Actively Managing Your Food Storage

As I work to get things ready for the Emergency Preparedness Fair this weekend, I had to take a dose of humble pie! Some of the things I will recommend others do, I haven't done in a while. One of those things is to inventory food storage supplies. At a minimum, you should inventory it yearly. I haven't inventoried mine in two years!

So I decided that I couldn't tell others to inventory their food storage if I wasn't going to inventory mine. Notebook and pen in hand, I started my inventory. All I have to say is "What a mess!" My numbers were way off! And, I don't know how it happened. 

I have always noted when I pull something from food storage and then add it to the replacement list to get another one. How could my inventory sheet be so wrong? I really have no idea. But, this taught me a lesson: you can't be complacent in managing your food storage! To have an accurate idea of how much you have (and to be sure you have all the ingredients need to cook your planned dinners) you must keep a watch of your inventory! There is no other way around it. Take a yearly inventory!

When I stop to think about it, it doesn't seem logical that I would have food storage and then not know if I can count on it. All that food would really be a waste if I didn't have an ingredient needed to turn it into meals.

Taking inventory doesn't take a lot of time either. It only took me a little over an hour to complete mine. A good portion of that time was taken trying to find things and remember where everything is located. This is another illogical point in my mind. Why did I not take inventory last year, when it only takes a few minutes to complete? I know I got busy, but really, I wasn't able to find one hour in a whole year?  My actions mystify me!

I have a plan to fix this next year. I will now declare one month in the summer as Food Storage Inventory month. If I inventory the items one room at a time, (I have stuff all over the house) it will only take a few minutes each day and overall the time won't even be noticeable.

So, the moral of the story is, don't be complacent like I was! Inventory your food storage soon. That way, you will have peace of mind knowing everything you need will be there when an emergency happens. It really gives you peace of mind knowing that you can feed your family no matter what is happening in the rest of the world!