Things I Learned By Stacking Boxes

Today was the day - finally! The day I tackled my food storage closet under the stairs. The movers had stacked the boxes somewhat willy-nilly, but I guess I was lucky they even put them in the closet, right?

First, I took everything out. I can't believe I hauled all those boxes up three floors to my apartment! One box at a time. It's much nicer to have it on the first floor with the garage in my house. Make a note. Food storage is heavy! Apple slices, not so much, but boy those boxes of wheat or beans - wow! You can't see much of the water, but I realized - I don't have enough! 14 gallons for three days, and I have 5 gallons.

Here are some other things I learned.

• Put all the labels on the side which is going to show when you stack them. (Sounds obvious, doesn't it?) But I had some on the ends, because the sides were full. If you have things together in a case, not much of a problem, but if you have 6 different cans, labels either overlap, or you have to write on the side of the box.
• Be sure I write at least the year on at least one label!
• Thrive boxes are not quite as sturdy as the ones from the Home Storage Center. (But they've also traveled with UPS, and survived, so they will do fine.)
• Don't stack the boxes too high. I stopped at eight, because nine was just too high for me to lift.
• Take a moment to stand back and feel some satisfaction that I have what I have, and are trying to follow the prophet's direction to accumulate food storage. I need more, but this is progress from the first of April, when I only had a couple of boxes stockpiled from the grocery store.
• Oh, yes. I need a wider door under there. Plenty of room for it. I don't know why they put such a skinny door in!