Thursday, November 3, 2011

Utilizing space for food storage in tight areas

As I have stated in several post; grandson lives with us during the week while daughter attends nursing school in the next county over.   My only spare room to make him a bedroom was my storage room which at one time used to be a bedroom when we first built the house.  Some people have closets bigger than this room which is 11 x 10.  I had boxes and buckets stacked haphazardly all over this room so I had my work cut out for me.  


I started by pushing everything to one side of the room so I could put up shelves.  To begin with I purchased 3 shelving units from Walmart.  Once I started loading them I knew I was going to need more shelves.  I went on line to order shelves for the units and with shipping, just a few more shelves were going to cost me more that what an entire unit from Walmart did so I ended up buying 2 more units just to get the shelves.  I think each unit was around $30.00 but it put up almost 10 feet of wall to wall shelves.  I didn't want grandson to feel like he was in a pantry so I went to Lowes and bought 3 sets of accordion like doors that you are supposed to mount in a doorway but I used anchor bolts and put them in the ceiling.

Now you see the food....



Now you don't!


Since I mounted these from the ceiling instead of a doorway they do not reach the floor.  I have been trying to come up with something to extend these panels to the floor but no ideas yet.  If you have an idea I would love to hear from you.


Yep...the carpet is a mauve color and is worn out.  I hope to put wooden floors in here next summer when the grandson is out of school.


I used 10 gallon storage boxes for rice, dehydrated vegetables and fruits.  They are stacked by grandson's bed which is one of the old hospital beds that belong to our son.  Since the hospital bed will rise higher than regular beds I use the space underneath to store part of my son's 6 month supply of Jevity which is for his tube feedings. 


the 10 gallon containers are bright greens to go along with the camouflage curtains I found on a sale table for $4.00.  I am going to add Velcro to the fronts of the storage containers for grandson to attach his collection of mask, Spider man, Iron-man, Hulk,etc 


I bought a solid wood chest of drawers off of Craigs List for $60.00, A TV from the Flea Market for $10.00 and an Xbox with 10 games from Ebay for $30.00  There is 5 cases of wheat stacked beside each side of the chest that equals 330 pounds of wheat.  The next time I am at the Dollar Tree I am going to get some type of kids wrapping paper and cover these boxes.  I have also thought about maybe the shiny white paper and see if dry erase markers could be used on it.  Grandson would then have an art area for drawing and writing.


I bought this plastic roll around tool box for grandson to keep some of his favorite toys in.  I think it was around $20.00.  He can roll it into the family room or even out on the porch to play.


A basket sits in the corner to hold a few more treasures and a little camp stool I picked up for $2.00 at Dollar General completes the room.  Grandson has not complained at all for the space he has to share with our food storage.




We do have a closet in this room which I am not going to show you inside yet...on one side it has buckets from floor to ceiling which hold more powdered milk, rice, sugar, flour and beans.  There are shelves along the backside and top I stick items on that I have not inventoried into the storage.



This bedroom/storage room is ever changing as I am constantly trying to improve the food storage situation.

13 comments:

  1. It reminds me of my bedroom. I have an entire wall decorated in five gallon buckets if you get my meaning :)

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  2. I love this idea!!

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  3. Sometimes, you just have to do the best you can, and it looks like you've done well.

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  4. very good use of space & creative too!
    storage in a logical manner, neat & handy, is something I think most folks sturggle with. I am constantly fixing, changing and upgrading mine.

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  5. Well it sure looks very good to me. Every time I even have that look on my face about moving things around and getting better organized, I get a little grief from the family.

    I love the rolling to box idea, two thumbs up.

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  6. Hey PP... I was looking for a you tube video to show you of water storage in empty coke bottles that has become a wall. Can't find it. Was going to ask you if your wall of buckets looked like it. If I had another empty wall I would do the bucket thing!...LOL

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  7. Thanks Anonymous 9:28!

    Thanks GS!... We do what we have to do!

    Thanks HP! My storage is ever changing as well. I am waiting for some really cold days when I can't or don't want to get outside to complete another storage area.

    Thanks Rob!...You will have to send the family on an outing and go to it! Organizing is not one of my good traits and we are fast running out of room so I have to get creative!

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  8. I have an idea for the food shelves storage area. Mount the folding doors down to cover the open space near the floor. Make a valance from green camo material to match the curtain and hang across the top of the folding doors to cover the open space which would now be at the top.I think this would look good above the wood look doors and match the curtain.

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  9. I really like the idea of the acordian doors on your shelves. Great use of the space you have and you have given me some ideas as well, we are in the process too of converting a spare room in to our food storage room.

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  10. Anonymous 9:28

    Those are very good suggestions but I would have to do some serious measuring. First I would have to install some sort of beam to hold the accordion doors. It would at the least have to be a 2 x 4 and it would have to land on a wall support in order to support the doors.

    I use the top shelf on these units for my large items, like canners, pressure cookers, bread machines, etc. If I were to put a valance up it would have to be something I could take down easily when I needed something from the top shelves. Maybe a dowel rod if I could even find one in a 10 foot length. I may be able to find a camouflage top sheet that matches the curtains to make a valance.

    You gave me a lot to think about...Thank You!

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  11. Thank you JUGM... I am always interested in how people handle the food storage situation. I know I would like to do more but until I figure out more space, I am just about bursting at the seams here. Building on to my little house in the woods is not an option at this time.

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  12. Thank you Anne! Still pondering more ideas....

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