Preparing for Uncertainty and Self Reliance

[Speaker to Animals]

My free-dried #10 cans are stored in a large rack in my second bedroom along with some other gear.

You don't want to store things like that in a garage. Keep it climate controlled if you can so that it lasts longer. Some of those cans, especially meat, is pretty expensive. You want it to last for ten years at least, but that's not going to happen if you store it in a garage.

Other options I have seen include racks that sit horizontally and can be placed beneath a bed. Even if you don't use a rack like I do, you can just slide those things right beneath the bed. Make sure you mark them with dates so that you can keep them organized.


I used these guys for racks:

http://www.thrivelife.com/pantry-can-systems.html

Though the racks need a bit of rigging to keep them stable between moves and whatnot.


Another piece of advice is to just get #10 can racks. Forget the pantry can sections because they take up more space for less food.

For grains, just buy the buckets. You need something like 300 lbs of flour per person, for example, which is a lot to store as #10 cans. Same with oats and rice. All that keto shit goes out the window for prepping. Flour, oats, and rice are the base of your pyramid, and meat is at the very tippy top. You are trying to survive here.

[Ex-California]

My free-dried #10 cans are stored in a large rack in my second bedroom along with some other gear.

You don't want to store things like that in a garage. Keep it climate controlled if you can so that it lasts longer. Some of those cans, especially meat, is pretty expensive. You want it to last for ten years at least, but that's not going to happen if you store it in a garage.

Other options I have seen include racks that sit horizontally and can be placed beneath a bed. Even if you don't use a rack like I do, you can just slide those things right beneath the bed. Make sure you mark them with dates so that you can keep them organized.


I used these guys for racks:

http://www.thrivelife.com/pantry-can-systems.html

Though the racks need a bit of rigging to keep them stable between moves and whatnot.


Another piece of advice is to just get #10 can racks. Forget the pantry can sections because they take up more space for less food.

For grains, just buy the buckets. You need something like 300 lbs of flour per person, for example, which is a lot to store as #10 cans. Same with oats and rice. All that keto shit goes out the window for prepping. Flour, oats, and rice are the base of your pyramid, and meat is at the very tippy top. You are trying to survive here.

Man, I want to get those racks just for my day-to-day food storage

And yeah, obviously any kind of specialized diet goes out the window in a survival situation

[Hanarchy Montanarchy]

Nah, carbs are a super labor intensive source of nutrition.

High protein is the way to go in an emergency... you just have to be a lot less picky about your protein sources.

A lot less picky.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Would buying another overhead rack to hang from the ceiling of my garage be a good idea for storage of my emergency rations?

Or will that be a bad idea since the most common type of emergency I'm likely to have is an earthquake?

Where are you storing your guys's shit?

If you suspend it from a few inches of chain, it should be ok. Just have a little front rack or bar to keep things from falling off.

[Speaker to Animals]

You can also look for people reselling restaurant racks.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/KELMAX-CAN-RACK ... 3228198809

That one is in Ohio, so it's not going to work for you, but that's a really good price for a #10 rack.

216 cans.

[Montegriffo]

Self reliance means making your own racks surely.

[SuburbanFarmer]

I'm looking into building a rack from pallet wood this winter, to hold all of our canned goods. We have a plastic rack in the basement (Target/Walmart thing) that's sagging and about to collapse. Cheap shit made for cleaning supplies, and not much else.

[Speaker to Animals]

Self reliance means making your own racks surely.

If you want. A huge rack for less than $200 that automatically cycles the cans top to bottom is pretty nice. Most of us don't have a machine shop in the garage.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Self reliance means making your own racks surely.

If you want. A huge rack for less than $200 that automatically cycles the cans top to bottom is pretty nice. Most of us don't have a machine shop in the garage.

Those racks are made for moving around a smooth floor. You really don't need all that just to hold your cans. Hell, you could stack them on the floor in the basement and be done. If you want it to look nice, you don't get a commercial steel rack.

Also, if you're going to use the canned goods all the time, you're better off canning your own in big mason jars.

[Speaker to Animals]

Self reliance means making your own racks surely.

If you want. A huge rack for less than $200 that automatically cycles the cans top to bottom is pretty nice. Most of us don't have a machine shop in the garage.

Those racks are made for moving around a smooth floor. You really don't need all that just to hold your cans. Hell, you could stack them on the floor in the basement and be done. If you want it to look nice, you don't get a commercial steel rack.

Also, if you're going to use the canned goods all the time, you're better off canning your own in big mason jars.

LOL

There is no way I could store as much as I do in the space that I store it without one of those racks.