Establishing and maintaining a storing place for your survival gear and food rations can be a daunting task if you don't follow steps in the organizational process. First you're going to need a space that is large enough to store a few storage cabinets as well as some open storage units.
A good place to have a large pantry storage area for food can be difficult since most homes don't have this capacity. You'll need to possibly salvage hidden wasted spaces around the home that you never thought of before. Places like under the stairs leading to the basement or a second floor can be ideal for extra storage, by just adding some basic load bearing shelving.
Other areas where storage capacity can be increased are under beds, closets, garages, basements and crawl spaces. Attics are generally a bad place to store foods unless you can control the temperature changes and high humidity. If you're deciding on storing in your attic or if it's the only extra space you have, you'll need to make sure that the attic is reinforced for loading bearing weight, especially where you cabinets or shelving will be.
Other important parameters that must be understood when staging this area is, humidity control, temperature control, light control, security, air flow and protection from pests which include insects and rodents. Food that is exposed to warm temperatures for an extended period of time will cause an early shelf life. The ideal temperature would be around 50 degrees and in a north faced walled room which is typically cooler. A typical basement is around 60 to 65 degrees, so some temperature altering will have to be made to make it ideal for grain and other food supply storage. It's important to make sure that your storage area remains in the dark for most of the time besides inspection. Besides can foods make sure any foods stored in a paper product will have a secondary airtight container to hold out moisture.
Also make sure that all airtight food grade containers will be protected against insects and rodents. Learn how to safely fumigate your raw foods and grains since many times insect eggs or larva can be purchased with the grains. Remember to use the oldest food stored products first and date all containers so you properly rotate your food supplies.
Finally, make sure that your food survival storage area is well secured. Consider using electronic lock cabinets to house some of your more precious foods and it's important not to let strangers or even neighbors know that you are storing food for security purposes.
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