59 replies to this topic

[Schoolmarm]

Unlike our country sisters, many urban homesteaders may have
more storage problems when it comes to our preps. What
creative ways have you used to obtain extra storage space?

I know of one woman who took five, five gallon pails
and placed them in a circle. Then she took four more
pails and placed them on top. Then three more pails.
Her DH made a wooden circle which went on top of the
three pails. They placed a small round tablecloth
over the entire thing. They had a table which was
actually 12 5 gallon pails. What creative ideas do
you use or have thought of using?

[Darlene]

I have nothing creative...I rent a storage unit, I fill my closets and over the last year or so just stack in my living room and dining room. We don't have the luxury of basements down here, otherwise I'd have made a prep room down there. I have no room to be *creative* in my home, as it is already filled with furniture, but maybe someday I'll get me a basement.

[Schoolmarm]

Quote:

I have nothing creative...I rent a storage unit, I fill my closets and over the last year or so just stack in my living room and dining room. We don't have the luxury of basements down here, otherwise I'd have made a prep room down there. I have no room to be *creative* in my home, as it is already filled with furniture, but maybe someday I'll get me a basement.

Darlene, when TSHTF, do you think you will be able to
get to the storage unit. A group of us have talked
about a storage unit but we were hesitant for two
reasons. The first would be getting there and back
with the preps. The second reason is that the storage
units can be searched by those who run the place.
BTW, I do have a basement and it is filled with all
sorts of things.

[Darlene]

A storage unit is not a bright idea but the volume I have in there will not fit into my house...no way, no how. I have moved some of it out and back into here which is why I have things in my living room and dining room...but that in itself presents a problem with people coming in and out, etc...

The storage unit is just a temporary fix...I have a permanent plan in mind, but am praying on how to accomplish that.

[bluegrassmom]

Let's see....
I have one of my master bedroom closets filled with food in the bottom half. A few clothes hanging in the top half.

We have a bathtub that we don't use so I have alot in there. Mostly the medical supplies, big first aid kit and some bug out stuff. Pull the pretty curtain closed and you can't tell.

I keep a few buckets under my dining room table. With a long tablecloth they can't be seen.

The linen closet is a food pantry.

I'm looking forward to seeing the responses to this thread.

[bluegrassmom]

Darlene, is it mostly things like paper products that you keep in your unit? We have a unit too, but it is filled with furniture.

[Darlene]

Deanne, no it's cases upon cases of preps...I'm not gonna say anymore in public but it's a pretty intimidating sight.

[MommyofSeven]

We have also looked into getting a storage unit, but this being a small town, and people talking as they do, well, that's not an option.

My apt came with a HUGE pantry closet, that is full of mostly preps. The top shelf of my linen closet is paper goods. and when I run out of room, I'll shove stuff wherever I can. I have room under beds, and I just got rid of about 12 boxes of stored clothes, so that will free up a lot of space in the kids' closets. Then I can move "normal" stuff into their closets to put preps in closets that the public wouldn't see.

We also plan to put up a shed that will cover underground storage.

I really can't wait to get to the "cases and cases" of preps that DArlene and others have. I will be so excited!

Mo7

[pa & ma steel]

I have built a lot of sitting benches all around my apartment,any little empty wall space, or under windows. They are all the right height to place a 5 gal bucket of preps under. some hold 1 some hold 3-4. made a soft cushion seat and a dust ruffle to go around. Nobody know that if you lift the wooden lid what is inside. I also have cases under my beds, raised them up with 4x4's for a little more room. Did the same with coffee tables and end tables. Gotta love long table cloths..LOL At 1 house I built a false wall the width of my buckets and stuffed stuff in there. Made the room a little smaller but it worked great. Secret narrow door was covered with a wall hanging tapestry. oops edited to add I excuse all the benches bu explaining my hubby is an avid D&D gamer so we have plenty of room for folks to sit when gaming.
Ma Steel

[Schoolmarm]

Quote:

Deanne, no it's cases upon cases of preps...I'm not gonna say anymore in public but it's a pretty intimidating sight.

I have seriously toyed with idea of a storage unit for
paper products as well as cleaning preps.

[Schoolmarm]

Quote:

I have nothing creative...I rent a storage unit, I fill my closets and over the last year or so just stack in my living room and dining room. We don't have the luxury of basements down here, otherwise I'd have made a prep room down there. I have no room to be *creative* in my home, as it is already filled with furniture, but maybe someday I'll get me a basement.

My entire basement is a preppig room with the exception
of the laundry area. I am at present working on security
for the prepping area. I have water,bleach and gray water
stored in the laundry area. I have food on metal shelving
units which also hold ceramic molds which I am slowly
getting rid of. I keep my lamp oil in the old room which
once housed coal. I have a fruit cellar which is literally
filled with canned goods. I need to find a way of making
the shelving units look less noticeable. Got any suggesitions? I thought about placing sheets up over the
shelves but that is actually calling more attention to
the shelving units. I also thought of hiding food preps
inside the ceramic molds but I could get more on the shelves without the molds on them.

[Jennysmama]

Oooh, I have a bad case of basement envy...

[HSmom]

Quote:

Oooh, I have a bad case of basement envy...

Trying not to keep all my eggs in one basket....

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[westbrook]

just build a shed in the back corner of the property or add onto the back or side of the garage. call it your potting shed, heck on the side of that add a small green house to start seedlings.

get a tractor and build a huge root cellar in the ground then put a shed on top!

get one of these puppies below.. they will dig a basement for you!

[Jennysmama]

HSMom, sounds like you're in much the same predicament we're in...our house is about 1500 sq. feet, but no basement, as mentioned, and our attic is filled from the dropped ceiling (done by the previous owners) to the rafters with insulation, from one end of the house to the other! Like you, we have a crawl space under the house; I wonder if I could even FIT through it, should I lose my mind and decide to get under there in the dark with the bugs. We have a utility room with lots of shelves, though it's pretty messy right now with tools & lawn stuff. Hubby plans to clean that out and get it ready for whatever might be safe to store in there. (It can get warm in there in the summer, but as all the walls are brick, and it's in the carport, it's really not too bad.) I have a large pantry closet in the kitchen that I've been using to store our homeschool materials and all those small kitchen appliances & serving pieces that don't get frequent use. I feel a need to lighten the load--get rid of stuff that we don't use often or really need. My daughter made a huge dent in the piles of "stuff" in there this past week, so I have hope that I will eventually get it cleared out and ready to use for a real pantry. It's about 8' long (side to side) and nearly 3' deep, with three shelves that are 24" deep and one shelf (at the top) that's 2½' deep. So there's a good amount of space there, including the floor area. My kitchen cabinets are very deep, too, and we have two spare closets that can hold a lot of stuff. Sloooooowly we're filling up the space we have; when we finally reach that goal, I suppose we could use under-the-bed containers and put more things on the floor and shelf of our bedroom closet.

I'm just looking forward to getting to the point where I do run out of space to store things, because right now, that seems a long way off, what with all these medical bills eating everything up. Christmas is coming, though, and with it a little extra $$, which I plan to use most of for preps. Can't wait!!

[DoubleD]

We too are basementless and the attic is too hot (and hard to access) for any real storage potential. Our house is just under 1,500 square feet - and there is not alot of extra storage in the main house.

I have a large pantry closet in the kitchen that is packed - but very well organized so the space is extremely well used. I also have a shelf in the main linen closet that I use 100% for my home canned foods. Holds alot and is a very sturdy shelving system - making it particularly suitable to the storage of heavier glass container canned goods. My kitchen storage cabinets are not particularly great and generally just barely holds my dishes, pans, appliances and some normal useage food items. Only a top shelf is used for longer term storage in the kitchen - placing items I do not access frequently up high - but it is quite limited.

In my utility room there is a cabinet above a utility table that I store all my Costco boxes of powdered instant milk, canned evaporated milk, and a small box of powdered buttermilk.

In the master bedroom closet I have 12 6-gallon buckets of wheat, oat groats, dried whole eggs, dried brocolli, and dried beans which are stacked into the back corners where access is awkward anyway for normal closet purposes. This leaves the main center area for our shoe rack and laundry basket on the floor and our hanging clothes from the clothes bar. On the shelf that runs the long length of the closet above the hang bar ... there is stacked two boxes high - cases of dried goods in #10 cans. There is a similar stack of boxes in the much smaller closet in the computer room/office. Sadly the floor of the computer room closet is taken up with file cabinets - but the shelving is ALL about the food storage! LOL!

In the master bedroom large linen closet - three shelves are used for storage of personal care items (soap, shampoo/conditioner, dental care, medical items and first aid) The remaining two shelves are used for traditional bathroom linen closet needs (towels & toilet paper etc).

Then there is my "out of the house" storage areas. I have several rubbermaid shelving units in the garage and a large freezer. I keep the toilet paper, cleaning supplies, my canning supplies,

[BiscuitMaker]

I can remember when I started prepping I thought I could get all of it under the guestroom bed! LOL!Yes storage is a real problem and remembering where you put it???

[cookiejar]

bttt

[PoorMusician]

I guess I'll help cookie jar keep this at the top :-)
I live in an apartment so I can't really dig up the place or anything (downstairs neighbor might not like that), but something I've discovered is if you can find a lot of itty bitty places, they'll really add up.

For instance, behind where my front door opens I put a shoe rack. It's just a couple of boards with tin buckets underneath them. They stack up so we can get 6 or 7 pairs of shoes on the rack, but the buckets (which you can't see into cause of the boards) are holding preps. No one would ever think to look in the buckets even though several people have commented on how cute the rack is. It's not a whole lot, but applying that around my apartment has really helped. I keep track of it all in a binder, so I can find what I need later. I try to keep like items together so I can pretty much find everything even without the binder. It won't work miracles, but finding every square foot you can will help quite a bit.

[Amishway Homesteaders]

Originally Posted By: PoorMusician

I guess I'll help cookie jar keep this at the top :-)
I live in an apartment so I can't really dig up the place or anything (downstairs neighbor might not like that), but something I've discovered is if you can find a lot of itty bitty places, they'll really add up.

For instance, behind where my front door opens I put a shoe rack. It's just a couple of boards with tin buckets underneath them. They stack up so we can get 6 or 7 pairs of shoes on the rack, but the buckets (which you can't see into cause of the boards) are holding preps. No one would ever think to look in the buckets even though several people have commented on how cute the rack is. It's not a whole lot, but applying that around my apartment has really helped. I keep track of it all in a binder, so I can find what I need later. I try to keep like items together so I can pretty much find everything even without the binder. It won't work miracles, but finding every square foot you can will help quite a bit.

Now those are some good ideas