Let’s ‘Build’ a Deep Pantry. “Introduction”

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Another great article from NRP. This is a great place to start if you are not sure how to start. And even if you have started there is some really great information in here. 

I am asking all of you to please if you haven’t already started a deep pantry. Things are getting crazy out there and are just going to get worse. Between social unrest, the economy, shortages starting again, the threat of WW 3  ( Russia, China, and Iran) the megadrought, and the virus just to name a few things. 

Please share this with your friends and family. The more people who are prepared the less that will come to you looking for help.

 

Guest Article by NRP & Blue, April 19, 2021.

Let’s talk about actually building a Deep Pantry from the ground up, starting with the “How’s, Why’s, When’s, Where’s and ‘So-On So-Forth’s”

Definition of a Deep Pantry:

Now THAT my friends is a Deep Pantry!!!! HAHAHA

Ok Ok don’t laugh; but ‘That’ very well may be your Deep Pantry, A warehouse 1000-2000 miles away that holds all that food (and other goods) the Stores get 2-3 times a week (sometimes more) and is there JIT (Just In Time Inventory) supplies for the Country. How about places like Wally World? Ever look in the back of their store? There is nada there, just what’s on the ‘Main Floor’. And I will guarantee you trucks show up around the clock.
BTW, it’s known that “most” stores have enough Inventories on hand for 3 days ….. Period.

I know a lot of people that shop 2-3 times a week just to get food on the Table for that night. Also how about those Restaurants that receive food and supplies seemingly every day?

So what is the definition of a “Deep Pantry”?

As per Wikipedia:
***A pantry is a room where beverages, food, and sometimes dishes, household cleaning chemicals, linens, or provisions are stored. Food and beverage pantries serve in an ancillary capacity to the kitchen. The word “pantry” derives from the same source as the Old French term paneterie; that is from pain, the French form of the Latin panis, “bread”***

Well, that’s not so much of a help, was it?

So let’s make up our own shall we?

{A “Deep Pantry” is a Place AND Idealism of supplies you may and will need at a later time.}

Well about as good as anyone else’s I guess….. Because if you do a Search on the Net you’ll get thousands of hits, mostly trying to sell you a Kitchen Cabinet, but ohhhh well, I’m not here to yap about that.

What I am here for is to try to help you-all realize the concept of storing necessary “Stuff’s” for a later time when you may have a need. We have gone over those possible needs/emergencies in past articles, so NOT going into that again.

 

Common Sense:

Ok, let’s start off with a little Common Sense.

There is probably no way to get everything you need for a year…. Right?
Well if all you’re eating is Frozen Pizza and Fast Foods and have 3 rolls of Toilet Paper in the house all the time you’re probably correct.

Time to get those Brain Cells working:
Are you working on that “List” of goods you use in a month? And please do NOT tell me 30 Pizzas… UGHHH
Let me guess, no? That’s ok; it’s not something anyone wants to think about, heck it spooks me out at times thinking on the need to dive into my Deep Pantry if needed, and “Why”.

So let’s toss some Common Sense into the mix:
What are a few things you will “Always” need???? Air of course (we’re not going to be storing Air in the Deep Pantry), Water is a must for sure, How about Food???
There is a long list but we will stop here for now.

Water, you need to consume approximately 1 gallon of fluids a day… Not all of it has to be Water of course, but most should be, Heck I tried to drink a Gallon of water in one day for several days…. OMG my kidneys were floating and I was peeeee-ing every 15 minutes. SO let’s use common sense here. You need to have One Gallon of Fluids for each person for each day….. Let’s just use the term Water for now.

A little Math shall we? A Gallon of water weighs 8.33 pounds plus the container, but we’ll not add that for now.

So a Family of 4 will need 33.32 pounds of water each day (four gallons), if you’re planning on a Month’s supply, well that’s easy….. 33.32 # times 30 day = what??? You got it 999.6 pounds of water, right at 1/2 TON of water for only One Month.

A question, where are you going to store that water? That’s right at 1000 Bottles (thinking 16OZ Bottles) or at 24 per case… or close to 42 cases of Water, JUST TO DRINK for only one month.
So, you need the Space to put that Water so it won’t freeze or collapse the floor….
Like I said, time to think on things…….

BTW, that’s just Drinking Water, how about to wash with, flush the toilet, clean the dishes.
I personally right now use right-at 1000 gallons of water per month, according to my Water Bill.
Think on it, use Common Sense.

How about a little Common Sense thinking on Food.

SPACE!!!!! Food takes up a lot of room, heck look in the back of the Car or Truck next time you go to Costco and go crazy… AND let’s say that’s for a week. Where you going to put that Months of food? How about 6 months? Don’t think 6 months is that overwhelming to get?

How about when you decide to stock up on a few Paper Goods (remember the Paper Good’s shortages of 2020); TP, PT, Kleenex, Napkins, Paper Plates, Sanitary Hygiene, So-On; Where the heck you going to put 6 months of that stuff?
I would highly recommend you do a little/LOT of Common Sense thinking on where you ARE going to store this stuff.
A Little hint: The Deep Pantry, we’re getting to that shortly.

A Typical Kitchen Pantry:

Ok, we put you into shock thinking on where the heck you’re going to put 5 tons of goods and over 1000 Cubic Feet of “stuff”.

Welllllll, let’s take a deep breath and let it out slow… Look at that Kitchen you have there, How well organized is it?

Look at that Photo above, see anything wrong with that? I do.
All I see when I look at that is “convenience” and a LOT of wasted space. Yeppers, those pull out shelving sure is nice, and 1000% a waste of space, How about putting Adjustable Shelves in that same place and you doubled the ‘Useable’ space.

How about packing some of the Long Term Goods into sealed stackable containers, inventorying them, and placing them behind the every-day stuff? There ya go, just added a LOT of space.

I will bet you a Doughnut that I can find a TON of space in most every Kitchen that’s wasted or not used. Take a good look around the Kitchen, visualize the wasted space, and then fill it with useful goods.

A Typical Everyday Pantry:

Here is a nice nifty Closet Pantry I would call the “Every Day” Pantry, some place to store often used foods that are Kitchen Compatible.
This is getting a little better as far as storage mindedness. Shelving is good; this is a good start, in the right direction. Personally I would use adjustable Steel Shelving in there, but this “looks” nicer and is probably fine for what it is.

BUT; again notice the wasted space? If one would adjust those shelves correctly and reorganize the “stuff”, again you could double the items you can store in there.
One note, notice the Shelving itself; Kind of light weight, so you’d not want to stack very heavy things in there without reinforcing the shelves a little more.

 

A Typical Deep Pantry:

Okkkkk Now we’re starting to get somewhere.
Lots of space, good lighting, looks very clean and organized.
But again, the shelving looks to be mighty light-weight but they don’t seem to be storing much heavy things on the sides. There would be great for those Paper Goods we talked about. If these were adjustable they would be better. Again notice the space about the items they do have on them.

Something I really do like here is the Canned Goods at the back. These look to be the “roller” style rack, very very nice indeed. Remembering the” First In First Out” one feeds the New Cans in at the top and pulls from the bottom, Wish I had a set of those.

One thing I see here is the Crisco stored on the top shelf in the back, PLEASE always set Oils and Crisco stuff in a Catch Container, if it does leak it will make a heck of a nasty mess. Have a Friend that had a 1/2 gallon of Oil develop a leak… OHHHH Myyyy God it was nasty as all get out, everything below and the shelves, and flood had to be cleaned, took him weeks to get the mess cleaned up.

One thing I will point out in the first 3 Pantries, no Water Storage. Seriously start thinking about where you’re going to store Water.

 

Wire Shelving Pantry:

I really like this shelving. First it’s easy to build and clean, you can find it almost anywhere and is rather strong. You can get in different sizes of course, and it’s 100% adjustable.
Notice the spacing of the shelves, very little wasted space.
These are not the cheapest in town, but once you have them they will last a very long time, and you can break them down and move them with you if you relocate.

If you were to start from Scratch build your Deep Pantry, I would seriously suggest this type of shelving. Please note, you do not need to put that Bottom Shelf at the bottom, you can raise it so as you can stack a couple of layers of Bottled Water on the floor. Just a thought.

Let’s START building YOUR Pantry:

So, here we are; you have decided this Grumpy Old Fart may be on to something with the Deep Pantry Stuff. Cool, now where do YOU begin?

1. Get that “List” going so you know, kind of, what you use for a month.
2. Start looking around your Home as to where you can store stuff. Even if just a cubby hole.
3. Make a ‘REAL” Budget for what you think you’re wanting, NEVER GO INTO DEBT for Long Term Storage.
4. Start slowly, get just a few things (or what you can reasonable afford) each time you shop. Stuff will add up slowly at first, but as you understand more and more why you’re doing this it seems rather satisfying.
5. Take time to think about the “Why” you’re building your Deep Pantry, are you just doing this because it’s a fad right now? Or are you seriously considering the likelihood of needing these supplies in the future?

Here is a little hint… If you don’t get started you’ll never get it done.
I 1000% understand this is a lot of work, this is “Hard” to even think about at times when we’re running at 500 MPH trying to get ‘Life’s’ things done.

BUT I want you to think on something;
Who is going to take care of you and your Family…. “If/When”?

Lastly, I want to again stress OPSEC, basically keeping your mouth shut as what you have.
Others do NOT need to know.

 

 

2 Replies to “Let’s ‘Build’ a Deep Pantry. “Introduction””

  1. Miki

    Very good tips indeed. I don’t have nearly as much food storage as I’d like, but am so grateful for what I do have. My husband has been unemployed about a month now and we’ve been able to keep our grocery and household goods spending to a minimum, yet we have been eating very well.

  2. NRP & Blue

    Miki:
    Thank you for your comment.

    One of the main “real life” factors in having a Deep Pantry is Financial Withdraws so to say.
    Unemployment, Can’t work because of Injury, Retirement or basically any loss or reduction in Cash Flow can certainly put a strain on the overall budget.
    Unfortunately most of the times Rent,/Mortgage, Utilities, ‘Hard Cost’ items need to be dealt with first leaving Foods and shall we say “Luxury” items last and on the bottom end of the Money Chain.
    I will guarantee you the Banks, Taxes and Utilities want their money first; they seem to care if you’re losing weight from reduces food, they come first.

    Good for you having a Deep Pantry to help get you through these times.

    Hopefully DH will find good employment soon, Wishing you all the best.

    PS: There is a question out there on “How much food storage is enough”…..
    “Just one more Can of Soup and a Bottle of Water”