Are you making these 3 Food Storage Mistakes?

Top 3 Food Storage Mistakes

There is a fear with starting food storage that you are “doing it wrong”.  We have all been there, and sometimes it freezes us from actually building food storage.  But don’t worry, you’ll be on the right track if you keep away from these most common food storage mistakes.

“Updated October 2020” – This post contains affiliate links. Read my affiliate link disclosure here.

1. Using your food storage WRONG or NOT using it at all.

FREE CLASS! How to build a food storage you’ll actually eat. Sign up here.

This one can send mixed signals, so lets be clear with this. 

You don’t:

• Know how to cook and eat your basic grains (wheat, rice, beans, oats, ect.).  Learning how to cook with your food storage will help your body and family adjust to it.  And it’s healthy for you too!
• Rotate out your basic items.  If you have canned food, bottled, or boxed items these need to be rotated and used.  I’m not going to give you specific dates (because I don’t technically agree with expiration dates).  The easiest way to do this, is to start cooking with them.  If you are consistently cooking with your oil, canned veggies, baking powder, etc, then you’ll be using them prior to going bad.  That being said, if a can is leaking or bulging, or something looks or smells off, don’t eat it.
• You ARE cooking with your FREEZE DRIED food storage.  DON’T DO THIS!  It is not cost efficient OR needed.  Since freeze dried food stores for 20 years, you don’t need to be cooking with it on a daily basis.  I don’t care what others say, it IS more expensive to  cook with it.  So, you may use it every now and then, but not on a monthly basis.

Solution:  

Learn how to use your food Storage and learn which type of food storage is BEST for YOU so you use it more often.

2. No PLAN for using your food storage

Ok, this is a tricky one, even though it is the one of the BIGGEST food storage mistakes everyone makes.

You’ve got 50 lbs of wheat, 10 pounds of honey, and some freeze-dried meats, fruits and veggies.  That’s great!  Now what?  How are you going to use those?  What meals are you using your wheat and meat for?  How are you going to use your veggies?  Do you have enough for 3 meals a day for your whole family?

Stocking up on food is good, but not planning what it will be used for is big problem.  It’s important to have a list or book where you know exactly how many meals and what meals you will be using your food for.  

When it comes down to needing your supply it will allow you to know:

• what meals you can make with it
• how many meals you can make with it
• how to be organized for breakfast/lunch/dinner/treats
• know if you have extras to share

Solution:  

Use my 5 steps to build your food storage to get you on the right track.  An example is having ingredients for 7 different breakfasts, lunches and dinners for 52 meals.  Here is a good example of one of my 4 month supplies (I have 3 to total a year supply of food).  You can also take a look at my Food Storage Meal Plans to see if any interest you.

FREE CLASS! How to build a food storage you’ll actually eat. Sign up here.

3. Not storing water

We have all done this.  I mean, we have water stored, but not enough for a 1 week supply.  I made this mistake.  We started with gathering our year supply of food, THEN planned to work on water.  Well, thats where we stopped, took a break and never got back to it.

You can’t survive without water, but you can survive without food. 

Storing a 2 week to a month supply of water should have been the FIRST thing on the list.  Then, move on to storing food.  If you are storing freeze-dried items, storing extra water is a MUST.

Be sure to have plenty of water for drinking, washing, cooking and cleaning.  I understand it can be difficult to store a years supply of water (I’m speaking for myself here), so just do what you can.  Read more about how much water you need to store.  Then, have filters to help you filter enough water for a year.  Read more about how to store water for long term storage.

HERE, HERE, and HERE are some great articles that recommend how much water to store and why.  

While storing water is important, water filtration is critical. Nobody can store enough water for the rest of their lives, but knowing how to filter water and having the materials to do so will be a matter of life and death after an event. I’m lucky that I live near a river, so I don’t have to store as much as some folks, but I still store more than 2 weeks of water since during some events it may not be safe to be outside for that long. And remember, if you’re storing a lot of FD food then you’ll need extra water to rehydrate your meals! -Readers comment

In conclusion

There can be some very big food storage mistakes.  The biggest thing to remember is to plan out your food storage. Don’t just buy whatever is on sale or sounds good at the time.

What food storage mistakes have you made? Comment below.

FREE CLASS! How to build a food storage you’ll actually eat. Sign up here.

Further Reading

#1 Food Storage Tip from the Experts

7 Uncomfortable Truths about Food Storage

What You Are Forgetting your Your Food Storage

If you liked this post, please let us know by leaving a comment below and clicking those share buttons to tell your friends. As always, we appreciate you taking a minute of your time to spread the word about preparedness.

Thanks for reading!