Thursday, April 28, 2011

Extra Storage Ideas for Food Storage and Other Stuff

I was reading a blog about storing food in a trundle bed and it got me to thinking about under-utilized places in my own house. Storing things under the bed is a terrific use of space not to mention the old clothing that I might "someday" be able to wear again takes up much needed space. I already utilized my kitchen knock-out ledge for hidden storage.

"Where else might I find some much needed space," I wonder as I sit here at work. Did I say work? I meant AT HOME, yeah, I'd never blog while on the clock. Yeah, so, anyway...I have a locker here at work. An EMPTY locker I might add. Why not use that to stock up on soup and other storable foods? I mean, I live here twelve hours a day, four days a week. I eat a minimum of one meal...usually two meals while I am here. I think I'll watch the store ads for soup sales in the coming weeks and start stocking my locker with Campbell's soups. They'll stack nicely, keep for a while, and be super easy to make when I get the munchies at 2am (gotta love working the night shift, right?)

There are actually quite a few lockers at my work. I'd say only about half the lockers are utilized by employees. I might be able to pick a few in different locations and stock more than one locker? Well, let's start with one and go from there. I also have locker space at our other "sister" hospital. Ooohhh. That one's a STAND UP locker. Lots of space there.

If I didn't live in the East Valley of Arizona, I'd consider storing some lightweight foods in the trunks of my cars. You wouldn't want anything too heavy or it would affect gas mileage and we CERTAINLY don't want that these days. The heat would also speed up the shelf life of canned meats, vegetables, etc. Maybe I can stash away some Ramen in the trunk? Ramen seems pretty indestructible and I already blogged about 30 ways to cook Ramen.

We store our large cookware on a hanging rack over our kitchen sink. This free's up a cabinet worth of space. A storage shed in the backyard allowed me to move lots of stuff out of the garage (we have dry food storage out there.) We have mylar bagged food in the top of all the kids' closets where it is too high for them to reach.

In other ideas out there?

3 comments:

  1. We don't have a basement, and since my husband is a food hoarder, finding storage space is critical.

    We use those large plastic totes to store alot of the canned items -- and stack them in unused closets, or under the kitchen table/island. My husband built a large pantry in our porch area and we use that as well. It's definitely an exercise in creativity!

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  2. Have you seen military ready to eat meals? These packages of food make it possible to carry food for an extended trip without having to use a lot of space or require many coolers to keep these cool. Due to the preparation of the packets, the food remains fresh for long periods of time as long as they remain sealed.

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  3. @Rob Yes, but I haven't heard anyone say "Mmmm, these MRE's are really delicious!" LOL. Seriously though, even though the few people I know from the military don't really care for them, I have packed some in my BOB bags. I have the crackers, peanut butter and jelly packets. That's it so far.

    Which ones do you like?

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