More re-using

I'm going to talk a bit about what I've done in the past few months on food storage.

I at first went out and bought a package of 10 "Banker's Boxes." You can find them at Walmart, which is where I got them. I'm not sure of where else you can get them. My husband says it's sort of self defeating to spend money on storage when you could have bought more food, but I think it makes it store nice and neat. We don't really have shelves. I have one shelf rack out in the garage and it has cooking things that I don't use very often, like the cake pans, roasting pan, etc. I didn't want to store the cans in the garage, because we live in Texas and it gets HOT. I'm not sure what the heat does to canned goods.

So, I bought Banker's boxes. I have 7 stacked in the bottom of my pantry. I mentioned in the previous post about the can rollers that I bought, and a couple I made, but they're too difficult to get right. I also took a soda 12-pack and turned it into a sort of roller. I first opened it the way they say to, at one end where the perforations are. Then at the other end I cut a hole large enough for whatever can I was putting in it. The first one, I put in the 29 oz cans of pinto beans. The next, I put in various cans of canned fruit. They're a little larger than my shelf, so I put them at the end near the wall.

Here, let me describe my pantry. It was originally a small reach in pantry with 2 bi-fold doors. We don't have a lot of room in the little nook it's in because the washer and dryer is there, too. So my husband removed the doors and I hung a curtain over that space. Currently the curtains are lace, but I plan to get some that aren't so sheer. This way, I can use the floor and come out into the space a bit if I need to.

I'm also saving ice cream buckets to put dried beans, rice, and my bread flour in. I used to be able to get my bread flour (a gluten free mix) in a 25 lb bag. I can no longer do that, but I have the recipe. It just doesn't come out as well. Gluten free baking is much more difficult. I froze the ice cream buckets for 48 hours, and then stored it. I have heard that it kills any "bugs" that may be in it. I guess we'll find out. I'm going to go ahead and rotate it through my regular use stuff, and if an emergency comes, oh well. I have the recipe. I'll stock the flours I need for the recipe.

Now that my Christmas tree is up, and the presents are under the tree and not in my bedroom closet, I can store more stuff in there.

I think I mentioned the site I found in the last post. It's www.foodstoragemadeeasy.net. On that site they have a "12 Days of Christmas" to introduce someone to food storage. We've been talking to my husband's parents, and they frankly aren't very interested in it. I decided to put all the 12 Days of Christmas items into one box and give it to my Father-in-law. I thought about giving it to my Mother-in-law, but she doesn't appreciate things like that from me. My FIL would be more receptive if he saw it all laid out. I may purchase the eBook for them, haven't decided.

So, more on food storage as I learn it.