DISQUS

Give LDS Gifts · 10 months ago

This is a great list and I found several ideas I can use right away! Thank you so much! Oh, how I wish my coat closet didn't get so humid and musty; I'm afraid to use it as a second pantry/food storage closet, but LOVE that idea!

Thank you for all those great ideas!

Marne · 10 months ago

This is GREAT! Thanks.

Vivienne · 10 months ago

This was amazing!!!! Thank you to everyone for their great ideas!!! I am going to share this at our food storage prep class next month.

Amy Boyack · 10 months ago

These are really creative ideas. Thanks for sharing.

Diane · 10 months ago

Thank you for these great ideas.

Heidi · 10 months ago

These are all great comments. Remember that in some places (such as here in Arizona), it is not safe to store food in the attic, garage or outside due to extreme temperatures or humidity. Food should be stored in cool, dark, dry places if possible.

boysmum2 · 9 months ago

WOW, all those places you can store and I have never thought of half of them. Although we are having a new closet placed by our bathroom and I can already see the unusable top shelf being filled with cans. I can't use anything upstairs in our house as it gets too hot up there, but this top shelf in the new closet is perfect. Thanks for all the wonderful ideas.

Gwen · 9 months ago

Just a thought about those places that are too hot (or cold) for most food storage--salt and sugar can be stored there, so long as they are kept dry. Heat and cold will not affect either of them. We have boxes of extra salt stored in our attic and in a different house, we kept sugar and salt in our garage. It was humid there, so we used buckets to keep the moisture out. Just an idea for areas of your home that you normally wouldn't consider to use for food storage.

Vicki Winterton · 9 months ago

I am a professional organizer located in Utah Valley. One of my specialties is Food Storage. I have found that lack of space is usually not the big problem many people think it is. Once I help my clients realize what they value most and why, they typically find or make space for what is important in their lives.

Lisa H. · 9 months ago

I have a decorative shelve near the ceiling in my great room. Many houses now have such shelves. On these shelves, I store sugar in number 10 cans. I put decorative wall paper around the cans. In front of the cans I have placed greenery and white Christmas lights. Several guests have commented on my pretty decorations. They are always surprised to find out it is disguised sugar. I use sugar since it stores for a long time and takes heat well.

Prepper · 9 months ago

Wow, these are great ideas. My head is spinning with ideas now!

HW · 9 months ago

I live in a small apartment with very little storage and a lot of stuff. I've always found that when I go ahead and buy a lot of food storage items when they're on sale and fit in my budget, I will always find someplace to put them, even if I don't know where that is when I buy them. I just get more creative, find new places, or stack a little higher when I put my groceries away.

Richelle · 8 months ago

I glanced through and don't think I saw this place listed, so if it's a repeat sorry. But we live in Idaho and don't have a basement but a 2-3 foot crawl space under our house and that's where we store ours. You have to put down 2x4's to keep it off the ground so you don't have to worry about moisture etc. and it makes it easier to lift, but we've been able to store a whole year--for a family of 6 under there. It's dark, cool and doesn't go through the extreme temp. changes.

Randy · 8 months ago

We're dang near pioneers! We live in a 15 x 25 log cabin that was built back in 1895 and have 7 children.

Needless to say space is tight!

One cool thing we did to increase our space for food storage is this:

We have a large 8 foot long kitchen table that sits in the corner. All along this corner, instead of using kitchen chairs, we built an L-shaped bench carpeted in such a way that the carpet runs losely down the front of the bench to the floor, but it is cut in 3 to 4 foot segments that can be flapped up for easy access to the space beneath the bench for storing cases of canned or bottled goods. I believe 20 or more cases presently occupy this space.

This also allows us to fit way more than just our 7 kids around the table too. Wow! Imagine that ...food storage and kid storage too! lol :)

noel · 7 months ago

Hey Randy, do you have pictures of your cabin? and can you share more of how you guys organize your home with 7 kids??? and anyone else have concerns about the bpa thing that Thea mentioned?

Annie · 5 months ago

I've found that, in addition to storing food, I can get creative with things that can be shifted to make room for the food. My local warehouse store had a large box of vacuum bags for sale. My extra blankets and linens are in these reusable bags, freeing up an entire linen closet for food storage. Each bedroom is also obliged to store the linen that goes with its bed, with all the sheets that belong in a set tucked into a pillowcase.

My son (the only boy among a gaggle of girls) also has his own room. Some of his extra space is dedicated to a large shelf filled with cans and boxes.

A few cases can take up some less than necessary room under a desk.

Furniture set at an angle has tons of room behind it.

My youngest children don't use the space under their beds for anything yet, and putting boxes under there keeps them from flinging toys into that great void.

Does anyone have any ideas for storing toilet paper in bathrooms that don't have any cabinets? Aesthetics are negotiable, but water resistance necessary.

smallspaceadvocate · 2 months ago

I live with my wife and daughter in a 8x20 foot cabin...we have a small bathroom with toilet and standing shower, and a small L shaped kitchenette. And finally, what keeps our space usage so small is that we have a tatami room with curtain. The room has a large window on one side of the wall, and is open to the kitchen on the other side, but the curtain can be pulled down for privacty. Anyway, the tatami room allows for eating, relaxing, and sleeping all in one small room. In addition we have a large deck that we can relax in the hammock or use our solar cooker etc. It's nice to have friends over and entertain on the deck so they don't spill in our house etc. If your space is tight, please consider a tatami room as one small room can cover living, dining, desk, and sleeping (basically all but the kitchen and bathroom) the room is raised by 18 inches with storage underneath for clothes and bedding. :)

Victoria Brown · 2 weeks ago

One concern I have is using space under my sink. I do not like putting any food down there in case of a water leak. Cans do rust. Plus, they make it more difficult to get under there to fix the leak. It would be better to put other things that won't be damaged by water, or are less important and costly to replace if they do get ruined; then use the space they were in to put food.

Victoria Brown · 2 weeks ago

Instead of a turntable for my spices, I use the small trays used to customize drawers, that fit my cabinet. Then I group the spices in the trays, based on what they are used for. That way I can take out the spices I need all at once. I don't like the turntables because the corners of the cupboard, esp the back ones, are inaccessible and wasted space, and only the spices on the outside edge of the turntable are really visible.

Victoria Brown · 2 weeks ago

I like the comment about using the vacuum bags for linens, freeing up the linen closet. I have started using the large ziploc storage bags, and get a similar effect, though probably not to the same degree, by starting at the bottom and rolling up the soft fabric items, squeezing out as much air as possible before sealing. As a hint, I seal most of the edge before starting the squeezing, so I only have the last couple of inches to seal.