Got food storage? If so, where do you put it all? It’s not like it’ll all fit in the pantry with the regular food! Calm yourself, I’ve got some ideas I can share with you; let you in on a little secret. Aren’t you so lucky?
Below are 8 creative ways to store food storage for small houses or houses with a lot of space.
- Use unused space
- Take advantage of under-the-bed space
- Use window seat space
- Store in the garage
- Put up shelves in empty wall spaces
- Utilize under the house space
- Turning buckets into seats
- Turn existing furniture into storage units
I’m sure there are many different ways to store your food and emergency items. These few are a good number to get you started; helps those wheels to start turning for what you could do in your home.
1. Use whatever empty and unused space you have
My first tip would be to use whatever “unused” space you have. When I say “unused”, I’m not just talking about empty closets and bedrooms. What if you have a room that is full of junk you have been meaning to get rid of? What about a closet that serves the same purpose? You can make those spaces empty with a little bit of magic.
Take the opportunity to organize and rid yourself of unnecessary items while you’re at it and make room for your food storage! The best advice for finding a place to store your food. Clean your house first. You may find space you never knew existed! On top of finding new spaces, you’ll have a fresh start and a cleared mind to be able to get started with your storage.
Don’t let anyone or anything get in your way (aside from the obvious) and get moving! The cleaner your house is, the more you’ll see that you don’t even need this blog post’s tips because you’ll see space options popping up all over the place!
2. Use that Under-the-bed Space
Don’t let dust collect under the bed. That’s the perfect place to store food. It’s out of the way, and plus it’s not visible to anyone. Especially with little children, this under the bed space is a popular dumping ground for the forgotten items of life.
Why not turn it into something useful by storing your food under there? It’s wasted space otherwise, and with houses which are smaller than ideal, it’s a perfect way to keep up with your food storage without having to build in a second room or two.
You may be wondering, won’t that be obvious and ugly at least from the side? Yup, but you can buy a bed skirt or a place a nice sleek wood covering so no one can see it. Genius, right? I know!
This is probably the most common and easy storage option because everyone sleeps and needs a bed. It’s most effective when there are larger beds in the house, or lots of beds. A lot can fit under the wooden abyss, and it will all be more concealed than any other place you have in your home; unless, of course, you are cleverer than I and create a more concealed space. Although, come to think of it, if you were that clever you probably wouldn’t be here looking for ideas…so…
3. Inside Window Seats
Window seats don’t have a ton of space, but the space they have is usable. You can store canned or bagged items underneath the seat. Depending on the size, you can also store your buckets of food discreetly and neatly without anyone being the wiser.
Window seats are good because they are easily accessible. You could only place the storage items that don’t need to be in a cool, dry place. I know that sounds silly because most food storage needs to be. But with emergency preparedness and food storage, it’s not always the food that needs to be stored.
The window seat is a good place for your flashlights, hand warmers, extra hygiene items, and essentials for the family that needs to be quickly and immediately accessible. Click here for some ideas of family items which could be placed in the window seat.
4. In the Garage
I don’t know how messy or scary your garage is, but it’s a great place to put food storage. Anything that needs to be kept cold obviously can’t be put in there outside of Winter, but everything else can. My grandma has wooden shelves the go from the bottom of the garage floor to the top of the ceiling filled with her canned goods. She uses them frequently and has all of it labeled.
Built in shelves above or below, doesn’t matter, are a great way to store your food. Also, it doesn’t have to be done with custom-made or fancy wooden shelving. You can get bookshelves at Deseret Industries or Good Will or any kind of thrift store and stick them in your garage if you want to be inexpensive. Storing it does not have to be a big deal, keeping it simple with what you have to begin with, that’s a good start.
5. Add Shelves in Those Empty Spaces
People don’t realize it, but there are a lot of walls that don’t have decor which would be perfect for putting up shelves. DIY it! It’s a bit of work, but my guess is if you’re one for preparation, DIY isn’t a big deal. The more organized it is, the better off you’ll be.
Start putting up those shelves in unused spaces. You can stack your lighter items up there or, depending on where it’s at, store your larger stuff. Shelves above washer’s and dryers, above kids closets, around doorways, in the garage; you name it and it’s yours.
Just make sure you’re organized and get those shelves put in properly. An idea even would be to take out those old trophies and decorative collectibles you never use and build shelves for them so you can use the closet for food storage instead of junk.
6. Under the house
Keep in mind, this one is only available depending on where you live and what kind of house you own. In some countries and states, this would absolutely be a no go. In some places it’s too wet and has too many pests, in others it’s dry and perfect for storing some food.
Accessibility would be a problem for those who are older, so it’s not perfect, but for those who are young and spry it’s not a big deal and can be a big plus to the alternative of stocking up the house until there is no more room.
Under the house will always be cool, that much is certain. Most places I’ve seen have about 3 feet in height of storage space. How far and wide it goes just depends on the square footage of the house. My advice, only store things down there which cannot be affected by pests. Those would be your 5-gallon buckets- metal or plastic- and anything foolproof.
7. Cover Those Buckets with Fabric and Cotton Cushions to be Used as Seats!
Many food storage items come in 5 gallon buckets which can easily be turned into cushy seats to be used. In my opinion, those buckets are great to use in a kids toy room or for extra sitting options in a small apartment.
Let’s say you are a newly married couple that doesn’t have the funds for chairs but you’ve got five gallon buckets of food storage stuffs, turn them into seats! They’re great and you can make a lot for all those friends you have that will come over to see your cute new place.
While this idea definitely isn’t the ideal storage solution for everyone, it has been useful for me and I’ve used it many times. I’m someone who has small space and needs to make do with what I have.
For a tutorial and good video on DIYing your bucket, go here.
The buckets end up looking super adorable and they are durable. They last a long time, and you don’t feel like your food storage buckets are taking up your precious space. If you have kids, there are a million ways this bucket can be used: for a vanity, toy room, timeout bucket, all that sort of nonsense.Â
8. Turn Existing Furniture Into Storage Units
Just like you did with the bed and the window seat, you can turn just about any piece of furniture into a place to store your food and emergency items. You’ll have to get a bit creative with it, but it can be done.
Some people take couches and reconstruct the bottom. You can make the bottom just a little taller- which would make the couch more spacious underneath.
Another idea with furniture is to make shelves underneath a kitchen table. Instead of having legs, you could instead construct small shelves for storing smaller items. It’s hidden and isn’t going to take up anymore space than it already does. Besides, nobody is using all that space underneath the table anyway, let’s be real here. No body’s legs are that wide.
