something. And I always feel at peace because there is safety in counsel.