Versatility, Reclaiming Space and Basic Pantry Building ~ Preparedness Series

"The Pantry.—A pantry is like a tea basket, or a handy box, or a ship's cabin. It is a small space containing a great variety of useful things. The one virtue necessary above all others in such a space is orderliness. Without it convenient compactness becomes crowded confusion.

Things not connected with pantry work should have a place found for them elsewhere. Things most frequently used should be on the shelves and in the drawers which require least reaching and stooping.

Things of the same kind should be grouped together except when this violates the previous rule. That is, for the sake of keeping all the platters together, it is not necessary to use precious space on the most practicable pantry shelf for a platter only used at Thanksgiving..."

~ Housekeeping by Elizabeth Hale Gilman (1916)

Welcome to the second installment of our Proverbs 31 Preparedness Series! I love building up my pantry for many reasons but the concept of preparedness has come into the limelight these past few years. Though one's first thought may be of natural disasters or a national crisis, the common everyday struggles of financial difficulty and/or health issues (which can hinder the home economy) is a more common scenario that is often over-looked. In any case, the food storage concepts we will be sharing will be a blessing during not only any potential "bad" times but also during any "good" or "lean" times. It is in essence the old-fashioned, simple, prudent homemaking that our ancestors have done for many a years. 

I don't think the benefits of having a well-stocked pantry need to be discussed for times of crisis. During the good times, a stocked pantry is pure convenience! No need for last minute grocery store runs and all the other particulars shared here. During those lean times, a pantry can carry you through many months without having the concern of a grocery bill or lack of food for your family.

And while I like the idea of having a generous supply of everything we use in our household, it is just not feasible (financially and space-wise). I remember reading once from an herbalist who said he wasn't interested in how many herbs you "knew" and can "prescribe" for certain ailments but how to have only a handful of herbs and know how to heal many ailments with them. This concept of versatility struck a chord and the wisdom of it resonated within my practical $ide. This will be the approach in our Proverbs 31 Preparedness series! I am interested in building up the "multi-tasking" pantry ingredients which can cover many areas.

For instance, a one-year supply of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) is very affordable and can double as a toothpaste, cleaning cleanser, all-purpose cleaner, heartburn reliever, laundry booster, bug-bite soother, drain cleaner, deodorizer and so forth. When you choose to store these certain bulk "key" ingredients that multitask and that you actually use, you are utilizing your space and income more efficiently. Now this relieves me of having to purchase 50 tubes of toothpaste (which can really add up!), antacids, cleaning products, etc. This also frees up precious shelf-space since I don't need to store so many separate products.

To give you an idea, you can get a 12-pound bag of baking soda for $7.95 on Walmart.com while the natural toothpaste sells for approx $4 per tube! One "prepper" website suggested purchasing 6 toothpastes per person in order to store a years worth. It is much more doable for me to purchase the baking soda and not bother with stocking additional toothpaste which is out of my budget. I know that if a crisis occurs, I have a back-up plan for many household items (in this case, I can easily brush my teeth with the multi-tasking baking soda)! This is an important concept I will be sharing in our preparedness series. The financial and practical aspect of it enables me to actually do something viable for our household and removes that overwhelmed feeling! I will have ample reserves and be able to fill many of the needs in our home by adopting this method. Perhaps this system will be a help to you?

"Purging your home of the stuff you don't want or don't use will give you the space you'll need for the equipment and goods that will sustain your family in a time of crisis. Tackle one room or space at a time. Pull everything out of the cabinets, drawers, and closets. Pay special attention to stored clothing, books, toys, sports equipment, and small electric gadgets and appliances, especially broken ones waiting to be fixed (someday). Be ruthless! If you haven't used it, fixed it, worn it, read it, or played with it in the last year, you probably don't really want it or need it. It's junk! Get rid of it!"

~ Kathy Harrison, Just in Case: How to Be Self-Sufficient When the Unexpected Happens

A secondary issue for many of us is storage and pantry space. While our multi-tasking pantry ingredients will certainly help out in this area, we still need to stock things like toilet paper, etc., which take up lots of space. I like what Kathy Harrison mentions in her book, Just in Case: How to Be Self-Sufficient When the Unexpected Happens (shared above)! We think we don't have space but yet we are storing small appliances we no longer use (aka juicers, cappuccino makers, panini presses, etc.). Perhaps you aren't ready to get rid of the popcorn popper just yet and that is fine (but you can learn to pop corn in your stockpot!). However, these types of items can be stored in the garage or anywhere else that is out of the way to make room for food supplies which require a more controlled temperature. Food should be given the star stage in the home while things like toiletries can be stored in less climate protected areas such as hot garages, attics, etc.

We personally don't have any closets in our home nor did we have a pantry. We did have a very small room that we converted into a pantry. My mother also didn't have a pantry in her kitchen but there was a closet in the hallway adjacent to her kitchen that we cleaned out. She rarely used anything stored in there! My husband cut up some thick plywood and fashioned "custom made" shelves which made a wonderful pantry.

Also, I shared these ideas earlier but they are worth mentioning again...  In our first home, we re-purposed an old-out-of-style-cast-off entertainment system that someone gave us (these can be found easily at thrift shops and garage sales). I removed all the modern hardware and doors, painted it white, added an inexpensive spring rod across the top and hung a dainty white curtain over it. The end result was a pleasant "French country" pantry for my kitchen! Using the same concept, book shelves can store bulk items and can be covered with a curtain as well. You can have a whole shelf unit across one wall which can be filled with your provisions. Just place a wire across with a hook and eye to the other side of the wall and hang a large curtain (or pretty flat sheets) across to completely hide the storage and give the room a clean, un-cluttered appearance (the curtain cover concept is shared in detail here). There are many other excellent storage options that one can utilize and I think Annabel's post on finding space shares everything else!



I also wanted to make mention to try and store as much food as you possibly can in your kitchen. It is a pantry in itself. I got rid of our toaster oven which took up too much space (we just make toast in our oven broiler) and keep just the basic necessities on our counter-tops. This leaves room for lots of large canisters that store flour, sugar, oatmeal, etc. We also fashioned shelves in an upper area in our kitchen where we keep Tupperware of dried beans, brown sugar, cornmeal, baking cocoa, quinoa, popcorn, more oatmeal, etc (instead of storing knick-knacks). Our "technical" pantry is just an overflow of our original one in the kitchen. Since we have little in the way of cabinets, we placed a few small shelves in the kitchen which store oils, vinegar and our daily smoothie ingredients. We keep them in pretty jars and bottles so that they are decorative at the same time. Attractive wire racks can be hung on the walls to hold your bulk spices, medicinal herbs and seasonings (just try and keep them away from light for best results).

Before I start sharing what foods that I will be purchasing in bulk and for what reasons, I also wanted to leave you with some of these basic ideas:

• Store only what your family already eats. In the event you are blessed with forever good times, you will have only stored and bought what you already use and nothing is lost in the process. Otherwise, you may be trying to think of ways to make your family love those cases of pickled herrings you purchased on clearance because they were such a cheap source of protein! And you will also be struggling with how to cook with these foreign foods in the event of a crisis.

• Make it a goal to add at least one thing to your pantry each week. Garden produce and foraged foods that you preserve or dehydrate count too! It doesn't mean you always need to spend money to do so.

• Practice food rotation. Try and put a date on everything you buy in bulk or at least place the older items up front so they are used first. Place the newer items in the back to keep your inventory fresh.

• Learn how to cook from your food storage/pantry. In the event of a crisis (or even a I don't know what to make for dinner moment!), you will have a repertoire of already tried and true recipes that you can rely on. We will be going into more detail on this in the future posts as I share each bulk item we will be storing. I am hoping to include recipe pages to use those items from the pantry for a Food Storage Cookbook. I'd like to include it as a chapter in our Preparedness Binders. Depression era recipes are gold for this reason as many of them don't require butter, cheese, milk or eggs!

Do any of you ladies have anything to add on these subjects? I am in no way a professional in this area, just a homemaker trying her best for her family.

Your homework for the week:

• Purge! Go through your home and remove any dust-collectors, un-used appliances and other odds and ends that are taking up valuable real estate. If you aren't ready to part with them yet, you can always put them in a box labeled "garage sale" along with the date. If you find that you have lived without these items in one year, feel at peace to sell them or donate them. 

Extra Credit:

• Look into your pantry and start experimenting! Do you have any recipes that can be made strictly from what you store there (which doesn't include fresh items from the refrigerator)?

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