I live very rural. Been thru several power outages, 1-5 days. Got generator/water issues pretty well taken care of. Next step is food for 2-4 people for 5, 10, whatever days.

Want recommendations for grocery store food to store. Few cans, packs, at a time. Also, pantry is small. Unheated/non A/C garage gonna work?

Thanks.

Concepts of storing food

Starting long(er) term food storage

For up to 2 weeks, what do you eat now? More of that. Build a deeper pantry. Make sure you have fuel for cooking.

ETA: You can get creative with food storage locations. Got a close in a spare bedroom you don't use? Build heavy duty 2x4 shelves and you are GTG. Cases of canned/boxed food under beds. There are tons of tricks.

Throw a couple cases of MRE's in the basement and your done. Or store flour learn to make bread. Or pretend its 1800 hunt and fish.  Keep in mind two weeks is not really all that long.

Thank you, Rat Patrol. I'm thinking store-bought canned goods and rice for now. Little at a time. Garage storage okay? Closets are stuffed and pantry pretty full. We downsized our home a bit when we retired, and spare rooms are for grandkids.......

Anything less than cool and dry is a compromise. Will it work? Sure, but storage life will be reduced.

Stock more of foods you already use and rotate.

I like to use the best-by date as a guide for how much to store.  For example, if my favorite canned beans have a best-by date that is two years out and I know we use one can a month, I can keep up to 24 cans and successfully keep them rotated.  We typically keep 2-3 gallons of milk on-hand as that's how much we will use before it goes bad.  Do this with the foods you use regularly (even perishables) and you will have a lot of food on-hand.  

Of course, canned foods are typically safe well beyond the best-by, but the point is to keep a sustainable stock of foods that you will use without waste or forcing your family to eat field peas once or twice a week ( ) just to get rid of them.

my short term "hurricane" supplies are stews and "chunky" soups to serve over noodles, beans, or rice (3 weeks worth)... the bulk staples along with some pasta are packed in quart canning jars vacuum sealed with a jar attachment...jars store conveniently in their original packing containers under my bed..probably 3 months worth of staples including pinto and great northern beans also.....usually a 12 pack of tuna for a change, and a minimum of 1 large jar of peanut butter..  for early warning tropical storm threat, will put away some hot dog/ deli meats in the 7 day cooler... one 5 day cooler filled with frozen water jugs, and an old cooler to transport ice if necessary... most cooking is on propane Coleman camp stove or small tailgate grill... an unleaded gasoline stove is a backup... I reduce the  number of unused canned foods after the end of the tropical storm season, and stock up again at the beginning of next year's season

9 day and 5 day power outages during the 2004 storm season

I'm with LD here. On temps. Pack right, rotate, don't worry.



But on short term items just rotate out often.
2 weeks of food-
5lbs of rice or lentils 
Two flats of noodles
10-20cans of meat soup etc 
10/20 cans of veggies 

Bam done.

This is similar to what I was going to say.

Find what you like to eat now, and then stack more of it.  We go through lots of Tuna, peanut butter and jelly, canned ravioli, dry cereal, oatmeal... all stuff that we eat on a regular basis and the kids like.  Clear you out a closet (combine clothes closets if you can), put in some shelves, and started loading it up.  Store what you eat, that way you aren't left with a bunch of stuff you aren't going to use down the road.  

Under the bed is a good idea.  I made a "storage bed" out of some wood, took me a few hours and the wife loves it for storage.  

Our favorite items for storage that don't need electricity:
1. Peanut butter/jelly - good calorie content, you can vary the flavors of jelly, can eat without bread if you need to
2. Tunafish - fine plain when you get used to it (although I used to only eat with Dukes Mayonaise)
3. Crackers - the kids love dollar store crackers, they are pretty cheap and keep a while - eat with above 2 items
4. Canned Fruit - when the power is out, these are a great morale booster - things can't be too bad when you are eating canned peaches
5. Canned ravioli - the local grocery store will have these on sale for $1 each or less for the off brand - good calorie content, and kids like it alot
6. Dry Cereal - this takes up a lot of space relative to calorie content, but it does keep a sense or normality and variety
7. Dry nuts - peanuts, cashews, almonds

Thanks everyone for the great replies!

How organized is your freezer? How packed is it?

A well packed freezer can last about a week or longer  (depending who opens it leaves it open  etc)

Id make sure to eat through this first and would extend any dry goods.

Now the reason i asked how organized is for the simple fact the more organized the easier to take and the less wasted energy.

This is when 2 litre bottles can be an asset. Any empty space fill 2l bottle and freeze. Its also an indicator how much time you have left without any power. (Yes i know you have generators but longer you dont have to use the better)

Just some .02 before getting into dry goods. If thats all good everything mention is all good.

Freezer and small generator to keep freezer working a couple times a day would be a thing to consider.  Generator has other uses and if you make good use of a proper pantry and freezer you can eat better in my opinion, and buy the stuff on sale in bulk so not spending more in the big picture.

Just being able to freeze water bottles or something for putting in the cooler that will have the stuff from the fridge is something I plan on doing.

Don't know if it is worth trying to run the fridge much if I let the freezer make some chunks of ice here and there.

Probably depends on when I last went shopping and how much is in the fridge.

For 2 weeks, stock what you already eat and learn to watch for sales so you can buy stuff when it is on sale and buy enough to make it to the next sale.

Thanks for all the replies. Seems alot of folks think this is going to be a big hurricane season. I think I'll clean out a place in my "man-cave" for some basic preps (climate-controlled). Need to do some maintenance on generators and chain saws.

I have about 5 chain saws that I have collected.  I have 2 set up with 3 small bottles of bar and chain oil, 2 cans of the 1 qt canned 1:40 mix a set of gloves and eye pro.
I service the engine, check the chain, and then store one just inside the garage door and one out of the weather under the deck.

I can grab one and do several small trees or one large one with a grab and go set up.