Welcome to week six of our Summer Inventory Challenge. If you haven’t already signed up to participate you can learn more and sign up at this link.

This week we are focusing on “Extras” (like spices, condiments, and comfort foods) as well as our non-food items … and doing an inventory of all our supplies. Remember each challenge will walk you through these three questions:

1. What do you want to have?
2. What do you already have?
3. What do you still need to get?

Introduction Video

What Do You Want to Have?

For a general overview of this weeks topics, please check out the Babystep 9: Comfort Foods page and the Babystep 10: Non-Food Items page. These pages are a good starting point for the basics of what you SHOULD be storing. However, it’s always important to consider YOUR family’s individual circumstances and what will work best for you and your space.

In this week’s video I gave a tip for figuring out how quickly you go through your non-food items so you can calculate how much a year supply is for your family. Next time you open a package of toilet paper, tube of toothpaste, bottle of shampoo, etc. write the date on it with a sharpie. Once that item is gone, calculate your year supply amount. For example if it took one month to go through a tube of toothpaste, your year supply need is 12 tubes! Have you calculated any of these items yet? Share your discoveries with the group over on Facebook!

Make a list of comfort foods that your family likes to eat and research how you can have them available for long term storage.

Decide how you want to deal with spices and condiments. You can either calculate your family’s exact usage or just try to have a few spares of each item. Use the links below for more tips on these items!

Helpful Resources:
Condiment Craziness
Spice up Your Comfort Foods
3 month supply calculator (for non-food items)

What Do You Already Have?

If you are anything like me you probably have random items in each of these categories stashed all over your house. Your assignment this week is to compile them all to one central location so you can do an inventory. I’m going to keep my spare toiletries and first aid items in the laundry room upstairs, spare condiments and spices on the taller shelves in the pantry, and spare paper/plastic goods in the basement food storage room.

I’m still working on replenishing my supplies from moving and deciding where I want everything to live but here is a little sneak peek at where I’m starting. As you can see I have a little bit of everything kind of stashed everywhere!

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What Do You Still Need to Get?

Once you have your list of what you HAVE, cross-reference it with what you WANT. The difference is going to become your shopping list for the next few months. Stock up on things when they come on sale, set aside a little bit of money each month to go towards your long term storage purchases, or save up now and wait until the Black Friday or case lot sales can give you more bang for your buck!

You can use the 3 month supply calculator (the very last worksheet) I shared back in week 3 to keep track of how much you need and how much you already have of common non-food items. Don’t forget you can always edit the spreadsheet to be individual to YOUR family!

Follow me on InstaGram (@Jodi_foodstoragemadeeasy) if you want to see more behind the scenes details about my week six plans and progress. I’ve got a lot of re-arranging and shopping to do so it should be a fun adventure!

Week 6 Giveaway

Earn entries by participating in the challenge in the following ways:
– Post about your progress in the Facebook Group (share your want list or pics of your process)
– Comment on InstaGram on any of the posts for this week
– Email me photos of your project for me to share (I will keep them anonymous) (info @ foodstoragemadeeasy.net)

Winners will be announced in next week’s email!

-Jodi Weiss Schroeder
http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net