Storage Creativity leads to Preparedness

June has been "Get Organized" around the Smith house. If you are interested in ways to create storage in your house, read on. I thought I'd share what solutions Darrin and I have come up with as we've had to shove our family into a smaller house. Not that 2000 sq ft is awful, but we came from 3100, so we had accumulated a lot of "stuff". Maybe you'll get an idea or two.

Also, we're trying hard to stock up on our emergency supplies and increase our food storage to a year's worth. We've had approximately 3+ months worth, but very few items would last us longer than 4 or 5 months, heaven forbid something should happen. I highly doubt we'll go through a 3rd job loss, but the last few months of major weather catastophies and the shortage of wheat and rice have prompted us be more proactive in gathering what our family needs to survive. But where to store it all?!?!?!


First, I'm proud of the accomplishment of cleaning out the garage and having another garage sale. We've slowly eliminated the boxes of items that sat in there after our move and we couldn't fit them in the house. The "must keep" stuff that is still out there is now on shelves that Darrin built along the sides and is organized mostly in see-through tubs. I love getting rid of junk, or at least recognizing much of my "stuff" as junk!


Second, in the house we added an additional set of shelves (cheap white wire stuff from Home Depot) in the master closet, laundry area and coat closet. All of these had more room for another shelf to function before the ceiling. You may have to use a step ladder to get up there, but hey, it beats the hot garage!


Next, I cleaned out the linen closet, getting rid of old sheet sets and towels. I bought some storage bags that you roll the air out of to put extra pillow & heirloom quilts in that were very bulky in that closet. They're now lying flat on one of those high shelves in our closet, protected from dust. This effort left two empty shelves in the linen closet. The top shelf now stacks a lot (like 24) of #10 cans of food and the other is holding some various kitchen/baking stuff that I had to keep. Over-the-door storage have also helped in the pantry and closets.

The kids have been cleaning out more toys, especially Preston. He's not as "attached" to things as the girls. I got more baskets for the girls' room and moved bookshelves from the playroom into their room. I hope they'll use the baskets and keep their dresser less cluttered! Anyone have suggestions on that one?? Does everyone else have to sneak the trash can into their child's room to dispose of paper swords, art creations, leftover Valentine's candy and those "prize box" cheapy toys they bring home from school?? Both girls want to be inventors some day and it's hard to say, "This invention was nice for a day, now let's throw it away." Haylee loves origami and I think that's great, but I'm now threatening to throw away the next one I see lying around!


OK, I'm done with the venting. I can continue...


We decided to use a lot of our gov stimulus check to buy some bulk staples and a wheat grinder. (I guess I should learn the art of breadmaking and invite yeast to be my friend!) A local bakery has been saving empty icing tubs for us and I ordered some gamma seal lids and mylar bags for them. Did you know they make ziploc mylars now?? We'll store bulk flour, sugar, rice and oats and keep those in the floor of Preston's closet. Poor Preston- His closet has been the main food space as we added hard plastic shelf sets inside where the closet sets back into the wall when we first moved here. I keep those stocked with sale items that won't fit in my small pantry. (tuna, canned chili and stews, oils, peanut butter, honey, syrup, Bisquick, ketchup, Ranch, pasta sauces, etc.) We also stacked cereal boxes, bulk pasta, salt and instant potatoes on the top shelf. (Thank goodness he doesn't have a lot of hanging clothes for now!)

I'm proud of what we've been doing, so much that I had to take a picture or two:

Darrin discovered that #10 sized cans will fit nicely behind our sleigh bed's headboard because of it's arched shape (at least 32 cans) and mylar bags will stack well under it! Fortunately, we don't have problems with bugs or rodents, so the mylar should easily store extra rice and oats.

OK... this was the idea I REALLY had to share...

I got some short shelving boxes from Sam's (like what holds a case of soda) and filled them with canned veggies, fruits, soups and evaporated milk. 15 of them slide easily under our bed, armoire and dresser, totaling about 360 cans just in our bedroom. I've spray painted the sides of the colored boxes light brown so they don't stick out at first sight. Each box holds the same type of food and can easily be filled from the back to keep the older food up front. I also marked expiration dates on the tops of the cans with a sharpie.


It's time to rotate the food in our 72 hour kit. Every year I seem to need more food as the kids are getting bigger and it gets heavier, especially due to the water we require. So, the solution has been to use an old rolling suitcase to pull the water. The food (MRE's, fruit cups and granola bars) is in a duffle bag that's also on rollers and other supplies/ documents in a back pack.


I've hidden other MRE's throughout the house in drawers of the entry table, end table and on top of the fridge behind a long plant. A few will stack in those skinny areas throughout the kitchen. Those total about 25 additional meals. These are small and a great way to ensure you have something to eat for a while and are affordable in a bulk order.

Lastly, we bought a dutch oven so that if we need to cook/bake without electricity, we'll have something besides our gas grill. We've baked something in it nearly every weekend since we got it in May. Darrin discovered that a small charcoal grill ($15) is the perfect size to hold the oven.

I'm sure there is much more we can be doing, but I will sleep much better at night knowing we are better prepared than before. (Yes, when disaster strikes, we'll gladly share our goods with you IF you can make it to Apex!)

My summer project is now to finish organizing my desk and get some scrapbooking done. I did buy a load of black storage boxes, mostly photo sized, and have my supplies sorted and labeled on the shelves of my desk. It looks so much nicer and I don't have to dig through a tub anymore. I'm still working through organizing papers, so if anyone would like to counsel me on that, I'm listening.


I'm excited to have 9 less students this summer and ready to accomplish more of that ongoing "To Do" list that consumes my life.