Posted: 10/12/2011 5:59:28 PM EDT
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First things first I do NOT want to know a single thing about what you have, where it is or how much of it there is...It is absolutely NONE of my business. This is about making sure your inventory is up to date.
Doing an inventory and keeping it current does a variety of things for us. 1) Lets us know how much we have. 2) Gives us an idea of what condition your goods and "stuff" is in. 3) Helps us formulate a buying plan for future prep purchases When I am doing a prep consultation this is an absolute key point I make with my clients. It is too important not to do. The phrase I use is "You don't KNOW what you need until you KNOW what you have" In my case the third Saturday of every month I do a top to bottom inventory. Seems overkill I know but with all I have going on that is the easiest way for me to keep track. I maintain an Excel worksheet with it all on there and then print out a copy. So how current is your inventory? |
...but I plan to get it done in the next couple of weeks.
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Mine is up to date. Any time I add to or take away from my preps, the list gets updated. I too keep an excell spreadsheet with every item listed and its expiration date. Also, the list includes number of items, size in ounces or pounds, number of servings, calories per serving, and a little more. Items are separated in several general categories such as:
Meats Vegetables Fruits Snacks/Desserts Spices/Cooking Essentials Dry Foods Other Glad you bring up this topic as many do not get as anal about this as apparently you and I do. I even have separate tabs on the excel spreadsheet for Medical Supplies, Freeze Dried Foods, Other Equipment (stoves, fuel, tools, etc) and so on. As you said, its hard to know what you need until you know exactly what you have. |
Have you been peeking at my spreadsheet?  That is pretty much how I do it also. I find that for me it really helps me stay on top of what I am still needing / wanting to add to my preps. This coming weekend is my regular inventory and I know there are quite a few changes since I went camping last week so that will be a good time to update.
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I'm more novice than many of you, but what's the value in an inventory?
If I need a camp stove, I know I have an Esbit and about a hundred fuel pellets, two propane stoves and over a dozen bottles, a Coleman stove and 4 or 5 cans of fuel, etc. If I need water I know I have about 50 gallons of drinking water. If I need purification I know I have Berkey filters/buckets, and granulated chlorine. Etc. How would having it written on a piece of paper help me? |
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I'm more novice than many of you, but what's the value in an inventory? If I need a camp stove, I know I have an Esbit and about a hundred fuel pellets, two propane stoves and over a dozen bottles, a Coleman stove and 4 or 5 cans of fuel, etc. If I need water I know I have about 50 gallons of drinking water. If I need purification I know I have Berkey filters/buckets, and granulated chlorine. Etc. How would having it written on a piece of paper help me? If/when the SHTF, your mind might not be so clear. Also, if you have anyone else to care for besides yourself, you might either not be at home when SHTF or you may not be in good enough condition to know what you have, where it is or other details. Keeping a list is a good way for most people to keep some form of organization about what is available in a time of need, as well as helping others know what they have to deal with if you are not available or able to communicate that to them. Lots of people do not have lists and get along just fine. But for me and others like me, the list(s) help keep me keep track more of what I do have and what I still need. When so many years pass by after I started prepping, there are some things that you may forget that you had, or where you had put them. An inventory list keeps those things fresh on your mind making decisions easier to deal with when things may already be very tense. |
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Have you been peeking at my spreadsheet? That is pretty much how I do it also. I find that for me it really helps me stay on top of what I am still needing / wanting to add to my preps. This coming weekend is my regular inventory and I know there are quite a few changes since I went camping last week so that will be a good time to update.It seems like we are both on the same wave length on this sort of thing. If you want to share spreadsheets for gleaning some information about how each other keeps track of our supplies, email me and we can arrange to send the excel files to each other. I'm game if you are. |
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How would having it written on a piece of paper help me? if you have anyone else to care for besides yourself, you might either not be at home when SHTF or you may not be in good enough condition to know what you have, where it is or other details. This right here. I have a big investment, keeping it in a file and spreadsheet lets me and anyone of my family know exactly what we have available. If my wife is looking for a set item, say candles or mantels, she looks it up in the spread sheet to find which numbered tote they can be found in. I use a spread sheet to help itemize what I have, it lets me know what I'm lacking, and control of expiration dates on certain bigger items like #10 canned food. I use a spread sheet on my ammo too. My ammo cans are clearly marked whats in them. This thread actually reminded me I needed to add some food and ammo I just put up. Thanks. BT ETA |
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When I am doing a prep consultation this is an absolute key point I make with my clients. Hold on, you're some type of "Preparedness Consultant" and you have "clients" that pay you to help them be prepared? Not that I'm all knowing but I've never heard of such a thing. |
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Air Gunner (great handle btw) I find that there are a number of people who want help / direction etc with prepping. I do NOT know it all and don't for an instance pretend to. I've been in this lifestyle for over fifteen years and have had some interesting opportunities to learn and grow as a prepper. I am currently working with a local group of households helping them along as well as a large group in OKC. I am putting on a large preparedness expo in OKC next weekend, that is the second one I have done this year and I have plans to do three next year. I have done prep consults for clients in five different states and sell a line of first aid kits that I designed as well. I'm a one man business and sometimes that isn't enough.
Every household I can help be better prepared is a plus for all of us (I know that sounds arrogant) because it can reduce slightly the number of people who are potential refugees. |
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How would having it written on a piece of paper help me? I tend to agree with you when it comes to stoves, etc. While I do have a page on my spreadsheet for these things, it is simply for info. However, a spreadsheet allows me to see how much we really have stored. For example: If we have 3 cases (18 #10 cans) of wheat berries stored, how long would that last? Kind of sounds like a lot, but is it? My spreadsheet allows me to do calculations such as: 1) How many lbs. is that? 99lbs. 2) how many cups of wheat berries is that? 247 cups 3) how much flour can I get from those wheat berries? 371 cups of flour 4) How many loaves of bread would that make? 123 @ 3cups/loaf 5) If we used a loaf of bread a day - we have 123 days worth...... now, if cousin Eddie shows up......you get the idea. So, If we want to be able to have a loaf of bread a day for a year, we need more wheatberries. It also lets me calculate how much other ingredients we need to store make that bread.... Can do the same with rice, beans, powdered milk, etc |
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I'm in a draw down phase at the moment to use up some aging stock. I fully realise this is a goofy mistake and I should slow rotate but if I keep piling stuff in the cabinet I bury stuff and it ages unseen and forgotten. I simply lack room. Last summer I pulled some dated stuff and burned through it, and I'm doing it again now.
I'll get the cupboards down, check dates to see that things left have a couple years left to go and then restock. Financially that's not a problem for me to stock this way. The only thing that I have to worry about is an incident occuring during a draw down. Then again, I mostly stock up for winter issues so I can be snowed in and be snug as a bug in a rug. I don't keep a spreadsheet as I'm not that advanced and merely date mark stuff with a permanent marker. |
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When I am doing a prep consultation this is an absolute key point I make with my clients. Hold on, you're some type of "Preparedness Consultant" and you have "clients" that pay you to help them be prepared? Not that I'm all knowing but I've never heard of such a thing. You mean people will pay for the info I have been giving away for free for years. Dammit! I mean I don't know everything, but if people are willing to pay me for my knowledge l will double and triple my efforts to learn everything I can. BTW To get back of thread,my inventory is pretty up to date. In the dead of winter I do like to do a total inventory.I usually find that my ongoing inventory list is on par with my yearly inventory recaount. |
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Air Gunner (great handle btw) I find that there are a number of people who want help / direction etc with prepping. I do NOT know it all and don't for an instance pretend to. I've been in this lifestyle for over fifteen years and have had some interesting opportunities to learn and grow as a prepper. I am currently working with a local group of households helping them along as well as a large group in OKC. I am putting on a large preparedness expo in OKC next weekend, that is the second one I have done this year and I have plans to do three next year. I have done prep consults for clients in five different states and sell a line of first aid kits that I designed as well. I'm a one man business and sometimes that isn't enough. Every household I can help be better prepared is a plus for all of us (I know that sounds arrogant) because it can reduce slightly the number of people who are potential refugees. That's cool. I'm not knocking it and I'm sure it's a win/win situation all around. It just threw me a little because it's one of those business opportunities that would have never dawned on me |
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I inventory consumables. I don't worry about coleman stoves, but I do count 1 gallon coleman fuel cans. I do count propane tanks but mostly because I go by if they need a refill or not. I still need to check dates on em to see if any are going to get to where they expire with the date stamped on the tank. Food is my biggest thing and it varies to some extent. Now with coleman stoves or really the coleman lanterns I inventory parts, lanterns need mantles but I am working on having some nice and basic spares on hand to where I can keep my stuff working easily or rebuild one I find without ordering parts. My inventory is behind. Next month I have some vacation and it is time to pull things out and check old lists out and make new lists and update things and I am going to be building some stuff for my shelves and kitchen cabinets so rotation becomes easy and inventory then becomes easy. |
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this is all well and good and in calm peaceful times it will keep you occupied.
as soon as a real SHTF hits all your spread sheets, inventories will go right out the window and you'll have to wing it. granted you'll have a lot of good stuff with which to wing it with. 
I'm talking a real SHTF, not a "I lost my job kind" of SHTF. if there is a major earthquake and your house is off it's foundation, a tornado hits your local area, or ice storm. riots are breaking out in your neighborhood with fires all around. I work for a state government and they have plans, believe me, boy do they have plans, lists, chain of command, the whole nine yards. seems when a disaster hits it's always in such a way that there are holes and events that they never thought of and have to "wing it" with lots of cool stuff. |
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this is all well and good and in calm peaceful times it will keep you occupied. as soon as a real SHTF hits all your spread sheets, inventories will go right out the window and you'll have to wing it. granted you'll have a lot of good stuff with which to wing it with.
I'm talking a real SHTF, not a "I lost my job kind" of SHTF. if there is a major earthquake and your house is off it's foundation, a tornado hits your local area, or ice storm. riots are breaking out in your neighborhood with fires all around. I work for a state government and they have plans, believe me, boy do they have plans, lists, chain of command, the whole nine yards. seems when a disaster hits it's always in such a way that there are holes and events that they never thought of and have to "wing it" with lots of cool stuff. The same can be said for city governments. But if such a disaster does strike and I lose my home and contents, then I will fall back to the BOL. You better believe my OCD ass has a list for that too
BT |
| I just updated my storage inventory the 1st of this month, I try to update on a monthly basis. It is a real eye opener when you take the time to create an inventory list and helps plan better and spot the areas that need improvement or where you have excess inventory items. |
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The group is doin one now, just completed the smeat audit, at over 145#, think, dam! where did all this smeat come from! but glad to have it!
we do one every 6 months, what we are heavy on, what we need, whats to be rotated and check for mice damage and anything that went bad Never ever get the smell of a burst MRE retort out of a jeep clothe seat 
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With 3 teens who find it easier to dump out a can of this, or open a package of that, (instead of preparing an actual meal) rotation and expiration dates are not an issue for some of the tastier items. The wife is quite the chef, so once the staples were deep, I expanded the stock to include a LOT of items to "eat well", as opposed to just eating to survive.
I only venture into the "room" to look around about once a month or so. I failed miserably in keeping a spread sheet, After all this time. I can ascertain which items were hit particularly hard seconds after the light goes on. I did a top to bottom, on paper, inventory 2 weeks ago. We're good for 3 squares a day for 288 days. (with a lot of extra, this and that) It was roughed out to about 4000 calories a day. There would be very little fat though, so I'm playing with ideas to get at least some fat into the diet. The dogs are good for 6 months, and the hens are good for a year. It's a shame that commercial beer tastes like crap after 4 or 5 months.
I'm going to let the food go for a couple months and concentrate on a half dozen cords of wood. |