Happiness is a Well Stocked Pantry...and Being Prepared for Difficult Times

Having a well stocked pantry and freezer have always given me peace of mind.  Knowing that your family is taken care of is a sense of satisfaction and pride.  During the recent run on pantry items, we did not really have an urgent need for anything.  We keep a good back stock and, even during the recent run on toilet paper, cleaning products, eggs, and water... we were well set.  

My pantry is not "Pinterest Fancy", in fact it is usually a hot mess.  It is a working pantry and we are in and out of it for meals and snacks all day.  Especially now that we are staying home more...so literally, we are in and out  ALL. DAY. LONG!!! 

My pantry / food storage consists of several parts.  We have a small pantry (shown in the above picture, however it does extend all the way to the floor) in our kitchen where we keep things that have been opened and need to be used up.  I also keep things I only have one of, like a new flavor of jam we may be sampling.  Most of our sauces and salad dressings are in here.  It is not a very efficient pantry because of the layout.  The shelves are dark and deep, going far back in the pantry.  There is also a very high shelf...way on top.  If I did not know, from memory, what is in this pantry, things would go bad.

Also, in the kitchen, we have a nice sized refrigerator / freezer that stores things we are currently using, like most families.  We have opened juice, milk, and lots of fresh fruits and veggies. The freezer has frozen veggies, meats, and sauces that have been opened.  The freezer does have more Popsicles and ice cream than frozen veggies, most of those are kept in another freezer ~wink~.

There is a small closet, to the side of our formal dinning room, that we turned into another pantry.  We keep our stock of canned foods (veggies, soups/broths, beans/chili, meats. etc), baking items, and cereals here.  Belle Starr, our very geriatric kitty, has her dry and wet cat food in here.  When she is hungry, she is sure to let you know where the food is kept. On the floor are buckets with gamma lids, inside we keep long term food supplies and more cat food. 

Pic from Library of Congress

Our snacks for school lunches, picnics, etc are kept in the laundry room / mud room.  It is also the entry way from our garage and a great place to just dump the large boxes that most individual snacks come in.  We have a closed shelving unit as well as 2 long shelves on each side of the room, up near the ceiling.  We keep more back stock here of some canned goods that are boxed together, as they are sold at Sam's and Costco.  These do not fit in the canned good pantry, at this time, but will be rotated in as space allows.  Also, kept in this area, are big buckets with gamma lids that house more long term food storage. This area is stocked more than usual because we are in the process of adding to our long term pantry, taking our preparedness up a notch.

  

Spacing made it impossible to get the entire picture.  The shelf, near the ceiling, runs the length of the room.  There is another shelf, exactly like it, on the opposite wall.

Photo from The People History

We have a deep freeze and two standard sized refrigerators in our garage.  The deep freeze exclusively holds beef, chicken, and one whole turkey.  We have all of our favorite cuts and varieties. This freezer is usually stocked to the brim with meats we have found on sale.

 One of the refrigerators has eggs, cheeses, deli meats, juices, refrigerated lunch box type of snacks like ready made Jello, yogurt, and fruit cups.  There is also back stock of creamer for coffee and milk.  We also place fruits and veggies, that do not fit in our kitchen fridge, in here.  The connecting freezer holds frozen veggies, breakfast items such as waffles and breakfast sausage, beef and turkey hot dogs and sausage links, hamburger and turkey patties, bacon, and a small selection of pork products.  Finally, the other fridge / freezer combo holds breads and drinks.  I drink ONE Coke Zero a day but stock up on that and other canned drinks when they are on sale.  We also have Powerade, Propel, Gatorade and flavored water type of drinks for when I Shipt shop or we are out in the heat for activities and play dates.  There may be leftover Halloween or Holiday candy hidden here, at time (shhhh Maggie is none the wiser)

We do have some other things stored in our garage like over stock of laundry supplies, cleaning supplies, paper products, water, food storage containers, camping stoves and equipment we can use in case of a power outage.   I would love for everything to be in one large pantry, however, that would take a room the size of a bedroom and I am not giving up my craft room...lol.

I would not be totally transparent if I did not mention the Dorm Fridge in the Hubbie's Man Cave.  He keeps beer and his favorite snacks in there. I do not really count that or our wine or liquor / bar pantry in my household budget as he pretty much keeps up with that on his own.

All of our pantries are "working pantries", meaning we use the food that is stored here.  We rotate, donate, and re-purchase what we use and need.  We do not use canned foods often so it is especially important to rotate and donate these items often.  I keep a pantry inventory, updated and checked seasonally.  I usually do a huge can good stock up during the fall sales cycles.  November is a big time to stock up on baking and pantry items due to the upcoming holidays, so keep a lookout for your area fliers to get the best deals.  This is also a great time to donate!

From Npr.org

As I mentioned, we are also stepping up our preparedness game.  We are not storing gas mask or planning to do any "bugging out".  The only time we would "bug out" is if there was a tornado and we had to leave our home when it was safe.  We have "go bags / bug out bags" and supplies for that occasion.  I would love a fall out shelter, but it would be more of a storm shelter.  I have been very close to tornadoes a few times in my life but luckily, have not been injured.  Having such a shelter would surely bring a great deal of peace. 

From NPR.org

What we are preparing for is more of an economic situation, not a nuclear disaster.   This could come by the way of a job loss or anything where we may need to tighten our belts. Or, as in recent events, we needed to stay home for awhile, depending on our pantries for food and water.

  

Pic from History.com

Preppers prep for the collapse, in some way, of society.  Many, in the Prepping communities, prepare for situations like nuclear fall out, civil unrest, or just a local collapse of services for whatever reason may come.

Our "stocking up" sure came in handy during the recent run on toilet paper.  We usually have about a year to year and half stock of paper products, thanks to couponing.  I had been busy with a new side hustle and almost let that get away from me.  While we had and still have PLENTY of paper towels, we were running out of my couponing stockpile of toilet paper.  Luckily, we just bought a  large pack during a  Costco run back in January.  We still have 4 rolls of that pack left, even after being home almost 3 months.  

pic from local target

We could not believe or understand why there was such a run on toilet paper.  I noticed, the week or so before we began the "staying home" orders that the shelves were getting bare while doing my Shipt deliveries.  I just figured that Target was having a sale.  By the time schools announce they were closing on Thursday, all heck broke loose and EVERYONE was making a run for toilet paper.

Although, I read about limits on meat, eggs, milk, and baking products, I had not even tried to purchase these items as we have plenty in the pantry.  I did, however, get an urge to stock more "long term" foods in our pantry and had a difficult time finding rice and beans.

Bottled water was also hard to come by for awhile.  When it was in stock, there were limits.  This has help give us the push to look into a better solution.  Water is plentiful, right now, from our faucet.  We do not like our city water, it does not taste good, but it is drinkable.  However, we have stocked up, as we can, with the limits. We also need to think about water storage for cooking and cleaning.

Photo from History by Zim

Water storage can be difficult because it is bulky and takes up a lot of valuable storage real estate.

The best advice I have regarding starting a working pantry type of food storage is start slow.  When you do your grocery shopping, pick up a few extra cans of things you will use.  I will be sharing some tips in upcoming blog posts to help you get started.  In the meantime check out these sites to find great deals in your area.  

Kroger Krazy

Hip2Save

Ohio Valley Couponer

Pic from NPR

Also, don't forget to prepare for specific situations to your area.  We have taught Maggie, our 6 year old, what to do in case there is a Tornado siren.  She has known to "duck and cover" since she was walking.  We have disaster drills on the first Wednesday of every month so we use these to practice. She also knows to remind me to grab our "go bag", place pillows and blankets in the hallway, and be aware of Belle Starr's location (which is usually "ducked and covered" under an end table in the living room, her usual sleeping spot).  I will post about our "go bag", etc in a future post.

our hallway is the closest thing we have to a safe shelter when the tornado sirens go off.

  

I noticed that my boots were mismatched after the drill.  We got a good laugh over this but I was sure thankful it was only a drill and I did not have to go mismatched in public.

I hope you enjoyed this peek into our pantries and a bit of info on how and why we keep a working food storage.  Be on the lookout of future posts about our "go bag / bug out bag" and tips and tricks on how you can start a pantry of your own.  They really do bring peace of mind!!!

xoxoTiffany