Advice on how to get organised

[BenPatten]

Hi, I'm quite new here but it's been a while since my last (and first) post. I've taken a lot of great advice from the boards and have identified a lot of storage spaces in what I previously thought was a very small flat. I'm struggling to keep myself and my supplies organised though. I know that some of the things I've decided to stash won't last as long as others and I also know that I'm not the sort of person who is organised enough to keep on top of making sure everything is in date or useable. Does anyone have any tips that could help an organisaphobe like me make a bit of sense of things?

[mcprepper]

Hi Ben
I’m also relatively new on here and don’t claim in any way to be an experienced prepper; I am, however, reasonably well-organised! I agree with you about the boards on here - I’ve saved myself a lot of time and money following the advice from those with experience. I just wondered about the ‘what’ and ‘how’ for your storage … are you just talking food and water or are you including medication/ batteries/power banks/candles/cleaning/hygiene stuff etc etc? Also, I guess people on here would need to understand how much space you have for storage - you could live in anything from a caravan to Buckingham Palace but I’m guessing somewhere in between … do you have a garage/cupboard/shed/spare room? Some basic info would help to understand your circumstances and inform advice?

[Nurseandy]

Hi Ben, you'll likely get a huge range of answers. Personally I'm of the "fit & forget" mindset - ie. I'm stocked up on various tinned meat and dried goods such as rice,beans,pasta, lentils etc. A lot of this stuff is past its bbe date but I'm not bothered by that & will happily eat it in an emergency when shtf. It'd be bland but we'd survive. As a last resort & depending on season I've a veg garden and there's a lot of deer & hares in the surrounding fields but everyone else will also be after them.
On a more day to day basis we get snowed in regularly so kitchen is well stock with more medium term but slightly pershable supplies. We also ensure there is a good supply of chocolate, wine & coffee. No point suffering unnecessarily.
As for water, we're on a private supply but reliant on an electric pump & there's a stock of bottled water for 3 days. Also have 100 litres that would need sterilising and also a few water butts collecting off the roof. After that we're boiling & sawyer-ing the ditch water.
We're a family of 5 mostly adults BTW.
I know a lot of folk on the forum are far more organised and regularly rotate their stock which is probably better but hey ho, not losing sleep over it.

[jennyjj01]

Hi, I'm quite new here but it's been a while since my last (and first) post. I've taken a lot of great advice from the boards and have identified a lot of storage spaces in what I previously thought was a very small flat. I'm struggling to keep myself and my supplies organised though. I know that some of the things I've decided to stash won't last as long as others and I also know that I'm not the sort of person who is organised enough to keep on top of making sure everything is in date or useable. Does anyone have any tips that could help an organisaphobe like me make a bit of sense of things?

I'm crap at being organised. For food, treat your stock as your retail shop and treat your supermarket visits as refill visits to a wholesaler..... And buy long shelf life foods so rotation is less important.

[pseudonym]

I use the clock change day to change the batteries in all clocks, smoke and carbon dioxide detectors and go through my deep storage perishables.

That's it, Twice a year otherwise as others have stated don't worry you are ahead of the game.

[GillyBee]

Another one who struggles with organisation here. I use clocks forwards/back and Christmas/Midsummer as reminders for some tasks like changing the water filter, swapping the food & water (energy bars) out of the car, checking the contents of the medicine cabinet and other annual stocktakes. Mostly it works.

[Sarini]

I like these clock change ideas. I'm definitely struggling with organisation also. My spare food storage is a very deep,high up cabinet. It's stuff we regularly buy so I can just pull it out fill the 'current' food cupboard with it and buy for the store cupboard. Keeping and updating a list was just not working for me!

Brilliant! Thank you

[Frnc]

Here's what I do. Everything is on computer, using the simple apps that come with it. I have my bedroom, small spare room, and corner kitchen cupboard. Plus a wardrobe on the landing.

1. Spreadsheet for batteries. Shows when bought, date marked, when charged, location (eg bugout bag). NiMH batteries should be charged once a year if stored.

2. I have my smoke alarms on a note in Apple Notes. I don't have a set period, I just look at it now and then and see what might need a new battery, or replacing. Or just when I tested them.

3. I have a spread sheet for general expiry dates, but the food in my cupboard, I just go through it all once or twice a year and the bottom shelf is for things with longer dates.

4. I have separate spreadsheets for my house first aid, and my BOB FAK expiry dates. I just look at them once or twice a year, and see if owt needs replacing.

5. Imodium, laxatives, hand sanitizer wipes locations and expirys on another list like smoke alarms.

6. Food in my BOB expiry dates are on the BOB spreadsheets, which is mainly locations and weight. It's actually in a rucksack and two bike panniers.

7. Water rotation dates is on a separate list. I have some that's over a year old so I need to do that.

8. A few things get moved around at the start of summer and winter. They are listed in my evac plan.

None of the clothes I'd need to evacuate are in drawers. Anything that's not packed is on a clothes rail in the spare room (prep room), so I can find what I want in seconds. It's in a sort of order. I use it day to day as well, eg all my winter base layer tops are at the front. They'll get moved in a few weeks.

9. Drawers. These are labelled, eg socks, towels, winter, summer. Winter is where the winter stuff lives in summer. My summer gear is in the summer drawer now.

I do have 2 other drawers for day to day socks and boxers, plus t-shirts that aren't on the clothes rail. In winter most will be in here. Then on the rack in the spring.

I have two wardrobes, and my BOBs are in the one in my bedroom.

I need to have a clearout of stuff I never wear. I had to empty my landing wardrobe to decorate, so it's piled in the prep room where my clothes rail is.

I have two racks with good sized plastic bins full of all the little bits like spare camping stoves, bug-in toileteries and so on. A mix of prep and day to day. All toileteries are in one drawer and one bin.

[Frnc]

Also I have a note Things To Do. This is in list format, and I can juggle the order, so important stuff is at the top. It's tick boxes, but I delete them if I ever get round to doing them.

[ForgeCorvus]

All good advice so far.

I'll just add my two pearls.
Don't forget the sundries. Food and teabags are great, but can you heat water if you're grid-down? or open tins when the opener in the kitchen craps out on you (that last one happened when I was a teen, it was a weekend and we ended up cutting tins open with an old knife)

Don't store what you won't eat. We don't stock pasta or a lot of rice as I'm the only one who eats them..... You'd be amazed just how many different storable potato options there are.