I store about 40 buckets in our lower level, but not in the food storage room (they take up too much space). The 5-gallon buckets aren’t as easy, but each bucket is labeled. I just look at the ‘bank account’ on the shelves. ![]() With canned foods and home-canned jars, I can easily see all of them, so I don’t need to track them now. And I’m ready to stop tracking the #10 cans since they’re all visible on shelves stacked 3-deep and 3-high or in the 6-pack boxes. Now I no longer use a spreadsheet for canned and jar goods.Īt this point, I’m only paper-tracking 5-gallon buckets and the #10 cans of FD/DH foods. Once I had reached my 1-year food storage goal, I cut back. I used a detailed spreadsheet to do that. The first reason was because I wanted to know if I had enough food to last a small family for 3 months…then 6 months. Once I began to ‘accumulate,’ I realized that I needed a tracking system. It also helps with visualizing the big picture of your food diversification. I have also found that when you inventory what you have, you may discover excesses as well as holes. Occasionally we update the spreadsheet itself and print a new copy. When something is removed we pencil it out or adjust the quantity on the hard copy. Keep Inventory up-to-date !Īfter all that work of inventorying, you must keep it up to date. Even to the extent of calculating caloric equivalent days based on 2,000 calories per day. Just pick a color for each type of meat…įor food inventory management at home you don’t need to get crazy specific, but enough to know what you have and how much.Īdmittedly I did get crazy specific with some things. Makes it quick and easy to reach in and pull out bags. It’s different for different folks.Ĭategorize it using the methods that work for you.įor example, within the chest freezer category, we split up the meats by type (Chicken, Beef, Pork, Veggies).īy the way, here’s how we differentiate our meats in the chest freezers using different color tote bags. – (whatever makes sense based on your foods)Ī successful food storage inventory system depends on the way YOU think about it. – #10 cans of freeze dried & dehydrated foods – Dry goods such as wheat, rice, beans, etc. – Chest freezers (beef, pork, chicken, veggies) We have the inventory split up into various categories and other areas that make sense for us. Actually they’re separate tabs (worksheets) on the same overall Excel spreadsheet. I maintain more than one food inventory worksheet. The way I inventoried my food storage was with an Excel spreadsheet. One problem was how long it took to initially inventory what we had, and it required some discipline to keep it up to date. ( Having a food storage inventory also helps with better food rotation. ![]() And that’s okay… With that said, it’s simply a good idea to once-in-a-while re-establish knowing what you have, even if you don’t meticulously keep up with it. Although I do have several spreadsheets saved on my food storage inventory, I’ve not always kept up with it. UPDATE: I’m re-publishing this article several years after it’s original post. However it’s worth the effort to know what you have, especially when you’ve built up a descent size food storage. Not everyone wants to get into the detail of inventory. If you already know how to build an Excel spreadsheet (for example), then this will be the way to go, given that it’s so easy to modify, etc. Or, you might use a spreadsheet (which is what I did). You can do it the old fashion way with paper and pencil. Sounds simple right? Well, that depends if you’re starting an inventory before you already have lots of storage, or, trying to quantify an already “deep storage”… So here’s what I did: Food Storage Inventory Sheet That’s kind of important in this context! Also, and important for survival-preparedness, knowing approximately how many calories (survival days) of food I have stored. ![]() As a result, this would help with rotation (first in – first out). Next, knowing how old it is (when I purchased it) versus its probable shelf life.First, knowing “what” I had and how much of it.I figured that making my own food storage inventory sheet would help in a number of ways… Whether it be the variety of store-bought canned food, home canned foods, dry goods like rice-beans-wheat, all of my freezer foods, dehydrated, freeze dried food, etc., the problem was knowing the big picture, and detail, of what I had on hand. Solution: A Food storage inventory sheet. Actually knowing what we had in food storage. One problem that developed after I first began storing extra food for preparedness – was inventory control.
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