eating well and looking good for less

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Stockpiling in small spaces

Every couponer knows that having a stockpile of items that we consistently use is the key to saving money. Using some real life examples from my last supermarket shopping trip, if Honey Nut Cheerios normally cost $4.19 a box, and you buy a box a week for two months, that's $33.52. If you wait until Cheerios go on sale, and pay 50c after coupons and sales, as I did this week, the same number of boxes of Cheerios will cost you the whopping amount of $4! That is a savings of $29.52, on one product alone. I am not exaggerating when I say that having a fully stocked pantry of items bought on sale can easily save a family thousands of dollars per year.

I am always trying to convince people of the wisdom of the stockpile, but I so often hear, "I don't have any room for anything like that!" Well, you don't need a lot of room to have a stockpile that works for you! Our house was built in the 1920s, and while it was a generous size for that time period, it's a modest house by modern standards. We don't have a ton of storage space. No massive walk-in closets, no butler's pantry, no attic, no garage. Our stockpile is tucked into corners, under beds, and into cabinets, with the majority of it being in the kitchen and breakfast room, in the bathroom, and under my bed. For me, the key is organization. Things need to be in order, in a place where I can easily find them. Bonus points if they're stored in the room where I use them. Food in the kitchen, cleaning supplies in the kitchen and bathroom, laundry detergent in the basement, toiletries in the bathroom.

Without further ado, here is how we store some of the stockpile!

The cabinets over the stove hold pasta products, cake mixes, extra baking goods like honey and corn starch, and other things that either get used quickly or aren't going to suffer too badly from exposure to heat.

I forgot to take a picture of the corner cabinet, which holds spices, baking supplies, and condiments.


More, behind the jump!



Ugh, this cabinet looks such a mess, but it's actually more organized than it appears. It's just that everything that didn't quite fit is piled up high in front of everything else. I need to buy some more storage containers, obviously! This cabinets holds grains, flours, sugars, other baking supplies, canned goods, nuts, coffee, snacks, etc.



There is not enough space in the kitchen cabinets for everything, so we went to IKEA and bought this stand-alone Besta cabinet unit. It holds unopened boxes of cereal, extra unopened canned and jarred items, and various cooking items.

 And when it's closed up, it's a small cabinet that doesn't take up a lot of floor space, and looks nice. Some time in the near future, I'm going to buy a matching unit to place in the empty space next to it, so that the cabinet goes all the way across that wall. 

We keep the majority of our health and beauty items in the bathroom. There's this weird little corner space between the bathtub and the toilet, and it was the perfect size for this tall, narrow shelf unit.

Each bin holds a variety of items, including shampoo, body wash, lotions, sunblocks, and other bath and skincare related items.

The box on top of the shelf holds toothbrushes, toothpastes, razor blades, and whatever else I dump in there to get it out of sight. :)
This medicine cabinet is hanging high on the wall, far out of reach of little fingers, and holds prescriptions, OTC meds, extra baby wipes, skin cleansers, perfumes, and other things that I don't want kids to get into.

I should really put some cute contact paper on the doors, or something.

I also have an underbed storage box, for those items which don't need to be replenished on a regular basis. It holds new razors, mouthwash, shaving gel, and other various health items.

We just got this new 13.5 cu ft chest freezer last week. It's in the laundry/utility room, and it replaced a tiny, completely packed upright freezer and a large disused fridge. It's probably three times the size of the old freezer, and I haven't had the chance to stock it yet, so it's not too full at the moment. It probably takes up the largest amount of floor space of any stockpiling space in my house, and holds cheese, butter, frozen vegetables, yogurt, meat, bread products, food I've already cooked, etc. Can't wait to fill this thing up.

So, that's more or less it for the majority of the stockpile. I do have things hidden away in a few other places. If the cereal doesn't all fit in the cabinet, I place some of it on top of the kitchen cabinets. Toilet paper, baby wipes, and cleaning supplies under the bathroom sink. Dish soap, detergent, and cleaners under the kitchen sink. Bleach and laundry detergent on a shelf in the laundry room. Air fresheners and cleaning sprays way up high, over the basement staircase. But besides that, this is pretty much it. If it doesn't fit in the space I have for it, I figure it's time to go through the stockpile, clean everything out for a donation run, give until it starts to hurt and I worry that I've given too much away, and start over again.

My stockpile of food is months' worth, for a family of three, and my stockpile of toiletries is currently probably several years' worth. It's WAY more than I need, which means I can give generously to friends, family, and charity, and even so, it fills only about half the kitchen cabinets, one cabinet in the breakfast room, one shelf and one medicine cabinet in the bathroom, and one underbed storage box. See? It is completely possible to stockpile effectively, even with limited amounts of storage space!

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