Prepper mistakes and lessons learned. What have you done to fix them?

[ladyhk13]

The other day BWRR went to make his famous bbq sauce and we realized that one of his main ingredients had expired and gone bad. I thought we had more in our storage and searched everywhere. I was wrong and so he had to totally change his recipe and make it differently and needless to say he wasn't happy about it and all the time I spent searching pushed back making the other stuff for dinner since we have this thing down to a science.

I realized (and really have known) that my organization of all our preps are totally UN-organized. I have no idea anymore what we have, when it expires, where it is and it has become a monster. Everything is in closets and although they are huge and on commercial sized storage units, I cannot get to the backside of them in order to rotate to keep track of expiration dates. So, do I remove EVERYTHING from all of these shelves and try to reorganize, how do I figure out how long the stuff I canned myself is good for? At one point I kept a list but it became so cumbersome that there was no way to keep up with it.

I think the only way to fix it is to actually make a whole room a storage room but I don't think I can get BWRR to do that so I'm going to have to figure out a different plan. I realized though that this is a problem and I have to figure out a solution. SHTF comes and I don't want expired stuff around.....

[bacpacker]

Don't feel so bad about this. Just be glad you caught it now. Much better than when it was really needed.

We have ran into the same thing ourselves, still do to some degree. My problem is lack of storage space for everything. I have our food pretty consolidated and list of what is in each storage box with weights, dates, & quantities. But a lot of our other preps are scattered about the house, basement, & garage. Inventory on that stuff is not near as good. I am still working on settling on a good system for tracking everything, including where the stuff is.

[ladyhk13]

I have also noticed that some of the seed that I bought several years ago do not want to germinate now and I wish I had planted some of them before and harvested new seed to put up even though I wasn't really ready to have the actual item. I bought them for my preps and thought that I would have had them in the ground by now at our new property but things haven't worked out that way. I should have just planted some in pots or even just a few in the garden anyway so now I'm wondering how many I've lost since I have probably 100 different items.

Another lesson learned. Even if you aren't ready for what you buy, plant some just to keep the lines going each year instead of hanging on to them hoping that they will last until you need them or are ready for them. I went totally crazy buying and just wasn't prepared to do anything with them. Have a plan!

[LUNCHBOX]

I believe I am using the "Bacpacker organizing method" also. I have things everwhere, but....that is about to change. I am moving this week and there is a room that I am using only for prep items. My food buckets/tubs are labeled/dated but in the very near future they will be organized much better. I think maybe we (The Colony) do our prepping in such an everyday way of life that we just get relaxed about it all since we don't worry about prepping and just prep so we don't have to worry.

[bacpacker]

Thats a good way of describing things LB. At least in my case. It just drives me nuts having crap so unorganized when I know I can do things better.

[Onestep]

I write on each item the expiration date with a sharpie in a prominent location. On canned goods, I put a piece of blue masking tape and write the date on it. Lady, you are right about the seeds. I have a large supply but buy new ones every year as the germination rate goes down as they age. With the older seeds, I typically increased the number planted to compensate for the germination loss. Plus I try and plant some every year just to harvest seeds.

[The Stig]

Labels are a big key. Expiration dates, contents, special instructions, etc are all good.

I'm a big fan of excel spreadsheets. Kinda dorky but you can use them to both keep track of what you have, total up what you have and keep stock fresh.

You can also consider using a to-do list or calender on your computer/ipad/phone with pop up reminders triggered on a specific date. Clearly these won't be all that handy in the middle of a event but they can help you stay on track before any sort of SHTF event.

Organization is key IMO. Not knowing where your preps are, or their state, is only slightly better than not having them at all.

[realist]

In my organized chaos I know it is in here somewhere..........I saw it last year or was it the year before??? Oh I'll just go buy another. I got to get better organized!

[David Armstrong]

A hint for the rotation problem. Rather than a front to back stack we use a side to side. As an example, all the survival spam we buy this year gets put on the shelf and marked 2013. Next year the survival spam will be put on the shelf to the side and marked 2014. And so on. Now instead of going through the process of having to pull everything off the shelf, move it around, etc. we can just use the oldest year. When it is emptied, then we start refilling it with the newest stuff, so when the 2013 survival spam is gone and I start buying 2015 survival spam it now goes into the 2013 block and is re-labeled.

[Rumbleman1]

I am blessed with plenty of storage space. However, I am NOT blessed with organizational skills. Recently, I went into the storage room to finally put my preparation house in order. I was impressed with the stuff we had, but also disappointed with what was lacking. (The "ignorance is bliss" syndrome.) Just organizing it took a bit of the weight of the unknown off my shoulders. It has helped me to formulate a better plan for more complete preparation!