My Food Storage

I showed you last week my small pantry in my kitchen. I keep most everything else in my cellar. We just recently got more shelves for free from my neighbor so I rearranged everything to make them fit. We do not have an attic or a garage. Anything that we need to store goes in our cellar as well as Hubby's 2 work benches and drum set. Our oil tank and boiler are also down there. It is about 450 square feet with a knee wall going all around. We also have stairs heading out. I have a narrow area by the stairs that lead to the main floor to store what I can. I think we have done a great job. 

Hubby made me these wooden shelves years ago. He built them on the knee wall next to the breaker panel. They are very strong and can hold a ton of canned goods. They go 8 cans deep. 

These are the shelves that are right in front of the wooden shelves. I have had them face the other way but this way seems best. On the top left I keep all of our teas in a box so I just pull them off if I need anything from the bottom right corner of the wooden shelves. My chocolate stash is kept here as well as juice, coffee, boxed milk, spices, stock, and nuts.

On the knee wall behind that I have laundry, cleaning and hygiene items. I keep small things like toothbrushes and toothpaste in large shoe boxes. They are labeled and make it easier to stack. 

Next is tissues, plates, napkins, toilet paper, sponges, foil, baggies and such.

Since we get water in the basement sometimes, I keep everything on shelves. The water bottles and buckets too. Hubby cut this old shelf so that it would fit between the other 2 units. One bucket has 25 pounds of rice the other has various dried  beans. 

The shelves next to that have 5 gallon jugs of water and gallons of water.  Vegetable oil is next to it. It has all of our cake and brownie mixes, cereals, oatmeal, pasta, snack bars and cookies. On top I keep a basket with over the counter medicines. My tomato mill and attachments are also stored there. Next to that is my chest freezer.

Across from my chest freezer are metal shelves that Hubby had gotten free. They are very strong so I put all of the very heavy items here. The top shelf is my canning jars and baking pans. Next is soda and beer with some paper items. 3rd shelf is dog food(behind bucket full of salt) with batteries and party appliances that I don't have room for in the kitchen. Bottom shelf is buckets of flour and sugar.  

There is a bar nest to the metal shelves. The staircase starts to stick out here so it is an awkward spot. I found this drawer unit on a walk once. It holds medicine, bandages and female items. 

The last set of shelves is next to the stairs. On the top is dog canned food and treats, marshmallows, jello and pudding. Top shelf is chips, coffee pods and drink mixes. Next shelf is corn starch, powered eggs and powered milk and for now potatoes. Condiments, ACV and Crisco are next. Bottom shelf is another bucket of rice, a bucket with baking soda and baking powder, a bucket of black beans. There is also vinegar and olive oil there. On the floor next to it is a bucket of onions. 

I have more room now because of the new shelves. I did pull everything that was expired or close to expiring off of the shelves. We have been using them up all week. They are in a box by the bottom of the stairs so they are the first thing we see. I will use them up. Food that is marked past its expiration date doesn't bother me. I smell it and look at it. Very rarely is it really bad. 

That is my food storage. I am trying to expand it to a 6 month supply. It is tricky to do with limited space. Hubby is always shocked at how much I can fit in the room that we have.