There's plenty of room for food storage in unusual places

When I was a kid, my parents bought a trundle bed, with one mattress on top and a second mattress in a sort of drawer that pulled out from underneath the other mattress. I mention this to help those of you who think you don't have a lot of space for food storage see that you really DO have more space for food--and you SHOULD make space for food.

It sounds really weird to some people to suggest that, if you have limited shelf and/or closet space, then you should consider storing food items under your bed or other such places. For those of you not familiar with trundle beds, click on the link above for a photo of one of those beds. I'm not suggesting you buy a trundle bed; I'm suggesting you embrace the possibilities of such a storage concept. Many of us probably already have boxes and other items stored under our bed anyway, but as I've noted in other posts, most things taking up space in our living quarters are not as important as food, water and so on when it comes to our survival.

So along the same design concept as a trundle bed, let's imagine a wide and somewhat flat storage container that's big enough to hold canned goods and small enough to fit under your bed. I'm sitting here right now with a box that's about 11 inches wide by 17 inches long, and I've got 22 cans of various vegetables snugly fit into this box. Multiply that by the number of such boxes that I could fit under my bed (approximately 10) and you see the huge potential this sort of thing has for those of you with limited space. Now take a look at all the other misused space (space being taken up by stuff you never use or don't really need) and you've probably got room for several hundred cans of food in your home even though you "don't have much space."

I'd suggest organizing each box of canned goods according to the expiration dates stamped on the cans and rotate them first-in, first-out according to the dates (although studies show that the nutritional value of most canned goods goes well beyond the dates on the cans--the dates are just a regulatory requirement by the FDA (in the U.S.) and not a statement of whether food is safe to eat after said dates. Do your own research, but you will likely find similar information.

Keeping an inventory list of what you have stored up and stashed away can also be helpful--you can more easily keep track of what you have and what the expiration dates are. And just to keep prying eyes from seeing what you have hidden in your secret pantry, don't put that list on your computer. You never know when someone might be trying to tap into your personal information online. ;)