Some of you may be interested to see what my Food Storage Room looks like. I know it has more food than some of you and less than others, but it works for us. I hope to someday paint this room a lovely buttery yellow and put some cute vinyl lettering on the walls, but for now just imagine it that way. My room may disappoint some of you, because you won’t see beautiful jars of bottled fruits and vegetables lining the shelves. I’m semi-homemade, so that would not be true to myself. But I’m sure some of your food storage looks like that.
My Food Storage Room has an outer room and an inner room. When you enter you walk into what I call The Food Storage Closet which is about 5.5 ft. wide by 5.5 ft. deep. Perfect! It looks just like a pantry. There is another door on the far wall that leads to The Fruit Room which is about 5.5 ft. wide x 3.5 ft. deep. Come join me for a tour.
MY FOOD STORAGE ROOM
The Food Storage Closet
This outer room has shelves on the right wall and the left wall, and a door rack. This room is carpeted which is great for our winters here.
The Commercial Shelves
On the right side we have a chrome commercial shelf on wheels. You see them all the time in Costco or Sam’s Club. I like the adjustable shelves, but boy, I only like to change it once in a blue moon. There are 6 shelves. I store these items on the commercial shelf from top to bottom:
- Extra buckets and lids
- #10 sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar (Note: I keep my un-canned white sugar and white flour in a couple of 5-gallon buckets in the kitchen).
- Pasta in #10 cans and in plastic totes
- Large spice containers, jam, honey, peanut butter
- Roaster pan, oils
- Glass vases and jars, canning supplies and lids. (Someday I will use them). I like to keep glass items in boxes on the bottom shelf in case of earthquakes.
The Door Rack
This metal door rack hangs on the door that leads to The Fruit Room. It has adjustable shelves too. Here is what I keep on the door rack from top to bottom:
- Dough enhancer, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla
- Salt, cornstarch
- Soy sauce, BBQ sauce
- Ketchup, steak sauce
- Salad dressings
Also on the door, I have some scissors which I use to cut the thick plastic on cases of canned food, and a permanent marker to write dates on cans or boxes when I need to.
The Wooden Shelves
My husband built these shelves for me on the left side of the room, but suggests that you don’t use 1/2 inch particle board as it is not very sturdy. You can see some of shelves are sagging. However, they have worked just fine for me. I seriously need to reorganize.
There is a large open space on the bottom for me to stack boxes with long-term #10 cans from the LDS Home Storage Center. Then above those are 4 shelves for loose #10 cans. The boxes hold six #10 cans each. I can stack up to 25 boxes in rows of 5 high each to have as many as 150 #10 cans. It saves the most space when you keep them in the boxes.. He measured carefully so they would fit this way and put 2×4’s on the carpet so the boxes are off the floor. I’m not interested in spending the money on an expensive rotation shelf. I would rather put that money into food storage.
I buy very few #10 cans from commercial food storage companies as it is too costly for me. I buy most of my #10 cans are from the LDS Home Storage Center. I only store what we will eat right now whether it is a small canned food or a long-term storage item. The Chocolate Morning Moo’s is an exception because I have an 8-year old, but we have never opened it. I keep powdered whole eggs on hand for emergencies, but don’t use them regularly. Boxed items like breakfast cereal, jello, pudding, and cake mix are in my kitchen.
If you have challenges with moisture in your room, there is a product called Damp Rid Disposable Moisture Absorber that helps prevent mold and mildew. The little beads in the container soak up the extra moisture in the air, and then you flush it down the toilet.
Here are the items I store in #10 cans on the wooden shelves:
- Regular oats, quick oats, powdered eggs, cornmeal, baking cocoa, white flour, red wheat, white wheat, pinto beans, Chocolate Morning Moo’s, dry milk, instant potatoes, and white rice.
The Fruit Room
When we first moved into our home six years ago, I had no idea what a real fruit room was. I’m not a canner. Standing in the kitchen for long periods of time is painful on my back and feet, so I purchase most of my small canned foods at case lot sales and can my own long-term food at the LDS Home Storage Center.
My basement fruit room already had shelves built by the previous owners. It is on the north side of the house under the porch steps. I have a 2-step stool in here so I can reach items on the top shelf. It has a pull string on the hanging light bulb, and sticky spider traps hiding under the bottom shelf. A bit creepy and not a place I want to spend too much time in.
It’s about 70 degrees in the summer and 50 degrees in the winter. There is a vent on the wall of the top shelf that leads to the outside. I keep it covered with a large plastic foam-thingy that was there when I moved in. This prevent too much cold or warm air from entering in.
I have a thermometer hanging up which helps me know what the temperature is at different times of the year in case I need to adjust the foam-thingy. I would like to add a rug on top of the vinyl flooring in this room as it gets super cold in here during the winter. And put shelf paper on the shelves. Anything to spiff it up. Got to write those ideas down.
I learned early on not to store my peanut butter in The Fruit Room because it gets too stiff. It does better in My Food Storage Closet. Because it gets very cold in The Fruit Room, I put weather stripping on the bottom of the door to keep the cold air in so the outer room keeps a steady temperature of 70 – 75 degrees. Potatoes do well in the fruit room.
I like to keep my cans in the cardboard trays they come in from the case lot sales because it saves space. Sometimes I reuse the trays if I buy a smaller number of cans. You can see that I seriously need to add some food from the upcoming case lot sales.
There are 6 wooden shelves on three walls in this closet. I store the following items in The Fruit Room from top to bottom:
- Canned fruit
- Canned soup, Spaghettio’s, evaporated milk and broth
- Canned tomatoes and salsa
- Canned vegetables and olives
- Canned beans, chili and stew
- Canned meat
Well, that’s about it. I hope you enjoyed the tour of my Food Storage Room! Have fun working on yours.
For more pictures of food storage rooms, check out my Pinterest Food Storage & Pantry Organization board.