I've seen things like that. Where did you get them? I think that would be a good addition to my set up.

The Container Store

http://www.containerstore.com

My wife, whose goal in life is to find new projects to keep me busy on my days off, took me to one of these stores a while back. They have all kinds of stuff for storage of all kinds of things around the house and for travel. They have can racks like I think you are talking about. They also have many other types of racks/shelves that help maximize storage areas.

Folks here who are aways looking for the perfect size/shape of container should check them out. They have everything from 2 oz Nalgene bottles to 10 gal food grade buckets.

Why does this remind me of the old Saturday Night Live skit about the Scotch Tape Store?

I looked at the can racks, and they didn't exactly trip my trigger, so to speak. I did get a lot of other storage ideas though, so thanks for the link!

I did a search for "gravity feed can racks" and found canracks.com for the DIY type people. It looks like the plans they sell will let you build a can rack to suit your needs. Check it out!

Note: I have no connection to the site. <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

I have a small pantry, and I finally found a way to store canned goods that I am happy with.

I looked into the rolling can racks and decided that they wouldn't suit my purpose. They take too much space per can, and it isn't modular enough for my needs.

Here's what I did. I noticed that the canned goods I buy come in only a few sizes, and most of them are the same size.
- small cans (mushrooms, tomato sauce, corn)
- regular cans (the most common size)
- large cans (canned pineapple)
- squat cans (tuna fish, canned chicken, etc.)

Here's what I did for the regular & small cans, and I am about to do with the large cans. I built little boxes that hold four cans lying on their sides. One box fits very nicely on my pantry shelf. I have over a dozen of these boxes stacked on my pantry shelf. Each box has up to four cans of identical food. I use a magnet to roll the cans out, and a string to hold the cans in the front. This way, I can store over fifty cans (with over a dozen different types) with very little wasted space, and easy random access to any single type of canned good.

For rotating the stock of canned goods, I have my "understock" under the kitchen sink. I have more canned goods in similar boxes. When I run out of say, green bean in the pantry, I pull out green beans from my understock and fill up the pantry. When I move the last green beans from understock to pantry, I know that it's time to by a dozen more cans of green beans. The new cans of green beans go straight to the understock. I don't worry about the rotation of the cans in the understock, because they were all purchased at the same time, and I don't buy more until the understock is empty.

What I like about my system:

• It's easy to keep a decent rotation on all of my canned goods.
• I have immediate random access to whatever type of canned good I want.
• I can remove whatever cans I want at a time without disturbing any other cans.
• I have very little wasted space in my pantry due to stacking canned goods.
• I never worry about running out of a particlar type of canned good, because I have an automatic trigger for when to buy more.

My next project is cages for organizing food in my freezer ...

-Kuovonne

Watch what goes on under your sink, a little bit of moisture can do a lot of damage.

Dave

QVC of all places had the best can storage rack (the Rack and Stack) that I could find short of making one.

True, but we should at least inspect every dented can before eating from it. A dent along a seam (along the side or where the lid is sealed) could potentially have compromised the contents. A bad enough dent, regardless of location, can also damage the interior lining of certain cans and something acidic like tomato sauce can begin to attack and interact with the can itself over time. Anyway, just a caveat to keep in mind.

True... common sense is called for <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Troy

Yep, that's what I was saying too. Dents can be okay, just check them when you get them.

It depends on how much food and how long you need to store it. Bulk food on a budget? I use my chicken feed. I just buy a few extra months of some grains from the feed store. The buckwheat I get from the feed store is the same stuff they use for the maple syrup festivals. The millet I get is perfectly edible (for people) as well. You do have to vibrate out the occasional small stone and debris. The stones settle to the bottom and the debris (plant stems and such) filter to the top. Grain seeds store for a very long time as long as you don't crack them. You will need a grain grinder to make flour from the buckwheat. Other grains like wheat, oats (rolled) and rice would supplement.

Obviously you want a variety. These bulk grain seed would help increase your supply. Canned food has a psychological effect that is important in the first few days of a situation. But I would not trust them for nutritional value. Just raw calories.


Also, store vitamin C !!! You cannot beat vitamin C for cheap health care. You will be under stress and require more vitamins, not less.