For today’s challenge we are going to spring clean our core long term food storage supplies meaning FOOD. Typically this is in the basement or another food storage room and not just incorporated into your kitchen pantry/cupboards. We will be breaking this job up over two days because for some people in can be A LOT! If you don’t get it all done today, you can catch up tomorrow!

• Check Expiry Dates:
  • Go through all the items in your emergency food storage and CHECK any expired items. Many items will be fine even for years after the best-by dates but it is always good to at least check and possibly test one if you are storing batches of things.
• Discard Bad/Rotten Food:
  • Look for signs of bulging cans, discolored food or broken seals in home-canned items, signs of critters and bugs in dried goods, etc.
• Create Master Inventory List:
  • Use my food storage calculator (PDF or spreadsheet) to create a master wishlist of all the items/quantities you would like to have in your emergency food storage based on the number of people you are storing for. (If the link doesn’t work try right-clicking it and choose “save link as” or you can copy and paste this into your web browser -> http://yourthrivelife.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/NewCalculator-1.pdf)
• Record Quantities:
  • Note down the quantity of each item you have in your master spreadsheet. This will give you an idea of where you are at with your preparedness levels and where the holes are in your food storage.
• Make a Purchasing Plan:
  • Come up with a monthly budget you can allocate to purchasing long term food storage items until you have everything needed on your master inventory list.
• Start Buying Now:
  • If you are missing some freeze-dried food items in your storage take advantage of Thrive Life’s spring sale which is going on this week from April 23-29th. You can get some items for up to 50% off so definitely take advantage of that if you can!

-Jodi Weiss Schroeder
http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net