Prepping food supplies in any setting is an art. If you’ve got a large home, then prepping your supplies might be more comfortable for you. But what if you’re living in small spaces or tiny homes? Do you have to throw your food storage and prepping dreams out the window?
Hell, no! How big or small a place is shouldn’t dictate your preparedness for disasters and your SHTF plan.
In this article, we share food storage hacks that will help you make the most out of your limited space and also tell you why you need to be strategic with food storage in the first place.
Let’s dive right in:
Why Food Storage Is Important
Of course, advanced food storage was probably the first thing to come to mind when you ventured down the prepper’s path.
Having a supply of emergency food on hand and ready in your prepper pantry is non-negotiable. Do you wanna be caught dead in the middle of a 3-day long snowstorm with no food stocked up? If you say yes, man, get outta here.
Kidding aside, the harsh truth is that most households don’t even stock up on enough food to last them a week. And that’s all fine and dandy if you can hit up Walmart at any given moment, but when the groceries are closed down for days, then the problem becomes pretty clear.
If you really want to commit to prepping, sorting out your food supply in big or small spaces is of utmost importance.
Space Saving Food Storage Hacks
Now that we’ve established WHY it’s important, how do we go about stocking food supplies in homes with small spaces?
Simple: by maximizing the available space to the fullest. You’ll be amazed at how much you can store just by organizing the small spaces in your home.
From canned goods to meat to fruits and greens, here are some great space-saving food storage hacks:
Storage Hacks for Fruits and Veggies
Fruits and vegetables come in all shapes and sizes, and sometimes, it can be hard to store ’em. You can’t exactly stuff them all in the fridge, right?
Here’s what you can do instead:
Vegetable Drawer
Got space under the sink? Turn it into a vegetable drawer! Some veggies (potatoes, squash, beets) are better kept in the dark, so a drawer under the sink is definitely the perfect spot. Sliding wicker basket drawers will do the trick for this, and you can easily get them online or at your nearest Home Depot.
Hanging Baskets
Wanna stock up on the produce but need more than a bowl on the counter? Grab a two to three-tiered hanging basket. All you need is a screw-in hook or a bracket, and you can hang your basket up.
If you wanna DIY it, simply gather wire baskets and a lightweight chain. Paint the basket and when you’re done, attach it to the chain, and voila!
Why do we love it? It’s fully customizable. You can optimize it according to the small spaces in your home, like choosing how many baskets go in and how long the chain will be. We recommend putting your garlic and onions at the top, the fruits in the middle, and the bottom basket for the bread.
Foood Storage Hacks for Your Fridge
Now we all know that the inside of our fridge can get messy at times, and we’ll have trouble putting stuff in. Sometimes, it might seem full, but really, all you need is to get things organized in the small spaces in your fridge.
Magazine Holders as Freezer Shelves
Does the thought of looking into your freezer make you feel extra icky? Then it’s time to grab those unused magazine holders. Clean out your freezer, lay the magazine holders down, and bam: you’ve got yourself a freezer shelf!
The shelves will help keep those “hard to organize” stuff in place, like frozen veggies and broth. It’s also perfect for separating your meats from other frozen items.
Wire Racks
You know how you lose a lot of space when you store tall items like juice and beer bottles? Well, this one helps save THAT space AND still allows you to stock up on the essential drinks.
Wire racks can act as an extra shelf for all the other food you’ll store in your fridge, while the tall items can be placed on their side right beneath the wire rack.
Hanging Side Racks
If you’re living in a small home with small spaces for storage, then hanging racks are your best friend, especially if you hang them against the side of the fridge. Yeah, you know, that exposed side that we never make use of? Now is your chance.
With an extra rack, you can put your honey, peanut butter, cereal, condiments, and oats on them and save up space in your cabinets.
Storage Hacks for Canned Goods
The typical storage system for canned goods would be to stock them up in your pantry. That is if you have a pantry. If you don’t, then here are some storage hacks for small spaces to stock those canned beans of yours.
Door Organizers
Canned goods are a pantry must-have but they also take up a lot of space. So how do you stock up on them with small spaces for storage? Make use of your door!
A wired rack securely tacked onto the back of the door will free up space and allow you to really add more to your food supply. You’ll be amazed at how much you can put there.
Fridge Side Space
If your fridge is positioned next to a wall, make use of the narrow space in between! A nice slide-in-and-out canned food organizer that fits to a T in that space is a brilliant way to use your tiny space wisely. You can either have that custom-built by a third party, or you can do it yourself.
Storage Bins Doubling as Furniture
Couches that have hollowed-out bottoms or insides are great for storing your canned food. It’ll allow you to make the most of your pantry and then stock up on even more supply right in your living room without your guests having to see the “mess.”
If a sofa isn’t going to fit in your place, consider a rectangular storage stool in the bedroom or living room, too.
Maximize Your Pantry Size
At the end of the day, if you can’t make your pantry bigger, then tinker with it. The best thing you can do is maximize your pantry. Don’t be afraid to plan out the spacing between shelves and take them down.
For shelves that will hold the cans, you can shorten the spaces between them since cans aren’t really that tall.
Just by maximizing the space, you get to add more shelves for a more significant food stock supply.
Look for the Empty Spots
Sometimes, the space we’re looking for is right in front of us. The space beneath your bed is a perfect place to store extra food supplies like canned and bottled goods. You can even customize or DIY pull-out shelves for that space beneath the bed for an easier and more organized access to your food supplies.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, we shouldn’t let small spaces and limited storage stop us from getting prepped and practicing good survivalism habits.
Narrow storage space shouldn’t be a problem if you know how to go about it. A lot of DIY projects can be done to make the most of organizing small spaces and can, ultimately, effectively help increase your food supply storage.
Got other food storage hacks you want to share? Let us know below!
