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Must-Have Food Storage Essentials For Your Home

Food storage is important to have in your home and can help give you peace of mind when circumstances in the world change, but what exactly are some of the food storage essentials you should have? What food should you include for a rainy day?

Below you’ll find a list of some of the bare essentials you should be storing away, plus some extra items you may not already be thinking about.

The Staples

These items are what you should stock up on because you’ll always use them and they’ll always come in handy. Not to mention, they keep really well!

Rice

close-up of cooked, short grain rice on a wooden spoon

Rice is a food storage essential because it doesn’t go bad! You can keep it in your cupboard for years and it won’t get stale.

The great thing about rice is it can be added to many other foods to create a well-balanced meal. On top of that, it’s really filling, which is great in times of scarcity. It also keeps well as a leftover and can be eaten again at a later date. To avoid any potential infestation in your rice, store it in an airtight container, whether glass jars, metal tins, or plastic tubs.

Water

Everyone needs water! Whether there’s a national emergency or your water has been shut off for some reason, having water is essential.

Here’s a great way to store water:

Instead of buying a ton of plastic water bottles, fill glass mason jars with tap or filtered water. Not only is this eco-friendly, but it can also help you save money too. The jars stay sealed and keep the water clean the entire time they’re in storage.

Don’t forget, water isn’t just for drinking. You need water to keep yourself and your house clean. Save some extra water that can be dedicated to other uses besides drinking. Trust us, it’ll really save you in a crunch and you’ll be grateful for your abundant supply.

Yeast

Bread is a great thing to have, but unfortunately, it doesn’t last long in the pantry before it begins to mold. However, if you happen to have a working oven, it’s pretty simple to bake your own fresh bread! All you need is yeast, water, salt, and flour. Mix it together, let it rise, and voila; you have fresh bread!

Dehydrated Food

Dehydrated food is an optimal choice when building out your food storage. It can easily keep at room temperature for extended periods of time. Prepping your dehydrated food also often requires little effort. You’d be surprised what variety there is in the dehydrated food sections of your local grocery or camping stores. Not to mention, it makes for a yummy snack!

Dried Fruit

dried apple chips in a bowl

The great thing about fruit is you can find pretty much any kind in a dried version. The only problem is it can get expensive, especially when half the bag is full of air.

Alternatively, you could purchase a food dehydrator and dry any kind of fruit or food you want! It’s very cost-effective and allows you to have a ton of dehydrated food all at once. You can dehydrate almost anything—apples, peaches, bananas, avocados, watermelon, candy, herbs, you name it!

Potatoes

Believe it or not, you can get little pellets of dried potatoes that store really well, allowing you to easily make mashed potatoes any time you so desire. They often come in large tin cans, so even just a few cans will keep you going for quite a long time.

Garden

This isn’t necessarily a food storage item, but it’s not a bad thing to have on hand if you have the yard space for it. Most food storage includes a lot of canned and processed food since that’s what tends to stay good for long periods of time, which means you’re not getting a ton of fresh nutrients into your body.

That’s why having a garden can be useful. You’ll be able to have access to fresh fruits and vegetables for snacks or meals. You can also plant things that tend to keep for a longer period of time like carrots and potatoes. Once you harvest those, they should be able to keep for a few weeks.

Non-Food Essentials

While food is the obvious thing you should have in your food storage, it’s just as important to have items to cook that food with. What’s the point of having a ton of canned food if you have nothing to open it with? This small list contains a few things you should also include in your food storage:

Propane or gas to cook food
Firewood
Room for storage (extra fridge, pantry, or shed)
Pans that can cook on a fire
Candles (in case the power goes out)
Matches or a lighter

Having these items will make your life a whole lot easier when something does happen whether it be a national pandemic, earthquake, severe weather, or something else we may not be able to predict.

Benefits of Having a Food Storage

close-up of freshly made preserves in jars

No one likes getting caught between a rock and a hard place. Having food storage will help you to avoid those situations when disaster strikes. As we’ve seen with the COVID-19 crisis, the shelves at the grocery stores are frequently empty, making it difficult to find the essentials.

Having food storage can give you peace of mind that you have everything to provide for yourself and your family in hard times. And perhaps you’ll be well enough off to help a neighbor in need as well.

Keep in mind, you don’t have to get all of your food storage at once. Getting things little by little and stocking up slowly is just fine. Consider freezing any extra food you end up with for a later date or rainy day. Plenty of food storage food won’t go bad; that’s the beauty of it!

Good luck, and stay safe!

Date

04/13/2020

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