How to organize a basement food storage room

A storage room only helps if you can find things in it and use the oldest first. A little planning up front saves a lot of digging later.

Check the space first

• Temperature: cooler is better. Keep food away from the furnace and water heater.
• Humidity: a cheap humidity monitor tells you if it's damp. If it often reads over about 60%, a dehumidifier protects cans from rust and dry food from going soft.
• Water: nothing on the floor if the basement has ever flooded.
• Pests: seal gaps and keep food in bins, buckets or cans.

Shelving

• Sturdy metal shelving holds the weight of cans and buckets. Keep the bottom shelf a few inches off the floor.
• Heavy buckets low, lighter boxes higher.
• Can rotation racks load from the top and roll the oldest can to the front.
• Leave room to walk and to reach the back of every shelf.

Give every shelf a name

Number the shelving units and shelves - "Unit A, shelf 1" - and put a label on each. Then you can write down where something is, and anyone in the house can find it.

Zones that make sense

• Canned food by type: vegetables, fruit, beans, meat, soup.
• Dry staples in buckets: rice, beans, oats, wheat, sugar.
• Home-canned jars on their own shelf, labeled with the year.
• Water on the bottom, where it's heaviest and spills do least harm.
• Non-food - paper goods, batteries, first aid - on a separate unit.

Make a map

Tape a list to the door, or keep it on your phone: what's on each shelf and how much. It answers "do we have any more...?" without a trip downstairs, and makes it obvious what's running low.

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