How current is your inventory?

[prepguide]

No i'm not asking you to share information on what you have or how much of it you have. That is absolutely none of my business. What I am asking is how current is your inventory? As a preparedness consultant I ask this question often of my clients and if they don't have one I urge them in the strongest terms possible to do one. I am the self proclaimed Prophet of Inventory and have been for a long time. I believe strongly that having and maintaining a valid inventory is of huge value to a prepper.

Having a current inventory does several things for you.

1. Lets you know how much you have
2. Lets you know where your goods are
3. Lets you know what condition it is in
4. Allows you to better organize what you have
5. Allows you to set up a better buying plan on what you need

I am a single person household so what works for me is a food inventory every month and a complete equipment inventory once a quarter. If you don't know what you have you don't know what you need.

Doing an inventory doesn't have to take all day and quite honestly you shouldn't try to do it all in one day. Break it down by categories Food, Fuel, Medical, etc and do one category a day until you have it all done. Then once its done you KNOW what you have, where it is and what condition its in.

So how current is your inventory?

[Echo2]

We do rotation ever time we have a meeting....I'd like to say every month....but as of late it's been more like every three.

The end of this month....we'll do a large shopping trip....the go to the meeting and swap as necessary....as will the other members.

We do the same with our gas stores.

[Evolver]

Current, And from our records we are starting to see that we are going to have a surplus of rotation foods that will be past they're expiration dates by a long shot. It's mostly store bought caned fruits and veggies. We do store LTS also and plan on sacrificing foods... It's better to have it than not. There is just two of us but we storing food for the unknown amount of bellies to fill. :)

Tip... Any food item that come in the door for storage gets the expiration date put on the front it with a sharpy and is logged into the books.

[Gunfixr]

We sharpie mark foods as well.
The food inventory is good, pretty much stays that way. A lot of what we store is what we eat, so only some recently added longer term different items aren't regularly checked.
I'm in the middle of an ammo inventory now.
Gear inventory isn't really there, but that doesn't change much.
A tool inventory is in the works, just to check, as a couple things have recently been broken, and I want to be sure to properly remember what.
Med supplies is due before too long now.

[LUNCHBOX]

I also sharpie the year on the front of the can. As for current....enough to tell me I'm not ready.

[bacpacker]

I too am in the middle of a ammo, magazine, repairs parts, reloading supply inventory. I really like the idea of putting the dates in with a sharpie. Much easier to read. The food inventory needs to be redone and rotation kept up. I know we have a few things that are closing in on experation. My gear is pretty well set, but I am in the middle of reorganization wiht that right now. So a good inventory after that is over will be in order. Tools are soemthing that needs doing, but I'm going to get into reorganizing the basement later this fall and winter and will inventory that stuff then.

Really good thread. It made me think about a few things I want to get done and some things to do as I do the reorginazation of different stuff.

[realist]

I sharpie my stuff too. Inventory is constantly on going. It seems that there is so much needed along with money.....

[Sniper-T]

For food:
My LTS is up to date, as that is the easy one to maintain. Short and mid, could probably use an update.

Ammo:
it's all in my head, I know roughly what I have, and for the most part, where it is. That said, I couldn't find a box of 20 Ga shells last night when I came in from chicken hunting
-Inventory needed.

Fuel:
I wire tags on all my fuel, with the date, cost, location, and type of treatment. It is in a constant state of rotation.

Now that we have those new spreadsheets... I plan on getting everything up to date.
tx again!
:)

[prepguide]

I too mark the goods when I get them home. I put the month and year on the top of the can or front of the box and always make sure I use FIFO (first in first out) to keep the older goods in front so they are used in proper rotation.

On my spread sheet I have a page for food, one for ammunition, one for equipment and finally one for medical supplies. For each item I have the spreadsheet set up so that there is a block for Notes that way I can add whatever information I want to. It sure helps me

[Gunfixr]

That is exactly what we do, month and year of purchase is on the top of the can or box. Things vacuum sealed are marked the same way.
All the newest stuff is boxed, the oldest is on the shelf. For a few months (I buy a few extra things each week, so it builds slowly) the new stuff is simply put away still in the bags. When the shelf gets low, the oldest stuff from the boxes comes out, and the new stuff goes in, with the oldest stuff going on the shelf.

All the rest but the meds has always been in my head, but I keep losing track, so I need to do something better.

[prepguide]

Just completed my monthly food inventory. When I did it last month I forgot to change the Date header on my spreadsheet from July to August so I'm looking at my inventory sheet saying, I know it did one last month...Its the small things that can really trip us up sometimes.

[Grumpy Old Man]

I put the workbook spreadsheets I use in another thread, after sanitizing it of course. I fiddle with it after every shopping expedition, so I'm pretty current. I learned to date all foodstuffs from my parents and grandparents, so it is just something I continued.

[AlphaTea]

That just made me think of another prep.
Sharpies

[Stormfeather]

All are current, food is up to date and rotated regularly, ammo, is broke down out of the packages and stored in water/air proof ammo cans. All other preps have been updated and ready to go.