Do you have enough food, water and other supplies to survive when SHTF? Do you have everything you need to create a sustainable household without needing to rely on others? Perhaps most importantly, do you know what you have on your shelves without having to guess?
Creating a survival cache is one thing. Trying to manage a large cache without some organization will make it that much harder to stay alive in a survival situation. What does it take to create a functional prepper pantry? What mistakes should you avoid to ensure that you’re ready for anything if the SHTF? Let’s find out.
Stocking the Prepper Pantry
Step one for creating any survival cache is understanding the necessary supplies to stay alive in an SHTF scenario. Today’s topic is the pantry, so we’re going to focus specifically on food, water and other supplies that you might store in that space.
Food
Dry goods and other nonperishable foods will be essential. Your pantry should include but should not be limited to:
- Grains such as rice, wheat, oats, etc.
- Dried beans of various types.
- Flour, cornmeal and other prepared baking necessities.
- Canned fruits and vegetables, including items purchased in cans and things that you can at home.
- Canned meats.
- Shelf-stable fats like tallow or oil.
- Dairy replacements, such as dried milk or cans of evaporated or condensed milk. Shelf-stable milk is also an option, but it only has a shelf life of 6-12 months, so be prepared to rotate it frequently.
That covers the four primary food groups, but those items by themselves are pretty bland. Stocking up on things like salt and spices can help save you from condemning yourself to a bland diet in the apocalypse.
[Editor’s note: Appetite fatigue is a real concern when SHTF. We’re so accustomed to eating a wide variety of food that now being “stuck with” the same foods over and over is just plain boring to one’s tastebuds. Spices and other seasonings help to combat this problem. Stockpile plenty of spices now while they’re still abundant and inexpensive.]
These suggestions are a basic list. Feel free to tweak the contents of your pantry as you see fit. Include more things you like, and don’t stock up on things you won’t ever eat. If you need specifics, read this book.
Water
Water is essential for survival. You can survive for weeks without food, but a few days without water will leave you on death’s doorstep. Your pantry should include space for water purification items, including chlorine bleach, iodine tablets, and water filters. These can all help to supplement existing water supplies when your storage tanks run low.
Remember that storing water isn’t just about drinking water, since water is also necessary for cooking, personal hygiene, for pets, cleaning, and more.
Cooking Implements
All the survival food in the world doesn’t do you a lick of good if you don’t have a pot to cook in or a can opener to pry those canned veggies open. A good survivalist pantry should include some basic cooking implements and tools that you would find in your traditional kitchen. Granted, you likely already have a good set of pots and pans, but would they be useful over a fire? Or atop a woodstove? At the very least, get some cheap pots and pans you wouldn’t mind ruining if it comes to that, or invest in an entire cast iron set that will last a lifetime.
Creating the Perfect Organizational System
Buying every canned good on the shelf and throwing them into your garage does not a survival shelter make. That’s an excellent way to waste money on food that will expire before you get a chance to use it. Remember that the last thing you need is a collection of canned lima beans that nobody will ever eat.
Before you start stocking up, plan your organizational system. Figure out where everything needs to go and make sure it stays there. This step can be tricky if you’re making space for bulk bins, but it will prevent you from wasting money or putting yourself at risk by eating spoiled food.
Consider investing in a can organizer, such as the Cansolidator, or something similar so that you’re always using up the oldest cans first.
Maybe Ditch the Original Packaging
Everything you buy from the grocery store comes in some form of packaging, but outside of a few specifics — like tin cans or glass jars — it isn’t going to do the best job to keep your food fresh and protected from the elements. Thin plastic bags, like what you’ll find protecting potato chips or bags of cereal, aren’t designed for long-term storage. They provide minimal protection from the elements, and pests can easily chew through them.
Replace the original packaging wherever you can. Buying in bulk often makes this easier because you can fill up food-grade five-gallon buckets or other similar containers capable of creating an airtight seal. Storage devices designed to allow you to remove the air or create a vacuum seal, such as a Foodsaver, are also a good choice, but their up-front expense can feel like a bit much if you don’t use them regularly.
[Editor’s note: You can use a Foodsaver for all sorts of purposes besides storing food for the long-term. I’ve used mine to seal many survival items, like matches and candles to jackets to protect them from the elements. Yes, it might be overkill, and sealing jackets or other clothing can make them smell musty, but I certainly got my money’s worth over the years.]
Be There And Be Square
Cans or jars might all come in a similar size and shape, but they don’t lend themselves to easy stacking. Similarly, stocking a shelf with bagged goods is like trying to build a castle with bean bags. Boxes, on the other hand, are rectangular, which make them ideal for stacking and storing. If you want to stockpile goods that don’t come in boxes, like bags of rice or beans, use small totes that can be stacked.
Go Big and Stay Home
Bulk storage containers might take up a lot of space, but if you’re planning for the long haul, it will be a more cost-effective way to stock up on things like grains, flours, and other dry goods. Depending on your seller, buying in bulk can save you upwards of 60% on overall costs. Make sure you’re stocking those containers with silicate packets to remove moisture and oxygen absorbers to remove oxygen, which could cause oxidation and spoilage.
[Editor’s note: If you buy your bulk foods already packed in #10 cans, then you don’t have to worry about properly storing your food because it’s already been done. Search for a nearby LDS cannery and contact them. I discuss the idea in my food storage book if interested.]
Enemies of Long-Term Storage
On paper, long-term storage sounds easy. You buy it, put it in your basement or garage, and forget about it until you need it. In reality, there are numerous variables that you need to consider when stocking up on dry goods.
Oxygen
Oxygen might be necessary for human survival, but it can be harmful to your food because it causes food to oxidize and go stale. It’s also why potato chip bags use nitrogen gas instead of oxygen to keep the chips from stale during their trip to the grocery store.
Moisture
High humidity, condensation and other forms of moisture are some of the worst things for your prepper pantry. Too much humidity can encourage food spoilage, damage storage containers if you’re storing dry goods in cardboard boxes or canvas bags, and provide the perfect environment for mold or mildew growth. Too much ambient moisture can even cause your labels to fall off, which could leave you with a bunch of mystery meals if you don’t know what’s in each jar.
Light
Exposure to light can cause food to spoil faster than it would otherwise. This applies to both natural and artificial light sources. The easiest way to prevent this is to store your supplies in a cool and dark place or utilize opaque storage containers.
Pests
Bugs and rodents are happy to help themselves to your survival cache if they can find it. Be careful to protect your food from these pests. Use metal containers that rodents can’t chew through easily, and set up any other barriers necessary to keep the pests at bay, such as storing it in a closed pantry. Be aware that mice and certainly bugs can often sneak into and under spaces you might not think they can, which makes your food’s packaging that much more crucial to get right from the start.
Temperature
We say a cool, dry place for your supplies, but that doesn’t mean frigid. Don’t let your dry goods and canned foods get below 40 degrees or much above 70 degrees if you can help it. Both extreme temperatures will cause the food to degrade faster, especially heat.
Time
When it comes down to it, even the best-packed food won’t last forever, though some mylar bags on the market purportedly guarantee to make your food last for a century. Pay close attention to your supplies and use items coming up at the end of their shelf life, replacing them with fresh alternatives. Practice FIFO — first in, first out — and rotate your stock out frequently.
Label Everything
We might joke about mystery meals, but without a proper labeling, you might only have a vague idea of what you have stored in your survival cache. No one wants to eat lima beans when they are going for some corned beef hash or some other tasty treat. In a SHTF scenario, you won’t want to waste food, so you’ll eat the lima beans, though you might complain the whole time.
Labeling is also an essential part of managing and inventorying your supply cache. In addition to knowing the contents of each container, labels should also contain information about when you stored the item, the recommended shelf life, and any additional steps — such as including moisture and oxygen absorbers — that you’ve taken to extend that shelf life.
5 Labeling Mistakes to Avoid
What mistakes should you avoid when you’re labeling your survival food pantry?
1. Choosing Poor Quality Labels
Yes, you can use anything from sticker paper to masking tape and a Crayola marker to label your stored foods in a pinch. It might work in the short term, but they will fade and fall off a lot faster than better quality labels, leaving you to waste time and effort guessing what you might have stored. Don’t cut corners on your labels, and even consider writing directly on the can/jar/package if need be.
2. Expecting Labels to Stand the Test of Time
Even the best labels aren’t going to last forever. Over time, their adhesive will begin to fail, and they’ll start peeling away at the corners. If you don’t address that quickly, eventually, they will fall off and again, you’ll have to guess. When you inspect your food storage or rotate out older items, take the time to check your labels to ensure that they’re not falling apart. If you find one that isn’t standing up to the test of time, transfer the information to a new label and replace it.
[Editor’s note: I’ve had labels fall off on occasion; now I have my own “mystery” cans of who knows what. Really do take the time to inspect the labels, too!]
3. Not Adding Your Own Dates
We’ve mentioned it before, but it bears repeating — food, no matter how well stored, will not last forever. Setting up a survival cache without adding dates to your labels will leave you guessing at best. In a worst-case scenario, you will end up having to discard lots of spoiled food. It’s important to note that these are not expiration dates. The ‘best buy’ or ‘best if used by’ dates are mostly suggestions required by the USDA. They’re an indication of how long a food maintains its best taste and texture, not how long it’s safe to consume.
4. Using Poor Penmanship
If you can’t read your handwriting, you may find yourself just as confused and frustrated as if you hadn’t labeled the foods at all. If your chicken scratch is illegible even to you, invest in a label maker. It takes the guesswork out of labeling and will even help preserve your dominant hand since you won’t have to handwrite each label.
[Editor’s note: I actually use a label make quite a bit with my pantry foods, but mostly because I’m a bit of an organization freak.]
5. Choosing Non-Permanent or Semi-Durable Markers
The Crayola markers mentioned above were a joke, not a suggestion. Don’t label your food with something that isn’t permanent, like washable kids markers. Opt for Sharpies or other permanent markers that will better withstand the passage of time and many hands handling each can or jar. If you’re worried about even Sharpies fading away, which they can do over time, invest in some heavy-duty permanent markers designed for outdoor use.
Being Ready for Anything
No one can ever be 100% ready for everything. But that’s not what prepping is about. The idea of prepping is to help you be as prepared as humanly possible for anything that might go wrong. You may never end up needing your prepper pantry, but if you do, it’s better to have it properly labeled so there’s no guessing involved.
[Note: This was a guest post.]
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