Bugging in. Where to start?

[digi]

This is my first real thread, so apologies in advance if things have been covered, or its in the wrong section etc, I've looked over loads of threads over the last few days, and 'online' information is mainly US based.

I spend a lot of my time away from home, mostly in my little white van. Its kitted up with a grab bag, first aid kit, at least 6L bottled water as standard (not everyone else in the company standard though, i also carry hi-vis and fire extinguisher that nobody else carries). I spend about 24 hours a month in my car, which also has its own grab bag and water, and then theres the house.

Like most houses, i have the usual 'stuff'. Unlike most houses (but id imaging more like most of the members here) i also have a 50L grab bag, some smaller bags for activities, usually around 2 weeks worth of food, and from september start to stock that up to around 6 weeks worth for 'just in case' for when all the shops inevitably sell out of the usual stuff when the 'winter from hell' news breaks on the village around november.

For the last 8-10 years, my september and october hoarding has ensured that when the locals start panicking, we have already got what theyre running out of (i buy gluten free bread for this, as its lasts about 6 weeks or more, and we eat very little bread in general, 4 small loafs will last us a month, normally 'waste' bread is given to the birds)

However...........

I'd like to turn an 8'dx3w'x8'h cupboard into my bug in stash. Its a cool storage room in the house with no windows, thats filled with crap that ive not needed for years, so, it is all going to get recycled / skipped / burned, and racking / shelving put down one side. The room has power and lighting (as well as high speed ethernet connections) as i have my modem, network switches and a full UPS system living in the back of it.

What tips could you give to somebody starting out like this. My normal 'thing' has been to stock up over a few weeks, then once the winter is over, have the missus sort through the tins, so closest to use by dates get used first, but, this summer when i actually did this, found a tin of mandarins with a BBE date of 2009

Whilst i sort of have a system in place, its not very organised, but has kept us ahead of the panic. I'd like to get a rotating stock of a good 4-6 months food in my cupboard, space allowing, and whilst i have the thought process of how to approach it, make it happen over a few months, and rotate my stash / stock, im not sure that i really know where to begin.

I buy things in bulk, when theyre on offer, even if we dont need them at the time. I'm constantly being ripped into for coming home with 120 bog rolls, 15L shampoo, 20 tubes toothpaste, 10L hand sanitiser wash, etc, as ill see an offer, and work out over time what we would spend on normal use, so buy as much as i can afford there and then. Mrs d will scream 'WTF do we need 100 rolls of andrex for?!?!?' but when it works out cheaper than buying happy shopper stuff every few days, and will last for months, the only issue really is storing it

Im looking for advise on the best way to begin my 'bug in' journey, or maybe not to begin it, but more along the lines of refine and clean up how i work at the moment, to make long term bugging in work, so, what could people advise?

[Arzosah]

Hi digi

Sounds like a good idea - it also sounds like storage is the main problem for you, so getting that storage room cleared out, clean, all holes filled, is going to be just what you need.

Working out what to store is important - its no use buying 100 toilet rolls if you've already got 100 but you don't have any soap, or only 5 days of carbohydrates. Is it you and your wife? Is it only food and water in that storage room, or other preps too, like the hygiene stuff. Work out what you use during a typical week, and multiply by four to get a month's food storage going. Work out a system of putting the new packets/tins at the back, so you always take the oldest item at the front of the shelf.

Are you going to be making the shelves? Work out the heights closely, in multiples of tin size, so you waste as little space as possible.

Store like with like. I have 2 x 24l plastic crates for my carbs, one has oats and rice, the other has flour and sugar. Even if there's a space in one of those crates, nothing else goes in there - those are my carbs, and thats all. With shelves, I'd say, allocate the space to one thing, and stick to it. I have a crate of a week's no-cook food, a crate of dried peas and beans, a crate of salt (that one doesn't get opened very often ).

Rotating your stuff once a year means its a big job - of course some stuff is going to get missed. How come its your wife doing that bit, if you both pitched in, it would be less disruption, maybe? But putting stuff in the right place to store it in the first place is what will save the most time, so your idea of transforming that big space is the right one

HTH

[digi]

thanks for the reply Arzosah

Storage isnt so much of the issue, WISE USE of the storage is my issue

The cupboard im thinking of is withing the house, a good size, and 15 years ago, was 'my computer room'. Its only very recently that ive thought about this, even though thinking back, ive been 'prepping' in some sort of way on and off with some specific parts of my life, and seasonal, for nearly 10 years.

Now i think back, our 'annual sort out' of food is not quite how i think you are imagining it. in the summer, mrs d sorts through tins etc to give to local schools for them to make their harvest festival boxes etc, september i start to buy a little extra each week, for the next 8 - 10 weeks, knowing that winters on the way. mainly things like an extra 5 or 6 tins and pack of pasta a week, a loaf of long life bread along with a normal loaf (when its 3 quid a loaf you dont buy much of it lol), things like that. this summer i was bored so pulled all of the tins out of the cupboard and went through them, and found the antique one. its never been something that neither of us has really 'done' as a chore or routine

The bulk buying of bog rolls, soap, bleach, anything household like that, ill do at any time of the year if i see them on offer, knowing that buying in bulk now, will save money spread out. But, this does mean that we ALWAYS have a good supply of this sort of thing, months and months worth (yet if mrs d uses the last dribble of shampoo in the bottle, i dont know about it untill im soaking wet, and about to use the shampoo, damn it, lol)

i like the suggestion of making the shelfs the same height of stacks of tins, i hadnt thought of that.

Ive got most of my stuff in the kitchen cupboards, as usual, but i think over the next week ill get the cupboard stripped out, and then start to slowly fill it up, but, use everything in the kitchen as normal, hygiene stuff is stored upstairs. bog rolls, normally bought in ~90-100 at a time in the bottom of the airing cupboard, shampoos, soaps, toothpastes, bodywashes etc all in a section of the wardrobe, and bleaches in a small cupboard in the bathroom. its just a store for food and water i need to sort out

ive not mentioned water much, but i do always have bottles of water in the house, car and van. I would be planning on storing about 8-10 of the big round bottles of water at the very most, as at the end of my back garden is a mountain stream, which i have NEVER seen run dry, but, if it did, it joins onto the main river which is a 5 minute walk away, so with boiling, water purification tablets, and water to go bottle, a constant supply of water is not really an issue

[Deeps]

I'm in a similar position, I put most of my food preps in platic boxes and cardboard boxes in the garage and while I check the dates, I'm still looking for a better system than trying to remember which end is the oldest stuff. I keep it in boxes as much as I can so that if anyone is in the garage then its a bit more discrete than having shelves bulging with stuff which kind of negates keeping quiet about it. There is wasted space as well because the shelving wasn't designed for this particular purpose, and long term I will come up with a better solution (once I figure it out). Maybe in your case if you're building shelving, you could put some kind of doors or hanging curtains or the like to prevent people seeing what you have in there, that way if you've got people round and someone looks in all they see is cupboards or whatever, you can just call it the larder.

[Yorkshire Andy]

What have you got to cook on or light the house with? Should you loose services

Thought about an industrial emergency light in the cupboard if the power goes off you get 3 hrs of light to sort your preps out

[Bosworth]

I keep an electronic inventory of my stores. Tedious, but very easy to forget what you have, and very easy to lose track of best before dates on food and medicine.

[digi]

What have you got to cook on or light the house with? Should you loose services

Thought about an industrial emergency light in the cupboard if the power goes off you get 3 hrs of light to sort your preps out

For cooking i have a small single hob camping stove, like a little briefcase type thing that takes gas cylinders, and a box of 24 canisters. I also have BBQ stuff, but as ive read elsewhere, if things got really bad, and a week later the neighbours smell flame grilled burgers and smoked ribs, the stash probably wouldnt stay intact for very long.

Buying an LED emergency bulkhead for the cupboard is something i may consider, i actually have one in the porch. For longer term night lighting, i have quite a few 10 hour glow sticks, a box of 140 odd tealight candles and assorted torches and head lights

[Bad Wombat]

How about packing a good mix of food items in a single box until full. Then mark the date on the box and shelve it. Do this over time with a few boxes. To rotate, all you have to do is pull out the oldest box and eat the contents. Once empty - start filling it up again with new items. This works really well if you stick to dried and tinned foods with a similar shelf lives (say 2 years), and is a simple way to stored the right mix of foods without having to keep track of individual use by dates. Once you know how long each box will feed you for then talking stock is pretty easy - just count the boxes and multiply by number of days food per box. No spreadsheets needed. Don't get me wrong - I do love a good spreadsheet! But this seems the most simple approach to me.

[Deeps]

How about packing a good mix of food items in a single box until full. Then mark the date on the box and shelve it. Do this over time with a few boxes. To rotate, all you have to do is pull out the oldest box and eat the contents. Once empty - start filling it up again with new items. This works really well if you stick to dried and tinned foods with a similar shelf lives (say 2 years), and is a simple way to stored the right mix of foods without having to keep track of individual use by dates. Once you know how long each box will feed you for then talking stock is pretty easy - just count the boxes and multiply by number of days food per box. No spreadsheets needed. Don't get me wrong - I do love a good spreadsheet! But this seems the most simple approach to me.

If that works for you then fair enough but I tend to put the same things together and use the oldest as I go through them. I find it easier to integrate things into our normal scran that way but it can be a bit of a kerfuffle. Still hunting for the perfect system.

[7 lives]

I recently refurbished our outhouse with shelving etc to store Mr 7 lives mountaineering/climbing stuff and our preps.
Am not very good with computers so have old fashioned pen and paper to keep track of stores.
Tend to store by expirary date in tubs with list of contents on outside.(Love lists must be the retired nurse in me!)
Everything off floor to avoid flooding and in waterproof containers -I rotate stock when been shopping and have a reasonable idea of stores for meal planning.