Guest Post by: Bonnie
Hello Fistful of Coupons readers! I am a good friend of Karrie’s, and happen to have a food storage that makes even “the Fistful girl” a little envious! She has asked me to share some insights, tips, and other useful info with you all, so here you go. If you have any comments and suggestions, I would love to hear them!
I really jumped on the couponing wagon a few years ago when we were living in the Seattle area. It was a lot of fun, but posed a few issues due to the fact that our apartment did not lend us much space for storing things. Since then, we have lived in four other places, and are finally settled down in a more permanent situation–a house of our own! I know firsthand though, how creative one must be in order to be able to store all the goods that we love to get on good deals. Living in Utah afforded us one thing I absolutely loved–a food storage room in a basement! Oh how wonderful it was! However, like Karrie, I live in Eastern Washington where food storage rooms are not common, and unfortunately, neither are basements. And so, I have had to do what many consider the un-thinkable, and have made my ‘storage area’ in my garage. My dear, sweet, handy husband worked hard to insulate the garage, both the walls and the attic. While it is not at the exact temperature of the house, it is pretty darn close.
My husband was all set to build us some awesome shelves, but after getting maybe a third of the way into the project and having spent between $600-$700 on materials, he came up with a better idea. He went to CostCo and bought these fantastic metal shelves, and spent less that $250 for all of them. (See? sometimes we DO advocate shopping at CostCo!) And he didn’t have to do the work of building shelves. In addition, if/when we move to a new house, we can just take the shelves with us.
Another thing that we bought at CostCo were these handy little things from Shelf Reliance (a Utah-based company that has their merchandise in some CostCo store).
These are can rotators, and look really neat. The pro’s to these: they look nice, you can stack flat things like crackers, cookies, stuffing mixes, etc on them. They also keep your cans rotated so if you use them as they are intended, then you are always using the oldest cans up first. The cons: they can get a little pricey, and each “section” only holds between 9-12 cans. For some of you, that would be plenty. And, if you had a LOT of something, then you could just use up more than one section. However, I had over 25 cans of some items, and after I put all the ones that fit into the organizer, I was left with a lot that I still had to figure out what to do with. Again though, they do look nice, and keep cans from getting jumbled and messy.
Another Fistful of Coupons reader, Brenda, made her own Can-Rotating system. You can see it at her blog here..its AMAZING!
Another organizing idea:
Clear Rubbermaid/Sterlite/etc boxes. For small items like spices, spice packets, etc, they are amazing. For bigger things, like crackers and such, if you use a bigger box then it also works great, especially if you have a mice problem if your garage.
A few words about flour storage. While I was living in Seattle, I learned that that if you want to keep flour weevil-free, then freeze it for 12-24 hours after you buy it. Once you freeze it, you should never have to worry about it again. While I was teaching a coupon class here in Washington, one woman told me that she bought a brand-new garbage can, lined it with a trash can liner, and she keeps her flour in that. She freezes it first, and then dumps it in the can. I don’t have a great flour-storing system, so I thought it was a neat idea!
I do keep all of my soaps,cleaners, Kleenex, toilet paper, etc outside. I keep them all as high as I can, and that way my two sweet but busy little boys can’t get into them. Also, heat rises, and that way I am not storing food that could go bad up high (although as I mentioned earlier, insulating the garage works wonders!). The next highest level has all of my treats/cookies/fruit snacks. Again, high up enough that my three and one year old little guys can’t get to it. One interesting thing that I learned from someone is that the reason food has expiration labels on them is because it is REQUIRED by the FDA on everything. However, there are some foods (canned goods to be exact) that, if kept sealed and non-dented, will not go bad. But, because of the requirement, they have to have a label on it saying that it will expire after a certain date. With that in mind, I will confess, I am not one who lives and breathes by the expiration dates (on some things, yes, but on everything? No).
Cereal is another thing that we couponers tend to get a whole lot of. I have always kept mine on my sturdy CostCo shelves. However, a few months ago we replaces a wire rack in our laundry room with cupboards, so we moved the wire rack out in the garage. It has been perfect for storing cereal on! And, you might notice the brown and blue totes underneath the cereal shelves. These are some awesome recycling totes that are great for ‘keeping green’ but also staying organized. Just putting in a plug for recycling all those Sunday papers and expired coupon inserts that we all have!
About Karrie
Food is my love language. But so is saving money. So I like to combine the two a lot and make thrifty make ahead and freeze meals to save time. Because life is busy, and freezer meals can come to the rescue for all of us. And yes, they actually CAN taste good. Read more...
Comments & Reviews
Tiffany says
I just came across this blog and have to say that I *used* to be someone who stockpiled but have learned that it’s not necessary. Seeing your stockpile shelves, I now see why they call you people Crazy Couponers and it gives the rest of us a bad name! I have a family of 4, 2 adults, 2 young children under 10 and I maintain a grocery budget of $400 per month which is more than we even consume each month, but we eat very healthy and live an extremely healthy lifestyle. I don’t feed my children cheap processed foods like sugary cereal, soda or crap that comes out of a can. I feed my family fresh fruits and vegetables and home cooked meals from scratch for every meal. They even get snacks but healthy snacks, not crap like granola bars or fruit roll ups, they eat an apple or banana for a snack.
Your photos show that you have a HUGE stockpile, full of processed, prepackaged junk foods. You feed your family that crap? Your kids must be 200lbs a piece! It’s not healthy to eat all that processed junk! If food can sit on your shelf for a long period of time without going bad, it’s JUNK! You state in your blog that your husband starting a project to build storage for your stockpiles and that you spent nearly $700 on materials, then gave up and spent $250 on the shelves from Costco. So, you spent about $950 PLUS all the other totes and organizers seen on the shelves and your husband had to give up a bunch of his free time to go to the store, purchase materials and shelves, haul them home, put them together, etc. ALL because you are hoarding what appears to be YEARS worth of food, that will mostly expire before your family can even consume them! How is that saving money? How is that possibly a GOOD IDEA?? While the crazy couponers out there see this as “inspiring”, the rest of us see this as HOARDING and sees someone with issues. Do you constantly go through EVERY item in your stockpile to dust the shelves/products? You know, regardless of where you’re storing items, be it in the garage or basement, it’s inevitable that little spiders and dust/dirt finds its way to the pile. Unless you are dirt poor and getting all these items for free, there’s no reason to stockpile so insanely at the point you have, because if you were a savvy shopper, you’d know how to scan the fliers and stick to a grocery budget. I hope you get the help you need!
Whitney says
I love this idea! However it boggles my mind how a lot of that food doesn’t go bad as you’re continuing to buy products? I have a small family, only 2 adults and 1 child. Would this be feasible for us?
Bonnie says
Anna, alas, I wish I had a fabulous answer on always staying on top of what I have. I suppose it is one of things that I have learned to just judge by feel over the years. What I mean is, while I don’t have it down to a science, I do organize my cereal (or at least try to), so that the oldest gets used first. If I see that there is something that we are using VERY slowly or not at all, then it is really easy for me to just not stock up on it (for example, Life Cereal. Just doesn’t get eaten at our house). On more of a giving/humorous note, I have a brother-in-law in college, and whenever he comes to visit, I take that opportunity to go though what is getting close to expiration or what I have way more of than I need, and i’ll “donate it” to his educational cause. 🙂 Or, if he iesn’t around, I’ll donate it to the food bank.
MaryBeth, I am taking the liberty to speak for Karrie here, but if you have info on sending coupons to military bases, please sent it to fistfulofcoupons@live.com I know that my friend who used to send them overseas got frustrated when the packages of coupons would get returned to her, so she/we stopped sending them. I hate to see all mine go to waste, so that would be great to have more info on, especially if you have local info!
MaryBeth says
I would love a supply like this but since it’s just me and my husband this would be WAY too much for us. Maybe one day I’ll get to have a storage area like this.
I just wanted to point out that military bases can use coupons past their expiration date. I do love that you are supporting recycling, because I’m crazy about recycling everything, but if someone can use the coupons that’s better than just recycling them.
Anna says
Curious about your turnover rate, and how you calculate that. I try to not have more than six-month’s worth of food right now, because I don’t want to suddenly find myself with 100 boxes of cereal and feel that we have eat nothing but cereal before it expires, for example. Do you have an inventory system so you know what you have and/or need before you go shopping or during a shopping trip? How do you make sure that you don’t buy too much? I’m an operations management geek, so I’m trying to be sure that my supply chain doesn’t overpower our consumption at this point, but I’m new to couponing so any advice you have would be helpful!
Bethany says
You have a grocery store at your house.
Amy says
Bonneth! I saw that first picture and thought, hey that looks like Bonnie’s garage! LOL
Yes, Bonnie is amazing… and the one who inspired me to coupon.
Sarah says
Do you use your poptarts codes?
Trina says
Thanks for sharing your ideas & photos!
I like to keep the flat 1/2 boxes that canned goods come in (look behind the pretty cans in the front of the shelf, and the store’s cardboard extra stock is behind it). Then I can store cans or boxed goods inside the low – cut cardboard boxes. Having cans inside of the other boxes means they are easy to slide on/off the shelf as a small group of cans, you can still stack things on top of them, and if you’re putting them on wire shelves the individual items won’t fall through the cracks.
karen says
wow!!!
Mallory says
You pantry is truly inspiring. Thank you for sharing it and giving me some great ideas. =)
becky says
My pantry is too full to cram more into, so we have added shelves to my daughter’s walk-in closet. The cereal, brownies, granola bars, pasta mixes, etc. go to the ceiling of the closet that way! My husband just bought wood and metal brackets at Home Depot to make the extra shelves. Thanks for sharing, I see many things in your storage that I also have in mine:) Funny side note about cereal—-I counted my stock pile the other day and I have over 150 boxes of cereal in my house right now!!!!!
Audra says
I’m a friend of Bonnie’s and I think her stockpile is a little over the top! Wowzers! What a great grocery store she has! They could eat for years and never go hungry!
Rana says
This inspired me to get my linen closet cleared a little to use as extra food storage. I need the space so when there is a BIG sale I can actually stock up on more than 4 packages! Good job!
susi says
wow! so jealous! I’m with Dani, I literally had to pick up my jaw from the floor. So inspired!
Emily says
My husband and I are building a new home, I’m going to show him this picture tonight and tell him that’s how I want our garage set up lol. Thanks for the ideas! This is one gigantic stock pile!
Molly says
Holy shiznit! That is awesome! Too bad we have NO room for anything of the sort!
Dani says
I now have to pick my jaw up off the floor! This is very inspiring!! Thanks for sharing!!
Brenda says
Inspiring and Motivating!