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Do I need to inventory my food storage? This is a decision you ultimately need to make for yourself, but my question to you is, “why would you want to make more work for yourself”?
FOOD STORAGE ORGANIZATION
The way I look at it, organization is the key. If you have everything stored by ‘like things’ or ‘groups’ then you should really have no need to inventory each item. Many of these suggestions/systems you need to try for yourself and see what works for you. Initially, Ken and I both thought we needed to have an inventory.
Well, first of all, let me tell you what a project it was actually going through our storage and listing each type of item as well as the numbers of all of these items. When it was finally all done, we thought ‘great’. Ken had put it all on an Excel spreadsheet and we thought we were on our way.
Then I started to take items out of the storage as always. He would ask, “Did you subtract that from the inventory?” My response would be something like “No, you’re always on the computer.” or “No, I forgot.” The bottom line here is that for us, an inventory system just wasn’t user friendly, yet somehow I wanted to keep track of what we did have in our food storage. It was time to redesign our storage.
FOOD STORAGE BINS
Along with having some of our storage on shelves that roll out, we decided to put items in plastic bins. Putting ‘like’ items in the same bin makes for an easy ‘at a glance’ inventory. For example, all green beans are in one bin. Diced tomatoes, whole tomatoes are in another bin.
Let’s say a bin holds 50 cans. When I open a bin and notice it’s got some room, the next time I see that item on sale, I buy 20 cans to restock the bin. The new items are dated and stocked to the back of the bin, so rotation is always happening.
So, my inventory, is simply having bins or shelves filled with particular items. This way, at a glance, I can tell when I am getting low on something. Our bins are numbered and a small sheet of paper taped to the wall indicates the bin # and what that bin contains.
FOOD STORAGE GROUPS
Again, going back to organization being the key factor, storing your items by ‘like’ kinds will help with your inventory. For example, in my pantry, soups are side by side with broth, bullion cubes etc. All of the baking items are stored together. Pasta is stored with sauces and canned tomatoes.
As one of our readers, Gone With the Wind, commented, you need to be the master of your storage. Don’t let it control or overwhelm you!
If you enjoyed this, or topics of preparedness, geophysical – current events – risks, consider our survival blog RSS feed, new posts by E-mail, or bookmark us at Modern Survival Blog
Modern Survival Blog related posts
FOOD STORAGE 101, Rotating and Dating
Food Storage 101, What to Store
Prepper’s New Years Resolutions
Sold Out! freeze-dried-food, No.10-cans
How to Seal a Mylar Bag in a 5-gallon bucket
Posted on Sat, 29 Jan 2011 19:48:19 +0000 at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ModernSurvivalBlog/~3/xcsld7rNfHY/
Comments: http://modernsurvivalblog.com/preps/food-storage-101-inventory/#comments
Do I need to inventory my food storage? This is a decision you ultimately need to make for yourself, but my question to you is, “why would you want to make more work for yourself”?
FOOD STORAGE ORGANIZATION
The way I look at it, organization is the key. If you have everything stored by ‘like things’ or ‘groups’ then you should really have no need to inventory each item. Many of these suggestions/systems you need to try for yourself and see what works for you. Initially, Ken and I both thought we needed to have an inventory.
Well, first of all, let me tell you what a project it was actually going through our storage and listing each type of item as well as the numbers of all of these items. When it was finally all done, we thought ‘great’. Ken had put it all on an Excel spreadsheet and we thought we were on our way.
Then I started to take items out of the storage as always. He would ask, “Did you subtract that from the inventory?” My response would be something like “No, you’re always on the computer.” or “No, I forgot.” The bottom line here is that for us, an inventory system just wasn’t user friendly, yet somehow I wanted to keep track of what we did have in our food storage. It was time to redesign our storage.
FOOD STORAGE BINS
Along with having some of our storage on shelves that roll out, we decided to put items in plastic bins. Putting ‘like’ items in the same bin makes for an easy ‘at a glance’ inventory. For example, all green beans are in one bin. Diced tomatoes, whole tomatoes are in another bin.
Let’s say a bin holds 50 cans. When I open a bin and notice it’s got some room, the next time I see that item on sale, I buy 20 cans to restock the bin. The new items are dated and stocked to the back of the bin, so rotation is always happening.
So, my inventory, is simply having bins or shelves filled with particular items. This way, at a glance, I can tell when I am getting low on something. Our bins are numbered and a small sheet of paper taped to the wall indicates the bin # and what that bin contains.
FOOD STORAGE GROUPS
Again, going back to organization being the key factor, storing your items by ‘like’ kinds will help with your inventory. For example, in my pantry, soups are side by side with broth, bullion cubes etc. All of the baking items are stored together. Pasta is stored with sauces and canned tomatoes.
As one of our readers, Gone With the Wind, commented, you need to be the master of your storage. Don’t let it control or overwhelm you!
If you enjoyed this, or topics of preparedness, geophysical – current events – risks, consider our survival blog RSS feed, new posts by E-mail, or bookmark us at Modern Survival Blog
Modern Survival Blog related posts
FOOD STORAGE 101, Rotating and Dating
Food Storage 101, What to Store
Prepper’s New Years Resolutions
Sold Out! freeze-dried-food, No.10-cans
How to Seal a Mylar Bag in a 5-gallon bucket
Posted on Sat, 29 Jan 2011 19:48:19 +0000 at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ModernSurvivalBlog/~3/xcsld7rNfHY/
Comments: http://modernsurvivalblog.com/preps/food-storage-101-inventory/#comments