but oddly enough, this habit has worked in my favor the past few weeks. Here are a few examples:
--A few weeks ago, my hair dryer gave out and decided that it had had enough. I guess. All I know is that on a Sunday morning, about twenty minutes before we were to leave the house, it no longer worked. At all. Not a pleasing scenario in the middle of winter. So what to do?
Well, of course I notified my husband, who joined in the mad dash to find something that would help with the situation. At one point he had a little travel hairdryer, but we have not seen that in nigh these many moons, or years, or eons, whichever is closest, and we only had minutes to search. While he searched hither and yon in the other parts of the house, I looked through a stack of my belongings and pulled out my last hairdryer. Not as powerful. Tossed aside a couple of years ago for a newer model. Yet, when I plugged it in, it worked. Took longer than my quits-at-one-of-the-worst-possible-moments hairdryer did in its prime, but it did the trick. We were blessed to find it, since I hadn't remembered I had it, and to find it in time. In fact, I'm still using it. Living on the edge..... :) But it just goes to show, that yeah, sometimes when you think, "I should save that in case I need it sometime," you just may be right...
--More recently we took a trip down to my parents' house, and when it was time to return home, I left a pair of my shoes (the ones I use for everyday use) at their house. I tend to wear my shoes to the point of oblivion, so the pair of shoes that I am using until I am reunited with the pair left behind was in theory supposed to be gone, oh, say, last year. In my defense, I did throw another pair of shoes away at that time, but, true confessions, though I don't remember the exact thoughts I had, I'm pretty sure they went something like this: "I"ll keep these just in case..." Well, "in case" arrived, and they are making a brief and limited showing on my feet. They are no longer pretty, but they are still comfortable... :)
---Ok, and now the part that you have been waiting for, that is actually about food storage. Yesterday, I went to make meatloaf, and found that our cannister of oatmeal was basically empty. Having already measured some of the ingredients for the meatloaf, I was loathe to go to plan B. (Besides, at that point, I hadn't thought of one... :) So I went to the storage room and pulled out a silver food storage packet of rolled oats that we packed back in 1999. Thing is, back when we packed it, the labeling indicated that it would be best to use it within 5 years. Yeah, mathematically, that package was supposed to make its departure by 2004. But more recently I had read this page, and so I ran to the computer to confirm my hopes/memory and found that...wait for it...rolled oats now have a shelf life of 30 years. Now that's a good feeling....glad that that chart is there, and that some of my food storage has a longer storage life than I thought. Meatloaf and a good time was had by all...
Does it always work out this way? Hard to know, if you're still waiting for the part after the "just in case". But it reinforces to me the need to have a spare, if possible, of things that we need, and to know as much as we can about the food that we store. If we have too much of anything, we could just donate it, but if we end up keeping it, the day may come when we or someone else may need our spare, or just something to eat from our food storage.....
5 comments:
I get the shoes and even the hair dryer, altho I just read about someone standing in front of a fan when her hair dryer died, but, I don't get leaving food in storage and not rotating it out. I use up my oatmeal, bring out the one from storage and buy a new supply for storage. I have what I need daily and for the future and altho the shelf life is 30 years mine is usually used changed in 6-9 months. Katie1946
Katie1946--Thanks for your comment! You make a great point, and although I am not proud of the fact that I have some food storage that old, I have gotten a lot better at the rotation thing. Back when we stored the oatmeal, it was truly emergency food, and we only got a little of it, along with a few other things, such as dried milk and apple slices, because I thought we would need variety, as little as it was, to go with the bulk of the storage, which was wheat and beans. I was of the mindset then that I could put it away and forget about it--it was in silver pouches and in a marked box, and there was not much of it, so it was easy to do. When the "expiration" date had come and gone, I still held onto it, and it became truly emergency food--to be used as a last resort, because it was packaged properly for long-term storage, and I figured it would still be edible, if not perfectly nutritious, in a crisis. When the new guidelines came out for shelf-life, there was great happiness, because even though there was not much oatmeal in this form in our storage, at least it was still good...
When the mentioned incident happened, I remembered the silver pouches (of which there are very few), and broke one open. One of the reasons I titled the blog as I did, was because I knew upon starting it very little about how to work with my long-term food storage supplies, and basically shelved them and walked away. I thought of rice, beans, and wheat as being in the long-term category, and in this case I had stored the oatmeal as a convenience (easier preparation and variety) and didn't really think about it once I shelved it. Then I continued using oatmeal that I bought for regular cooking use. Not a good example, but reality.
I still have to make myself remember rotation, but since I have started using my storage, it takes care of its own rotation a lot better. We have newer, larger oatmeal storage now, and with the new gamma lids I recently acquired, I will feel better about opening a bucket of oatmeal or anything else....
Wow, that was almost a post. Sorry to be so long, but I hope that other people (if there are any :) that have used the same "shelve it and forget it" technique will break out of it like I'm trying to, and use it, thus rotating it naturally. I've known about the importance of food storage for a long time, but now I'm trying to acquire the skills/knowledge to be more efficient with it. Those of us who have done this and then found out that our storage is still good are very fortunate...thanks again for your comment!
I love asian Food and therefore soy sauce and I know that I have atleast 1 gallon around here somewhere, except last night when I used the last in the jar in the fridge and spent 1/2 an hour looking for the gallon. I checked my master inventory and sure enough it said 1 gallon at location B152. went to B152 but no soy sauce..... Best laid plans and inventory is no promise of soy sauce or success...LOL
Carl
The old adage never rings more true "one is none and two is one"
Carl--Your comment made me laugh, though I'm sure it's a frustrating situation. However, I'm pretty sure that if I were to see your setup, you would be one of my food storage/organizational heroes. Thanks for sharing, so that I don't feel alone in my mistakes!
Anonymous--I don't think I've ever heard that one, but it surely applies in these situations! I'll keep it in mind from now on--thanks for taking the time to comment!
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