Where to start?

[Ohio dreamer]

No, I'm not new to prepping by any means. But, next Dec we will have to start all over from "scratch" (I'm talking food prep only). We will be moving home from Europe and as a general rule, you can't bring your food with you. So we will be moving back into our house with an empty pantry! Never in my adult life have I been in that situation. I'm not panicked about it (yet), but it does "bother me".

I'm a list person, so I'm trying to work out my "plan" so I don't get panicky later. I will be in the US in June getting the house ready to move back into (it's on the market for sale, but I have no reason to believe it will be sold with all that's going on over there). I want to expand of food storage area but have no clue on how. DH will not be with me in June, so I have to do this alone (neighbor will help on weekends if I ask).

Questions I'm pondering and would love some input on:

1) Grain storage - what in the world do you store wheat and spelt berries in. I know the brown paper sacks they come in won't last long in a basement? If I get an idea of what I need I can start researching sources and create a budget for it so the moneys there when we are ready to buy.

2)How do I make shelving in our front basement room? It is on the north side and had a raised (10" or so above the floors in the rest of the basement) dirt floor with bricks laid into it with "Michigan walls" (the only term I know for these types of 1/2 shelf 1/2 wall things made of dirt and plastered over) about 2 to 3 feet deep (I can't reach the back wall easily while my feet are on the ground). Seems like is should be a root celler type space. What would I need to do to make it so? (Of course this may be impossible to make suggestions on without seeing it-and I don't have any pictures)

3) Whats a good free standing shelf (bought or made)? Basement walls are old brick (130 yr old house) and I don't want to anchor anything to them. We have lots of metal shelving units (yep, the cheap not so sturdy type) that I put together years ago, but they will be full of books, holiday stuff, clothes for kids to grow into, etc. But, I don't think I could trust them to keep my full glass jars of canned food on (there should be many of those by summer 2010).

4) Where should I put our "re-stocking" money first once the storage system is handled? Yeah, I know buy what we use in the largest quantity we can, when it's on sale. But I need to prioritize, any suggestions?

DH is of the opinion that we have a year before we need to worry about this stuff. Well, my brain doesn't work that way. And since I'm the one doing 90% of this, I need to start working this out now. So, unfortunately he's of little help at this time. But if I come to him with a plan I've worked out and shelving ideas, he will help fine tune things so they work.

OK - need to get away and get my mind off of this....better go rake up some leaves and let the kids play, that should bring the heart rate back down.

[Madame]

I can't answer all your questions, but I can a few.

Originally Posted by Ohio dreamer

No, I'm not new to prepping by any means. But, next Dec we will have to start all over from "scratch" (I'm talking food prep only). We will be moving home from Europe and as a general rule, you can't bring your food with you. So we will be moving back into our house with an empty pantry! Never in my adult life have I been in that situation. I'm not panicked about it (yet), but it does "bother me".

I'm a list person, so I'm trying to work out my "plan" so I don't get panicky later. I will be in the US in June getting the house ready to move back into (it's on the market for sale, but I have no reason to believe it will be sold with all that's going on over there). I want to expand of food storage area but have no clue on how. DH will not be with me in June, so I have to do this alone (neighbor will help on weekends if I ask).

Questions I'm pondering and would love some input on:

1) Grain storage - what in the world do you store wheat and spelt berries in. I know the brown paper sacks they come in won't last long in a basement? If I get an idea of what I need I can start researching sources and create a budget for it so the moneys there when we are ready to buy.

Some folks use large plastic buckets. I use metal tins that I buy from Lehman's. http://www.lehmans.com/shopping/prod...1&keyword=lard . Ii


4) Where should I put our "re-stocking" money first once the storage system is handled? Yeah, I know buy what we use in the largest quantity we can, when it's on sale. But I need to prioritize, any suggestions?

[COLOR="red"I started with non perishables like wheat berries, and then started added canned veggies and such.[/COLOR]

DH is of the opinion that we have a year before we need to worry about this stuff. Well, my brain doesn't work that way. And since I'm the one doing 90% of this, I need to start working this out now. So, unfortunately he's of little help at this time. But if I come to him with a plan I've worked out and shelving ideas, he will help fine tune things so they work.

I agree that organization makes it easier to prepare. The food calculator may help http://lds.about.com/library/bl/faq/blcalculator.htm

[Callieslamb]

Glad to have you back in the USA!

1) Grain storage - what in the world do you store wheat and spelt berries in. 5 gallon plastic buckets/mylar bags/ or 1 gallon cans

2)How do I make shelving in our front basement room? I think your idea of a root celler here is a good one.

3) Whats a good free standing shelf (bought or made)? Get rid of all the stuff on the shelves you now have that is of absolutely NO worth. reinforce the shelves to 'sturdy them up". or, use these shelves for the lighter items you store. We bought very heavy shelving at Lowe's this year - $80 for 4x6 unit. We found these to be cheaper than buying wood and building them ourselves. I put a curtain in front of them and they are in my family room.

4) Where should I put our "re-stocking" money first once the storage system is handled? What is most important to you? You do bake from scratch? I would put my money into those very basic items that will sustain your life- then move on to the other items. Buy wheat, beans, rice, oats, salt, sugar, milk etc. Then in all events, you can feed your family something. Then, work out menus. Multiply out those menu amounts out for the length of time you want to "pad the pantry" and generate your master list. Then, off to shop.

Good luck on your move back to the USA.

[sgl42]

re: storage - either 5 gal food grade plastic buckets, or ... i second Madame's suggestion of lehman's lard cans. Being metal, rodents can't chew thru them.

re: shelving. Like Callieslamb, I purchased shelving. got a 2'x4' (needed to be smaller to fit the space i had) shelving unit at home depot for about $70. metal frame, wood shelves, 5 shelves high.

re: order to restock
I'd get a little bit of everything, ie, i'd focus on getting a 3 month supply of everything now, rather than get a years supply of one item, and little/nothing of another. Also, i'd stock first that which is on-sale, or in-season.

i'd look at what you have stocked now. There are probably some items that you can easily get over there that you can't get back in the states. I'd adjust for that, thinking of substitutes or replacements now.

Also, while you're eating down your stocks in europe, save the money you'd be spending for restocking over there, so that when you return to the US, you'll have a stash of cash ready for major shopping spree.

--sgl

[Cyngbaeld]

How close is your house to another prepper that you could trust to take delivery for you? You might want to consider having prepackaged long term items delivered to that person and held to you arrive. Then you and hubby could go get them IF they have been delivered by then. Reason being, there is a major backlog of many storage food items right now. Everybody that is just waking up and everybody that just got situated to order, is ordering now.

[Terri]

To start with, you eat your present pantry and happily salt away the money you are not spending!

A LOT of people get food grade 5 gallon buckets from the doughnut shops. They come filled with icing, and when they are empty they often sell them for $5. You get to clean them, though!

For shelves, while I was in school we made them out of boards and bricks. When we filled them, we brought home more bricks and boards for another layer.