13 Food Storage Resolutions for the New Year

Happy New Year from the Survival Mom Team! It’s that time of the year when people choose health, fitness, money, or organization goals. However, have you thought of adding some food storage resolutions?

Storing food, say a month or two’s worth, used to be the habit of a fringe group of Doomers. Now everyday moms like me have an extra stash of food set away for those “just in case” events. We know it’s not just the natural disasters that can affect our families. It could be job loss, long-term illness, or any other number of things.

After working on my own food storage pantry for more than 10 years now, I’ve learned a lot and am ready to pass my best insights on to you.

13 New Year’s Food Storage Resolutions

Take a look at this list of goals to help you improve and refine your food storage practices and pantry.

1. Don’t let “perfect” get in the way of “it’s good enough.”

You don’t need freeze-dried food to have a decent food storage pantry. Canned food, lots of cans!, will do just fine. Stay focused on stocking up on shelf-stable food your family will eat and stay within your budget.

2.  Do your best to protect stored food from the enemies of food storage.

All of these will cause your food to deteriorate more quickly: heat, humidity, pests, oxygen, light, and time. Heat is the worst enemy of all, so do everything you can to store the bulk of your food in the coolest part of the house.

Read more about the enemies of stored food. By the way, these enemies affect food in emergency kits, too.

3.  Try a few new varieties of food from companies like Thrive Life.

However, when you start, buy the smallest containers possible for a taste test. With each purchase, check for flavor and fresh-looking color. Then use that food in multiple ways to see if it’s a good fit for you.

My family loves freeze-dried corn, and I buy it, knowing that we can use it in chowders, stew, my Mexican rice recipe, and a whole lot more. The more versatile a food is, the more value it has.

4.  Don’t stock up on foods that will disappear once the kids find them!

At first, I stocked up on things like juice boxes and granola bars, only to find that they had mysteriously disappeared, leaving only the wrappers behind! My kids saw them and figured, “Hey, Mom’s finally buying the good stuff and hiding it from us!”

However, if you do decide to store these, just make the kids can’t find them!

5.  Buy what you actually like and will use.

Resist the temptation to stock up on something just because it’s super cheap on double coupon day! It could end up costing more money in the long term.

This can be an easier mistake to make, making it a good food storage resolution. At one point, I had about 15 bottles of salad dressing that we never used, and two years later, they were all such a disgusting-looking color that I threw them out.

6.  Do keep your food storage area(s) free from pests.

Diatomaceous earth, sprinkled around the floorboards of your pantry area is a good, non-toxic method for controlling pests. I also set out small containers of cornmeal mixed with borax as a safe way to kill off bugs.

Given enough time, a really determined rodent can chew through the plastic of a 5-gallon bucket, so keep an eye out for rodent droppings. If I hadn’t seen this determined squirrel for myself, I would never have believed he could make so much progress in such a short amount of time! What was in the bucket? A supply of peanuts for our resident blue jays!

7.  Stay focused on buying food that can be used in multiple recipes.

Quick, just-add-hot-water meals are fine for short-term emergencies, but you want a pantry that contains healthy ingredients for delicious meals — more of a long-term solution. This is also why knowing how to cook from scratch is so important.

8.  Set a goal of collecting 12 new recipes.

Find 12 recipes that you and your family love that require only shelf-stable ingredients. If you already have a good start on a balanced food storage pantry, you’ll find that you already have many of the required ingredients stored.

With fresh, new recipes, you’ll spare your family of food fatigue if you are ever completely reliant on that stored food. If you like using your crockpot, this article has a recipe for Crockpot Baked Ziti you could try.

If you need help building a balanced pantry, then you need my free 9-page ebook with simple tips and explanations for knowing what to stock up on. Get it today! 

9.  Establish a method for rotating that stored food.

This is simply the process of using the oldest food on the shelf and replacing it with new food. There are many ways to ensure this happens regularly. Take some time to figure out a method that works for you.

If you’re conscientious about food storage conditions and heat, especially, your food will stay fresher longer, but if you have food that is more than five years old, begin using and replacing it.

10. Stock up on comfort foods.

If your kids love macaroni and cheese, store the ingredients to make it from scratch. Buy macaroni in bulk and repackage it for longer shelf life. Then buy cheese, butter, and milk powders, and you’ll be able to make that mac-n-cheese years from now without having to buy any fresh ingredients! Or purchase it from a food storage company that has already removed the oxygen and sealed it in a can.

Chocolate chips, jelly beans, and other candies are other comfort foods to consider.

READ MORE: My book, Survival Mom: How to Prepare Your Family for Everyday Disasters and Worst-Case Scenarios, has two full chapters that will help you decide which recipes are best for food storage purposes and how to calculate how much of each ingredient you’ll need.

11. Don’t get lazy when it comes to repackaging food!

Rule of thumb: if a food comes in a cardboard or flimsy plastic bag, it must be repackaged. I have full details in this article.

12. Add a little something to your food storage every time you go to the store.

Even if it’s just a single can of store-brand soup, it really does add up over time. If things are really tight (or even if they aren’t,) here is a 52-week plan for saving money you could try. And here are some ideas on how to save money for prepping.

13. There’s more to life than food, so include cleaning supplies and toiletry items.

For example, I buy a lot of white vinegar, baking soda, and bleach. Think about the non-food items you regularly use. Make a list and begin whittling away at it. Also, these categories tend to lend themselves very well to coupon shopping.

A Bonus Food Storage Resolution

The new year is a great time to look back and see how far you’ve traveled in your food storage journey!  Check out my End-of-Year Prepper Evaluation and use it as a planning tool for the upcoming year.

Wait. How come you don’t include goals about canning and dehydrating food?

It makes sense to preserve your own food when you have a good supply of produce at a very low cost.  For example, when I can harvest a bale of basil from my garden or purchase tomatoes at pennies per pound from a produce co-op, I love to dehydrate or can them.

Consider this, though. I can buy #2.5-size cans of sliced, freeze-dried green onions from Thrive Life for about $12. How many fresh green onions would I need to dehydrate to fill or nearly fill that size of can (approximately a quart)?  If I had a green onion farm, no problem, but since I usually buy them by the bundles at the market, Thrive Life makes more sense than doing it myself.

Remember, when you stock up on food, you are buying it at today’s prices and planning ahead for a time when those prices will increase. Food price inflation is tricky because it isn’t always about the number on the price tag, but the size of the package and the number of ounces the package contains. When I compare cans of tuna for sale now with cans of tuna that I’ve had in my pantry for a few years, the older cans are noticeably larger — but the price is the same! Food price inflation is happening, but most people aren’t aware of it.

One closing thought about making food storage resolutions

Okay, it’s not my thought, but it’s a good one. Zig Ziglar said, “If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.” So take aim and hit your target!

Let me know in the comments which food storage resolution you’re aiming for. I’d love to know!

Originally published on January 3, 2020; updated by The Survival Mom editors.