Food Storage: My Storage Space Solutions

One of the common battles with small spaces and food storage is “Where do I put it all?!” Back when I wrote my ‘Steps To Success‘ and talked about where to store the food, I gave a list of a bunch of ideas for places in your home that could be a possible home to your food storage. However, sometimes reading a suggestion and seeing a suggestion have two totally different effects on how well they inspire you. I recently did a food storage presentation for a friend’s ward and one of their requests was for pictures of ideas/examples for how and where to put their food. So I thought I’d share those pictures with all of you as well. So allow me to welcome you to my home (please forgive any messes :)), and my solutions to storing my everyday food supply, along with my long-term food storage. {And on a side note: I do not have a large home. It is roughly 1750 sq ft. Larger than an apartment, true, but still small enough to put a premium on storage space. :)}

Alright… first stop is my little girls’ room for some long-term food storage. Notice any food storage hanging around? Any guesses where it could be? No… it’s not IN the armoire…

…it’s BEHIND it! 🙂 TWELVE buckets fit behind that armoire! Can you believe it??

In the same room, here’s one of my little girls’ bed…

…with our year supply of milk stored underneath (roughly 20 #10 cans)!

In the master bedroom, an unassuming tv stand…

…with a whole lot of food storage behind it! {Note, we simply added a piece of black fabric to the back of the tv stand to prevent being able to see the buckets through the open back of the shelves. We also have about 40-50 #10 cans of long-term food storage underneath our master bed.}

And that about does it for the long-term food storage that we keep basically hidden away (although we do have a few more buckets stashed here and there in some small spaces).
And now on to the everyday food supply! In keeping with the suggestions mentioned in our Steps To Success, we keep our everyday food supply in easily accessible locations so that our system is functional and our supply is easily rotated through. We also tried to keep it in as few locations as possible and we try to logically organize what is in each location.

Our office/craft room also became home to all of our canned goods in our everyday food supply…

And here’s another wall in our office…

{As you can see, the cans here aren’t as nice and orderly as the other bookshelves. That’s because my little girls like to play with these cans and build towers with them and then knock them over. 🙂 One of these days I’ll order more of those can organizers to get these shelves organized too. :)}

We keep just about all the rest of our everyday food supply in our master walk-in closet…

{The lower shelf was already part of the closet (and goes all the way around to the other side of the closet as well), but we realized we could just about double our space by adding a second level shelf. So Handy Hubby built one in. It’s not as strong of a wood as the lower level, so we try to keep lighter things on it. Looking back, I probably would have gone to the extra expense to use a solid wood. And yes, there are a few #10 cans in here as well, but they are ones that will need to be used within 10 years or so.}

These cupboards were already a part of our master closet when we moved in, and they immediately became home to food storage. 🙂

{spices, herbs, seasonings, baking supplies on top; prepared foods such as peanut butter, spaghetti sauce, salad dressings, sauces, etc. on bottom}

And that’s about it! We also have a small space in our laundry closet where I keep our pasta noodles and oils, and the tiny pantry in our kitchen actually has food it in it as well :D, but for the most part, this is how our system functions! And every time I get new items, I label them with the expiration date and put them at the back of the appropriate shelves and bring everything else forward so I’m always using the items closest to expiration first. I occasionally reorganize the shelves when things start getting tight in an area or perhaps even just because I’m bored and want to change things up 😀 but more or less I keep our areas consistent so that I always know where things are and I don’t throw Hubby off and frustrate the system. 😉

Well, I sure hope this helps to spark some ideas of how a system may work in your home! Remember, in order to have a functional food storage, you are going to have to sacrifice time, money, and SPACE. It’s too important not to.
Good luck and best wishes!

Food Storage: One Goal Down!

Ask and ye shall receive! Woohoo! I asked Hubby last week if we could build a bookcase for our room and bada-boom-bada-bing! Ta-da!! I present to you our new bookcase!

I was a little eager to get everything organized and put away on it that I neglected to take a picture before I started to fill up the shelves (and I was too lazy to pull all the books back off). 🙂 But isn’t it a beauty? We were going to stain it but forgot to get the stain while we were at the hardware store, and again… I was too impatient to wait for it before organizing away. (COD, remember?!) So it will remain unstained for now. I like it that way anyway.
But as you can see, this bookshelf is being used for books and the upper shelves hold all our games. So how in the world is this for food storage? Well, simply because all of these games and books USED to be on bookshelves in the office (where half of my food storage is anyway), and now I was able to vacate those shelves and I can use them for more food storage and keep more of it together in one place. I’m so excited! 😀 I can’t believe I’ve already got my first new year’s goal done! Woohoo! And one of the best parts about making it ourselves was that we could customize the heights to make sure everything fit that we wanted. So I’m lovin’ my new bookshelf! Not bad for a days work. 🙂
I hope all your food storage fun is coming along just as well! Best wishes!

Emergency Preparedness: 72-Hour Kits Finale

Alright… just one last push for 72-Hour Kits. Here’s a complete checklist for you to download (see link at the end) that includes all the recommended contents from the post two weeks ago. Use it as is to help in putting together your own kits, or use it as a guide in making your own. Either way, I recommend putting a checklist in every kit so that you know what is included in each one (without having to go digging through the entire kit to see if you do or do not have a certain item). And remember that you don’t have to include everything that’s on the list. Just make sure you’ve got the essentials and then choose what is best and appropriate for you and your family.

Again, remember to check and rotate your perishable items (food, batteries, medicines…) every 6 months (mark it on your calendar, or tie it in to semi-annual events… like General Conference! :)). I recommend putting the expiration dates of perishable products next to their spot on the checklist so that it’s easy to see which ones will be expiring before the next update. Then you can just quickly replace those items and not have to worry about checking your whole kit. Print out a new checklist each time you update and add the new expiration dates. Always keep your kits up to date so that they will be ready to just grab and go any time you need them!

Download your checklist and save it to your computer here: 72 Hour Kit Checklist

Feature Frugal Friday: Homemade Rotating Can Racks

Howdy y’all! Alright… this will just be a quicky. This is both a super cool and super frugal idea (hence we’ve got a Feature Frugal Friday goin’ on!) 🙂 Anyway, I wanted to share a couple of links with you for anyone who is wanting a rotating can rack system for all your canned goods, but maybe doesn’t have the resources to go out and buy one. (They can be pretty dang expensive!) Well, here are some guides to making your very own homemade rotating can racks. They range from small and super cheap (as in ‘inexpensive’) by making cupboard sized systems using cardboard, or you can also get pretty elaborate and make the big hefty kind using plywood.

Anyway… here are some great tutorials for y’all to enjoy:

1. This is probably my favorite in terms of being an excellent tutorial, as well as a fabulous looking finished product. It uses some tools that may not be common to every household (i.e. router), but it’s worth a look. Someday (when I’ve got some space), I’m gettin’ Hubby to build me one of these! 😀
Click HERE.

2. This tutorial is another very good one. It goes into more detail and has more pictures than the first. Again, though… it uses some tools that you might not have at home.
Click HERE.

3. This one is a video and doesn’t give a written guide, but it is a great example of where you can “hide” a rotating can rack, along with some verbal instructions on how to make it:
Click HERE for the YouTube video.

4. And this tutorial is for a small rotating can system that can fit on your cupboard shelves. In the tutorial they use cardboard, which I image makes this practically free. But you could also use some thin wood or something to make it a little more sturdy if you wanted.
Click HERE.

Well, enjoy your weekend!
Oh, and just a heads up… next week’s feature will also include a GIVEAWAY! {GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED.} So don’t forget to bookmark this site and check back often!

Food Storage: Organized Chaos!

Hey y’all! Just sharing some food storage craziness with you today.

So I got my can organizers in this past week and was SO excited! I dutifully set right to putting them together and in my excitement, couldn’t wait to see how they would look with cans in them and on my shelves. So I started filling them up as fast as I could assemble them and as I got more of them together, I tried to figure out where/how they would fit on my shelves. Mind you, I had measured my shelves prior to ordering so that I’d know which sizes I could order, and I thought I had accurately checked the height limitations as well. And actually, I had… minus the fact that I had neglected to take into account one thing: my adjustable shelves in my master closet that I had planned to adjust to fit the organizers were not so adjustable. They’re supposed to be adjustable, but they seem to be stuck. I started getting a little curious about how this would all play out now. Hmm…

So barring having to pry the shelves out and go through a BIG hassle and expensive mess that way, my plan is going to have to be altered. What’s a girl to do?! So I checked the space on my office shelves (which I know I can alter the height on), and have begun to reformulate my organization. I’m going to have to take all my cans from my closet and move them to the office and move all of the food in the office to my closet.

THANK GOODNESS I like to organize. Otherwise I might as well ask someone for a loaded gun to put me out of my misery! 🙂 But for me it’s like a big puzzle. So I’ll be enjoying working on this new organizational process for the next few days/weeks. But the moral of the story is: measure twice, cut once. Make sure you know you can get your shelves to the height you need before you get your hopes up too high. 🙂

And on that note, I hope y’all are doing good! We’ll continue our water information series next week. 🙂

Feature Friday: Shelf Organizers!

These are the COOLEST idea for those who do not have the space or money for those huge self-rotating can racks (and actually, even if you do have one of those big ones, these are still a good idea for your cupboards/pantry)! They are can organizers/rotators for your shelves! And they’re not even expensive! Ooo… you know I love this!

Here’s a quick, crazy, ‘small world’ story for you: I actually came across this company a little while back and thought this was a definite ‘future purchase’ for me. So onto the Wish List it went. And then with this week being the time to find and dedicate space, I thought it might be a good idea to do a feature on these shelf organizers. And THEN, my faithful visiting teachers came over for a visit this week and as we were chatting we got to talking about food storage (what else?!) 🙂 when one of the ladies says, “Ya, my sister and her husband have actually created an organizer for the shelf that’s made out of cardboard.” I told her I’ve seen those types and was actually planning to do a feature on them this Friday. So I ask her for her sister’s company so I can feature them too, and lo and behold… it’s the same one!! WHAT A SMALL WORLD. So anyway, this is no longer on my ‘purchase someday’ list… I went ahead and bought some yesterday! That was just the little push that I needed. (Hey, I support my VTs and their sisters. :)) They’ve even got a deal going on right now that you can save 10% when you order 5 or more packs of organizers (4 to a pack). Just enter ‘Save10’ when you checkout.

Anyway, I’ll do another feature once I get them and have used them a little to let ya’ll know how I like them, but I am super super excited! You know me and organization! 😀

So if you’ve got the itch to get organized, and want an affordable option, go check these guys out! Their website is: http://thecanorganizer.com.  And tell them Debbie sent you.  …just kidding. They don’t even know who I am, but I just always wanted to say that. 😀

Food Storage: Where To Store

Alright! We’re moving right along (hopefully) with our year supply plan. And as the ball gets moving and the food starts rolling in, you may quickly realize that your kitchen pantry simply does not have enough room to store your year supply. So where does it go? Under the bed?  *Wrong.*  Up in the attic?  *Nope.*  Out in the garage?  *Try again.*  No, no, no… the point of gathering everyday  food is so that we will use it everyday! And if we are going to do that, we need our food to be as easily accessible as possible. If our food is stored in an obscure, hard to access location, it is very unlikely that we will keep up with our rotation and our whole system will be out the window.

Ideally, we want to keep all of our food in one location. In a perfect world, we would all have a gorgeous 12 x 12 basement room, filled with rotating shelves, that always stays below 65 degrees F, and never gets moisture or bugs in it. Ah yes… one can always dream. 🙂 But here in the real world, if we want a functioning storage system, we may have to be willing to sacrifice for it. Remember in the beginning when I said we’re going to have to dedicate our time, money, and space? Well, this would be where the ‘space’ factor comes into play.

Take a mental picture of each room in your home. If you (like me) do not have any obviously empty rooms, closets, shelves, etc that are sitting around just waiting to be filled up with your food supply, you may just have to make space. It may not be fashionable, it may not be pretty, and it may downright clash with the room… but it’s important to get a functioning system up and running. So what are you looking for when trying to pick a location? You want as much space as possible in as few locations as possible (again, so that you can keep as much of your food together as you can), that is in a fairly cool, dry spot of your home.

Click HERE for some helpful ideas on hidden locations in your home.

Here’s my own example: My food storage is mostly split into two locations (well, three if you count the kitchen pantry)… our master walk-in closet, and our office. Our master closet already had a built-in ceiling to floor cupboard when we moved in and that automatically became a food storage location right off the bat (thank goodness we don’t have that many clothes.) 🙂 But as our supply started growing beyond that space, we also started using the shelves above our clothes racks and we have now also added a second shelf above the original ones. But even that was not enough space and I knew I was going to have to find another location. I finally determined our office/craft room/sewing room would have to be the next space to give (as if it didn’t already serve enough purposes!). It has several bookcases in it that are home to our movies, games, and books. Well, I cleared out all our movies (which took up most of the space), got rid of the ones not worthy of remaining in our home, and made room for the rest in the family room. I then proceeded to organize the office shelves with food storage. Yes, I often get weird looks when people walk into my office and see shelves of food. I just tell them I get hungry when I’m working on the computer. 😀 just kidding. Frankly, they don’t care and I don’t care. They’re all my family or friends and love me anyway. 🙂 But even now I’m already starting to get to the point where I’m going to need more space (ACK!) so my mind is constantly on the look out for spots that can have shelves built in, or something else taken out. (Next thing you know, my kids will be sleeping in the garage!) 🙂 just kidding!! But the point is… there is space in your home, you just have to get creative and find it! And I know I said “no” to under the bed… but guess what? If you got some of those ‘under the bed drawers’ that pull out easily so you can take stock of what’s there, that would work too!
Yes, some things in the house may have to go in order to make space. But I would venture a guess that not many of them (if any) are more important than following the prophet and seeing to the welfare of your family. And there are lots of ways to take a space and make it look nice… even when it’s cans of food. Organize it, hang curtains in front of it, add beautiful art pieces to it, paint the shelves pretty colors… do something to make yourself at peace with it.

And if you ever look at your food and see it as a big eyesore in the middle of your room, just remind yourself that it’s just temporary until you become rich and famous and have that big mansion on the hill with a huge basement that is temperature controlled and set aside just for your food storage. 😀

And one more word from me on the subject… if you cannot have all your food in one place, do your best to logically organize what foods you keep together. For example, I keep all of our staple foods together (flour, sugar, wheat), all our fruits and vegetables together, ‘ready to go’ type stuff like pasta sauce, canned soups, peanut butter, jelly, snack foods, etc. are all kept together in the office, etc. It helps me to remember where things are located so that when I need an item, I’m not constantly trying to remember where it is or having to look all over for it. I just know what ‘type’ of food it is and can figure it out from there. And labels can be lifesavers too (especially where husbands are concerned!) 😉
Well, that’s all from me for now. Good luck to ya’ll!

Photo courtesy of closetplusmetro.com

Organization Lists: Tips, Tricks & Forms

After last weeks bombardment of lists and information, I wanted to give you some tips & tricks, or things to consider when making those lists that may help make it easier. I’m also going to give you some blank forms to use that will hopefully help to get you started as well (if you haven’t already :)).

So let’s see… I’ll break this down by lists.
List #1: This is pretty self-explanatory. We’re just taking our recipes we gathered and doing that multiplication I talked about in the ‘Multiply and Replenish’ post. I decided to switch my breakfast and lunch meals to a monthly multiplication system (in addition to the dinner meals) because I felt like I could get more accurate numbers of how many times I actually eat/make a meal. But if you’re using a weekly rotation for breakfast and lunch (and even dinner for that matter), your list might look more like this:

Another tip you could try to get more accurate numbers is to use decimal numbers. If you looked at the FS Organization Lists .pdf file for the meals, you’ll see that in some places I put a (.5) for the amount. That doesn’t mean I’m making half of the meal. It means I only make the meal about half the time of whatever system (weekly or monthly) I’m using. So, looking at the example above, if I had a (.5) for the times per week that I make hashbrowns, that means that I make them every other week, instead of 1 time a week. Or the same thing for months. If I had it for .5 times a month, that means I make it every other month. That helps keep amounts a little more realistic for those meals that you really don’t make ‘that often’.

List #2: This one is also pretty self-explanatory. But like I said, it’s a bear! So my tip for this one is to take your time! Do this one on paper first so that you can do it while you’re watching tv, or while you’re outside relaxing in the sun. You could just take all your recipes, keep them in their original form, and do the math right on the recipe cards or books and that would save you from having to re-write all the ingredients. However, that would make for a lot of papers, recipe cards, books, etc all over the place and trying to keep track of all of that and keep it organized is more of a nightmare for me than to actually write the ingredients over again. Doing them all in one list makes List #3 a lot easier as well. So that is why I opted for making a List #2. You choose what is better for you.

List #3: Alright. Last week I told you that when you’re combining the amounts for a certain ingredient (which is the purpose of this list) to be sure to convert them into a matching form. i.e. convert all of your sugar measurements into teaspoons, tablespoons, or cups so that you can actually add them together. The easiest way to do that is with a measurement converter. Here’s a link to an online measurement converter, so you can easily convert tsp to Tbsp to cups or to whatever you want.
The other thing to think about when deciding which measurement form to use, is what is the measurement form used on the actual product you buy? So, for example, salt. A canister of salt lists a serving as 1/4 teaspoon and then tells me how many servings are in the canister. So I can easily figure out how many teaspoons are in that canister. This being the case, I may want to put my ‘total salt number’ on this list in teaspoons so that it’s easy to know how many canisters I need to have. A serving of sugar is also listed in teaspoons on its’ bag, as well as things like baking powder, baking soda, cornstarch, etc. Flour is listed in cups. Pasta is by ounces and/or pounds. Cheese is by ounces, however if you buy the pre-grated kind it almost always lists the amount of cups in the package as well. So just take that into account. Looking back at the example list I gave you last week, I would probably go back and change my ‘sugar’ total amount to be 720 teaspoons instead of 15 cups.
And on that same note, it would also be helpful to go ahead and put right on the list how many canisters, bags, boxes, etc of your item that ‘total number’ equates to. So, again, looking at sugar… I could put 720 teaspoons for the total number and then below that, or in a new column (which I think I’ll go ahead and create) I could put ‘2 (4 lb) bags’. (Obviously these are not accurate numbers… I go through a lot more than 2 bags of sugar in a year.) Doing that will make it a lot easier to do an inventory if I just know how many bags of sugar I’m supposed to have, or boxes of baking soda, etc versus trying to figure out how many teaspoons of everything I have in stock. Agree? Agree. Glad we’re on the same page. 🙂
Oh. And another tip… you may want to do an inventory more frequently than twice a year if you’re really not good at restocking what you use. Three or four times a year might be better in that case to help stay on track. 🙂

List #4: Hm… this isn’t a very tricky list. It’s pretty cut-and-dry. One thing that may help is to wait until the end of the day to mark your tallies for what you had. This may help keep you from feeling like you’re on a diet and having to keep track of every little thing that you eat. 🙂 Or if you’re really good at remembering what you eat… you can wait until the end of the week to mark the sheet. My memory isn’t that good, so once a day would probably be better for me. 🙂

Well, I guess that about covers the Tips & Tricks! If you find something that really helps you out in your process, please share it! These are all obviously only things I have discovered that have helped me. But I’m positive there are lots more brilliant ideas out there! So if you’ve got one, just leave a comment so others can enjoy it as well.

Blank Forms

And for those who would like them, here are the blank lists I’ve made for you to use.

Blank Food Storage Organization Lists

All four lists are on one Excel form. When you open the file, you’ll see 4 tabs at the bottom. Those are the four different lists. (Just a heads up… on List #1: FS Monthly Menu, the file is set to do the math for you. So just type in your ‘times per wk/mo’ and a ’52’ or ’12’ for the other column, and it will multiply it for you.) I also put an example on each page in italics just to remind you what goes on each page. Just delete them or type right on over them. If anyone needs it in a form other than Excel, let me know and I’ll see what I can do. Enjoy and good luck! 🙂

Food Storage: Organizing The Plan

Alright. It’s been two weeks. Do you have all your recipes?
Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t have them all yet. Just give yourself another week and dedicate some time to it. I’ve got mine pretty much done, but I think I’ll likely end up tweaking some of the numbers as the year(s) go on. But THAT’S OKAY! That’s one of the beauties of this  process– it grows with you! Don’t be afraid to start because you feel like your recipes or numbers are not exactly right or perfect. You can change things as you go. Just START with SOMETHING!

Okay, so that being said… we’re moving into the organization phase of our plan. (Woohoo!) Getting organized is one of my favorite parts of food storage. I love organization! Sometimes I start a new hobby just so that I can organize things! (Yes, I’m checking into therapy next week.) Part of my organization freakishness is that I love making lists and seeing everything laid out in front of me. For me it helps to eliminate confusion (or reduce it anyway). So, for this process, I have been working on making 4 lists. Each list kind of builds of the previous one and takes us to the next step of information we’re looking for. You may look at the lists and think some are unnecessary, or could be done in your head… and definitely feel free to do so if that’s better for you! But again, for me, I like to see it all laid out in front of me so I can easily reference different bits of information. I’m not done with all of the lists yet, but I created at least the structure of each one in order to give you a visual of what we’re doing. So here we go…

List #1: The Food Storage Menu List
This has each meal from our collected recipes listed, including how many times per month we will make it (I switched to doing all of my meals in a monthly format… it worked better for me that way. Sorry if that confuses anyone!!), and then how many times per year we will make it. (I actually did these lists in Excel so I could set the program to automatically do the math for me. If you’re good in Excel, I would definitely recommend using it to save some time. :))
Example:

Here’s the full .pdf of this list if it will help anyone (since I’m only using the first pages of these lists as an example): Food Storage Menu List

List #2: The Recipe : Ingredient List
This one is a doozy! It’s where I’m stuck trapped still working right now. 😀 This has each recipe broken down into its ingredients, with the amount of each ingredient needed per meal, and then the amount needed per year.
So you’re essentially writing all your recipes out (minus the directions), and once you have the amount per meal written down, you take that number and multiply it by the number of times you’re making that meal in a year (this number comes from List #1). And you do this for each ingredient in the recipe. (Hopefully the example will help clear up those question marks I see over your head. :))
Example:

So if we look at pancakes, I’ve got all my ingredients listed along with how much of each ingredient I need for one meal. Then from List #1, I know that I make pancakes 96 times in a year. So I will multiply the amount of each ingredient needed for one meal by 96 in order to get how much of each ingredient I need for a whole year of pancakes. Make sense?
Okay moving on.

List #3: The Master Inventory List
This list is our ‘Grand Finale’ list. The main reason for the other lists is so that we can get the information on this list. On this list we’re combining all ‘same’ ingredients from List #2 in order to get our grand total amount needed of a specific ingredient/item and then we’ll list them alphabetically for easy reference. So, for example, I have sugar used in several recipes, and on this list I want to know how much sugar I need total for the year in order to cover ALL of my recipes that use it. For each ingredient/item, we’ll also list each recipe it is used in. Then, you’ll also see on the list that twice a year, we can do a total inventory of all our food storage items to make sure we’re fully stocked or to see how much we still need to buy. Ideally, once you take an item from your food storage, you should immediately write it down on your shopping list so that it can be restocked. But I know I occasionally forget to do that (or dear Hubby, bless his heart, frequently forgets as well), so this bi-annual “check up” will help me find anything that has slipped through the cracks and get me back on track.
Also, one tip about this list, when you’re combining the amounts for a certain ingredient, they may often be in different measurement forms (i.e. teaspoon vs. tablespoon vs. cups). Make sure you convert them into matching forms to be able to add them together. (I may take some time to explain this further next week.)
Example:

(And like I said, I’m still working on List #2, so this list is not complete and was just a quick draft I put together to use as an example.)

List #4: Monthly Meal Tracker
This list is designed to help us rotate through our food storage fairly accurately. It’s a list of each meal on List #1 (I just copied and pasted from one list to the other… for heaven’s sake do not type these all out again if you can help it! :)) with how many times each month we’re ‘scheduled’ to make that meal. Then there’s a spot to make a tally mark in the appropriate month for each time we make the meal. I don’t necessarily plan to follow my scheduled numbers spot on and make everything the exact number of times I’m supposed to (i.e. I’m sure I’ll eat soup more in the winter and less in the summer… same with oatmeal), but by using this list I can see if I’m really falling behind on any certain meal and need to start making it more. This list will also help me determine if I need to eventually tweak my numbers. For example, I have pancakes down for 8 times a month. But let’s say that after several months or a year, I find that I’m consistently making pancakes 10 times a month. Well, then I can bump that number up and reduce the number on a meal I’m not eating as often. And then I can adjust my other list numbers as well to reflect the new change and gradually adjust my food storage items. So you’ll really get a more accurate idea of what your family eats, and how often, as you keep a tally on this list.
You could also use this list as a basis for your shopping list, but I’ll explain that more when we get to that phase. 🙂
Example:

So anyway, there you have it! My organization of ‘The Plan’. …or at least the beginning of it. There will be more lists to come (seriously… I have list issues). Once this part has sunk in and that brain numbing dizziness has worn off we will then tackle how to go about actually collecting all this food. 😀 That will probably be in about another two weeks (I think it will take me that long to recover). So until then, good luck on these lists and don’t burn yourself out! Just do a little at a time and work on it when you can. I did a lot of this written out by hand initially so that I could work on it while I was watching the kiddos outside or something. And then I’ve just been transferring to the computer. Anyway, obviously do what works for you. But again, good luck. 😀