Comments on: Step 1: Shelves

By: emorra

emorra — Thu, 03 May 2012 13:42:00 +0000

I can a lot of soups and stews, along with baked beans and meats (ground beef, chicken, pork) plus fruit/jams/pickles/veggies so I can totally relate to your problem.

Instead of having your shelves with the long side up against a wall, place them so that you can access both sides. It does take up more space this way, but it works if you can make it fit your space.

Have an “in” side for whatever you’ve most recently canned, and and “out” side for access to the oldest jars.

Be sure to label your flat lids with a sharpie, noting type of food and date canned.

I use the metal “canning” shelves from Home Depot or Lowes (I think Wal-Mart sells them as well)–they are about a foot deep and you can build them with the shelves like a tray so that they have an edge all the way around to hold the jars better.

If you live where earthquakes are prevalent, be sure to add bungee cords to keep jars from falling off. Our shelve are also screwed to the wall at a stud.

By: Suu_suu

Suu_suu — Wed, 02 May 2012 20:08:00 +0000

Wow awesome post. I am new here so I have a lot to explore. Thanks for the great job!

By: Jodi and Julie

Jodi and Julie — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 00:17:00 +0000

We will email ya!

By: Kstoneking

Kstoneking — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 05:28:00 +0000

I signed up to have the baby steps checklists delivered to my e-mail. Numbers 2-5 have come through, no problem. For some reason, though, checklist #1 did not get sent to me. Would you be able to send that to me? I’d appreciate it.

By: What Type of Food Storage Shelves to Buy | Food Storage Made Easy

What Type of Food Storage Shelves to Buy | Food Storage Made Easy — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 03:51:38 +0000

[...] Step 1: Shelves [...]

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 06:24:00 +0000

Pantry Maid makes good “normal” can rotation devices I use in the everyday pantry. But be very careful on the sizes. Large is for the normal vegetable type can. They are muchmore durable than the plastic ones on the other sites and I think they are a mom and pop.

By: Milenda

Milenda — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 23:51:00 +0000

I have the same storage type in my basement for my canned (mason jar) foods. My unit is 2 cinder blocks deep (32″), 2 blocks high (16″) on bottom shelf, then 1 block high (8″) for the next 4 shelves high. This is just for the jars with my box/can goods sitting on top shelf. 2 high works great for beverage bottles & 4-6 gallon water jugs.

By: Milenda

Milenda — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 23:45:00 +0000

Does anyone have suggestions on storing mason Jar type canned food. I have a large assortment of quart thru 1/2 pint jars. I do have them organized by type of food as of now. But I have several hundred of them. trying to keep them rotated is hard when you can’t access the back to put new items or use the sideways rolling method.

By: Menaden

Menaden — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:39:00 +0000

I know this might sound funny but when my husband was in the Army, one of the wives only stored salt. She reasoned that if there was a shortage of anything she could barter salt for food.

By: Loriann12

Loriann12 — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 12:19:00 +0000

I found this site about 2 years ago. We put away about 6 months of canned goods/non-perishable food items according to recipes. I had everything in boxes stacked in my living room (something like 8 high in 3-4 piles). It only took up a corner. Then I got diagnosed with cancer. Nine months later, as I was recooperating and almost back on my feet, my husband broke his leg and was out of work for 2 months. I had to move all those boxes by myself because we were eating out of them. My FIL and MIL work at a storage facility and when someone doesn’t pay or abandons their unit, they get first pick. A unit abandoned cinder blocks and 12x9x1′s. We just built a shelving unit out of them that fits along the back wall of our living room. It ended up being 7 shelves, and about 6 foot high. We took a king size sheet and tucked it behind the top shelf to cover it all. On the top shelf I put all my cookware that had been stored outside in the garage so I don’t have to wash it before I use it each time.