This video gives you a little peek into my household supplies stockpile closet.
I don’t have a massive stockpile like some because I tend to stockpile on a smaller scale and typically don’t keep more on hand than what we can use in a three to six month period (there are some exceptions to this rule of thumb, such as the 31 tubes of toothpaste I “bought” for free last year).
I’d love to hear additional creative ideas you’ve come up with for storing your stockpile, especially if you live in a small house or apartment.
What we do is we stock up on free (about a years supply) toilet paper, and store it at my mother in law’s house, of course she is free to use as much as she needs. Which also allows us to store any product that we stock up on at her house. We stock pile products for a years supply.
We have no pantry, but have 3 broom closets in the laundry room that we converted to pantry space. They are only about 7 inches deep and 12 inches wide. I asked my husband to put shelves in tall enough to hold 3 cans of veggies. They actually work much better than a pantry did. Perfect for canned goods, baby food, jello, PB, etc.. I can see exactly what I have and it doesn’t take much maneuvering at all to get to it.
We have a stand-alone shelf units from Lowe’s as well as a stand-alone and wall-mounted cabinets with doors in our boiler room. My husband is always afraid that I put so much on these shelves that they’ll collapse!
I bought bed risers for my bed and my sons and then I just store our stockpile in small totes under our beds. I make sure to put the items under his bed when he is playing so that he leaves it alone, and he so far has not thought to look under his bed.
I love my stockpile, its not to big but its enough that I don’t have to worry about running out of things before I need more. I live in So California and with the earthquake in Japan I started thinking I better get some of these things and batteries and all of our ICE stuff all in the same place. We have lots of water and food. also lots of PDF’s at Red Cross like the earthquake list: http://www.redcross.org/portal/site/en/menuitem.86f46a12f382290517a8f210b80f78a0/?vgnextoid=3750a5f0f013b110VgnVCM10000089f0870aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default
print them out for future reference and make an I.C.E. kit
I live in earthquake country in California, so I always have a stockpile of about 10 days of food and water, just in case. We’re pretty crowded into our house, so I keep the packaged and canned goods in a big Rubbermaid box under the house. The only problem is remembering to rotate the food so that it doesn’t get old, so I mark 2 days on my calendar to go through everything. That way, I don’t end up with a big box of expired food on hand.
I put laundry items (stain remover mostly….. I make my own laundry detergent though so the supplies go there too) in the cupboards above my washer and dryer, food goes in the closet under our stairs (we got a bookshelf and a closing pantry to put in there–it stores our office supplies, homeschool supplies, overflow food, musical instruments, and whatever else we can cram in there), and most everything else goes in boxes that are stored under the bathroom sink. We have two bathrooms that have two large cupboards under the sink, but we really only need one–the main bathroom cupboards store our towels, washcloths, and cleaning supplies and hygiene products that we need upstairs. The 1/2 bathroom cupboard houses My first aid box, essential oils, and my two boxes of stockpile items. I don’t buy a whole lot (we don’t use a whole lot, plus I don’t really get to play the drugstore game or anything, so I play it for a month or two at a time, maybe twice a year), so I don’t need a ton of space for my stockpile, but I do have a little bit.
We have a random closet in our bathroom that had no shelving or anything in it, so we bought some cheap organizer shelves at target and everything is stored in there.
I just moved out of 740 square feet and actually had a huge stockpile in the cabinets above the refrigerator. Since that area wasn’t easily accessible, it was a great spot to put things we didn’t need regularly. Keep in mind, it wasn’t neat and organized…it was packed solid! But, it worked great!
I do over the door shoe organizers (under $10) that are perfect for LOTS of different things… bottles, tubes, etc in any room. They can go on room doors, closet doors, etc. I also do the under the bed storage and adding shelves in unused portions of closets (and shelves in the garage). I also bought tall thin cabinets for the hallway and bathroom to add storage. Those were not for stockpile type stuff but for bath towels (no linen closet).
I keep the zippered bag that my comforter came in under the bed to fill with stock pile items.
Lots of great ideas here! We have a 5.5′-tall wooden shelving unit of “cubbies” that were at one time mail boxes for a company mail room. The company was selling items at an auction, and I think we got it for about $10. It’s solid wood and has about 30 cubbies that are around 10″ wide x 8″ high by 16″ deep. It used to hold toys when my girls were younger, but DH and I are cleaning it out to move it upstairs to our extra bedroom, where we’ll have good climate control. (In Okla we have huge temperature ranges during the year, so we need something indoors.) I plan to buy baskets to slide into the bottom rows of cubbies so I don’t have to lie on the floor to get into them (ha!). The others, we’ll leave as is. I’m excited about having a dediated stockpile area, though. Just a reminder to think about repurposing something–like old mailboxes–to make it work in your own home. 🙂
I just wanted to tell you that you look beautiful in that color blue-it really brings out your eyes!!! Thanks for doing this series, I have been enjoying all of the tips and it has been quite motivating:) Keep up the good work!
The apartment we lived in for our first two years of marriage was extremely small. We had one bedroom, a tiny bathroom, and a living room with a kitchenette at one end. There was only one closet–no pantry or other space. I stored my stockpile mainly under the couch and under the bed. The dollar store nearby sold under bed boxes three for 1.00, I think, which helped keep things organized. My husband laughed at me, though, when I needed a new deodorant and had to dig it out from under the couch!
A great way to find some space, roll things – they take up less space and may free up part of a drawer or shelf. Roll t-shirts, underwear, dish towels, bath towels, etc.
There are so many places to find storage. (Fortunately my husband is pretty handy). One of my favorite places is putting shelves (a board cut into several pieces) above a closet door (either inside the closet or outside the closet). Maybe there is a bedroom door that does not have to fully open and you could put 6 inch shelves behind a door. The best way to gain space is to go up a wall. (As I tell my husband it is not always pretty but it is functional and I prefer functional – you can always hang a sheet off of it to cover it up). As I was taking a shower this morning, I realized there is about 2 feet of wall space between the top of the shower wall and the ceiling. (yes, you would have to be careful what you store there with steam from the shower, but a possible place for stuff.) Under sinks is a good place. (Maybe it means getting rid of a few towels, but is the sacrifice worth it). Maybe there is a bathroom that is not used often and you can store things in bins in the bathtub. Maybe you have no room in your house, but what about your car? Do you have a deep trunk or space in the back seat floor this is not often used? Even if you had a small backyard and could store things in a tub out there. Lots of places, just have to think outside the box.
My family of 6 (me, hubby and our 4 children aged 9, 8, 5 and 2) live in a just-under 1400 square foot house (1385 s.f.). My husband finished the basement to give us a bit more storage … underneath the stairs to the basement he build me a “pantry” … it is AMAZING what I can stockpile in there. We currently have at least 20 boxes of cereal (there was recently a GREAT deal), pasta, sauce, beans, easily 3-4 months worth of staples.
PS: In addition to stockpiling food and household supplies, whenever I find a “great” deal on a child’s toy, I stockpile to have gifts for birthday parties (4 children = LOTS of birthday parties!). That way, I can spend what I want to spend. (For example, last month our Supercentre had a Barbie set that normally retails for $25 on sale for $10. I bought 3, 2 have already been gifted, 1 is still in the closet.) At the end of the year, any gifts that I think won’t be used, we donate to a Christmas fund. Win, win.
I know you mentioned it in your video, but I really utilize under the bed containers. I bit the bullet and bought heavy duty, large sweater under the bed storage boxes, versus the ones from the dollar store that kept cracking on me, and each bed room has 2 under the bed. Personal care items are in one, paper products in one, excess pasta and cereal and such in one, etc. It really frees up room in my closets!
We have only 480sq ft for our family, I have things everywhere! Under beds , in bins behind dressers, linen closet as a pantry, shelves at the top of ceilings etc. I have creative on top of creative!
I only stockpile what we can use for six to twelve weeks this usually means that I hit a sale again. This method works for us. My pantry is one kitchen cabinet without pots and pans. My pots and pans are in the drawer that came with my stove. Everything is as minimalist as it gets around here !
One winter coat each. 6 shirts per season each, etc… We have zero space to spare! We were major downsized!
I took my guest closet and added 2 more shelves which allows me to have 2 long shelves to store stuff in. In my kitchen pantry, I use tupperware to help keep me organized . . . I can put 3 boxes of pasta into an air-tight container that takes up 1/2 the space the pasta did. My problem right now is that tomato sauce is heavy and I have a ton of it!
Our townhouse has a total of two closets that aren’t in bedrooms. No storage. My husband is the kind of shelving though! Our pantry alone in our townhouse is t-i-n-y, so he installed lots of wire racks right outside the kitchen door in the garage. We keep canned items and other food stuff that won’t be damaged by extreme temps. The more perishable items get storied in the pantry itself. He also installed spice racks and a rack to hold foil, etc. on the door of the pantry the entire way down.
We’ve lived here close to two years and there’s not a single closet that my husband hasn’t added shelves to. The increase in storage is amazing.
We live in an 8 by 32 travel trailer. It had 2 clothes closets and we were able to fit our clothes in one so my hubby made the other one into a pantry. We have a built in bunk bed, but only use the bottom for our daughter, so we put shelves on the top bunk to store stuff. And we have a small outdoor shed that I keep some stuff in. My stockpile isn’t much, but I have enough space to buy a lot of things in bulk, which saves a lot of money! Oh! And I keep flour, rice and beans in glass jars on my fridge. It gives it a kind of country look and gives me more space in the pantry for other things.
I’m fortunate to have a very large pantry (we enclosed a breezeway to make it) for all food products. Everything in the pantry is stored according to type of food, with extra boxes stored on the top shelf for easy reference. General cleaning and paper products go in the garage; everything else is stocked near where it will be used (laundry products, laundry room; toiletries, hall linen closet). Works well for our family.
My husband got me 2 bookshelves that were being thrown away at work and I put them in my laundry room. We also saved some of our old cabinets when we got a new kitchen and put them in the basement to use for cleaning supplies, etc. It’s not a huge amount of space but I know when the shelves are full, I’m done shopping!
Oops, I forgot to mention that I found this the other day…. if you buy in bulk this is a great way to organize everything!!
http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/how-i-store-bulk-food
We bought a 2-shelf microwave cart with wheels at a thrift store that helps us have more storage space for stockpiling. The cart fits perfectly in our apartment’s tiny laundry room.
Hubby and I live in a large-ish apartment. It ain’t huge, but it’s 2 bedroom. Problem is, when I moved, I took most of grandma’s heirloom furniture with me, so we do have a propensity to run short of space. We bought a small easy to assemble cabinet from Walmart, and keep out winter linens in it on the back porch (like the phrase “winter linens” has any significance in South Florida! HA!) And we used our linen closet as a pantry for a while. But that wound up not working out so well. So we took all the pots, pans, and small appliances and put then above the cabinet area where people normally stick decorative plates and stuff. Since hubby does most of the cooking and is 6’6″, this works well since he doesn’t have to stoop to get a casserole dish every time. We use the lower pot/pan cabinets as our pantry now. I keep all my baking mix, cans of soup, Ramen, mashed potato boxes, etc. down there. And we never keep cereal in the box it came in. It’s easier just to take the bag out of the box and seal it with a chip clip. It saved on space.
Still, we do find ourselves running out of space for some things, like bulk toilet paper packages, etc. We’ve taken to keeping them in the closet of the second bedroom (which we’re currently using as a library/kids playroom when we have company). But I don’t like doing it that way.
Anyone have any ideas?
my tp and pt are on a single shelf mounted to the wall in the garage.
Here is a picture of it in a post….scroll down
http://theodwyerfamily.blogspot.com/2010/05/mothers-day-shopping.html
I took the entry coat closet and put 6″ shelves around the outside, spacing them for cans, pasta boxes and cereal boxes respectively. The shallow shelves mean that I can see everything, nothing gets lost in the back. We never hung coats there, and the middle is still empty for the vaccuum cleaner, etc. I put hooks below the bottom shelf and use plastic grocery bags to put extra bags of chips there and they don’t get broken.
My problem was the big packages of paper towels and toilet paper. Then I realized we have a bathroom we never use. It’s for guests and all our family and friends live in our town. Behind the shower curtain (kept closed of course) you’ll find several large packages of charmin and bounty, and any other bulky things like that. If we ever had guests I could always stash it in my closet for a few days.
Small home…550 sqft. I have seen that eliminating packaged stuff helps. For example, instead of storing razors in their original packaging, I remove them and put multiples together in a ziploc bag, remove the air and seal it. Saves a lot of space. And most important, I buy only what I use everyday and thats just a few things. I have seen that minimalism in the number of products we choose to stock up works great for stockpiling in small spaces(though both words contradict..lol). Thank you Crystal for all your hardwork in making these videos. So encouraging and nice! And yeah, as always you look so pretty 🙂
I have very little storage space in our small house, but we do have a very narrow linen closet in the hallway outside the bathroom. The top shelf is for towels, (I store extra bedding in under-the-bed bins). This leaves me 4 shelves plus the closet floor for my stockpile. I keep bathroom things on the first shelf, tp and paper towels on the floor, and food on the other 3 shelves. I also have shelving in my laundry room above my washer and dryer that I use for cleaners, batteries, lightbulbs, and other things that I have to keep out of reach of my toddler!
I have to say, Crystal, that your stockpile shelves look very bare! I am constantly re-organizing my 3 tiny food shelves to try to fit everything in, and they are usually stuffed from top to bottom, front to back!
🙂 You shoulda seen my shelves in our apartment. I had everything strategically stuffed so that nothing would fall out when you opened the shelves! 🙂 I feel blessed abundantly to have a whole big closet to devote to household supplies now!
We have to get creative too. I store all our toiletries under our bathroom sinks. That became really overwhelming so now I store them in containers. Here is a link to the picture.
http://www.couponcloset.net/2011/01/11/organization-under-the-bathroom-sinks/
It has changed our lived! Containers are the way to go in big cabinets! I got them at Dollar General and only cost $2.75 each. 🙂
I got a bunch of the plastic storage show boxes at the dollar store. Each one is filled with deodorant, bandaids, tooth brushes, razors, etc. Then I can easily stack them to fill the entire shelf and fitting a TON more things and everything is organized.
Also we live out in the country in an old house so I keep my dry goods in plastic storage too so it stays mouse free.
We turned a hall closet that is off our family room and across from our laundry room (it is the size of a normal closet you would find in a bedroom) into a second pantry/stockpile area!! I’m thrilled with it but hubby is going to tweak it a bit and make it a more usable space including changing out the doors, it’s amazing how much those sliding closet doors can hinder you from getting to what you need!
Well, before we went jobless and I sold off my stockpile in last year’s garage sales, I kept it in the logical places…toiletries in the bathroom cabinets, cleaners over the washer/dryer, dish soap under the kitchen sink, food in the kitchen. I did have about 15 bottles of laundry soap in the kids’ bathroom closet. I have some fairly nice storage in my apartment, so I rearranged things countless times until I made it all fit. Now I’m working, so there is very little food consumption, and no other adult in the house to appreciate good cooking, so my grocery shopping is drastically reduced. But I just jumped back into the Drugstore Game, and my new stockpile is currently being tossed into a box in the top of my closet!
We lived in a very small house for a year after we had our daughter. There was only one closet in the entire house, so my husband bought some rubber tubs from walmart and we kept a stack of them by the back door with our stock pile in it. I guess this only works if you are in a place where you are not worried about things being stolen, but it was weather proof!
When we lived in Fl, we had a huge walk in pantry which I loved(and miss very much)! The house we live in now does not have a pantry. BooHoo! Our laundry room is a pretty decent size and has extra space hidden behind the door. We installed shelves on the wall for cleaning supplies and bought a huge shelf at Sam’s for behind the door. If I did not need to wash clothes, I probably would throw out the washer and dryer and turn the room into my master pantry suite!
We use the space behind our laundry room door too! Our space is deep enough that we put a 4-shelf “pantry cupboard” with doors in the space. I have one shelf for paper products on the bottom, one shelf for juice, rice, oatmeal, etc., the middle ‘reinforced’ shelf is for canned goods, the top shelf is for cereal and pasta, and the very top is for toiletries. I have a ‘regular’ two shelf area also in the laundry room for my laundry supplies and keep extra paper products there.
I am blessed to have cabinets in my tiny (10’x12′ eat in – including counters and appliances!) that reach to the ceiling! Since I store my good china above the fridge, I don’t get to use that cabinet. I do use the top two shelves of my foodstuffs cabinet in the kitchen to hold dried beans, extra baking supplies, and things I would use for special occasions (like the almond paste I use to make Scandinavian pastries, food coloring, etc.).
Loving the ideas here – I might need to mix it up a bit too!
Lea
We use elfa from the container store. It’s a bit pricier than the cheap shelves but it completely customizable and only requires 2 or 3 screws because of the way it is designed so you can use it if you are renting or own. We also have it in our closets and I can move the shelves as my daughters dresses get longer, etc. I like it because you can adjust the shelves to exactly fit what you are trying to store – no wasted space due to fixed shelves. They also have drawers that fit in the same system that I use for smaller items – floss, toothpaste, deodorant, etc. It’s not the cheapest solution but it is the best made, most versatile that we’ve found.
I have plenty of room, but do not stockpile. I think I will have to start. I am beginning to understand the difference between stockpiling and hoarding. I never want to be a hoarder!
I hear what you’re saying Carla! I grew up in a hoarding atmosphere where so much was wasted. I like the feel of stockpiling and rotating things so that everything is used. I’m just starting myself. Good luck!
Well, while I am blessed to have a large freezer and a pantry with shelves from floor to ceiling, I have a serious storage problem for non-grocery items. I store baby wipes and boxes of tissue under the bed. I also store bars of soap, and tubes of shampoo, all sorts of miscellaneous toiletries under the bed as well. I use box tops from copy paper boxes for those because they hold oddly shaped items and I can slide the box top out easily. At the holidays, I store small gifts under the couch using the box tops too.
We have a small house (800ish sq ft on main, 600ish sq ft on lower level) for our family of 4 so I make use out of every space imaginable! I fit as much as I can in our kitchen and bathroom cupboards and the rest goes on a large utility shelf in the laundry room. It holds an amazing amount and that’s really about all the storage space we have left.
I think 3-6 months is a good stockpile for canned goods and frozen foods. You don’t want so much that you will end up throwing it away because you can’t use it before it expires or spoils.
Absolutely! Good point. I learned that the hard way. : (
replace the end tables in your living room or the bedside tables in your bedroom with stacks of two plastic storage boxes with lids and cover with a pretty peice of fabric/table cloth = extra storage with a place you can still set a vase or a cup of coffee (if the lids have a “indent” you can top it with a small piece of plywood to smooth it out)
I saw something similar on a show one time. Use a two-drawer file cabinet and cover with material and you can even top it with a piece of glass. use it as an end table/bedside table with the bonus of added storage.
We have extra shelving in our basement where I keep my “2nd Pantry”, with most items in clear totes (so no mice issues) and cans on the shelves. I also have separate totes for donation items (food and personal products). In our bathroom closet we have many shelves where I have my stockpile in clear totes and what we use in bins.
We have some shelving cubes we got several years back that we use for the shampoos/razors and other like items. Over the washer shelves that we use for all our extra laundry detergent and free fabric sheets and garbage bags.
Where–everywhere! We stock pile our grocery item in the basement on a heavy duty utility shelf with home canned goods on the bottom; we stockpile laundry items on a heavy duty utility shelf next to the washer and dryer and keep extra detergent on the floor between the dryer and water softener; we keep extra paper goods (tp/paper towels/plastic wrap/etc on a shelf over the children’s coat hooks in the same room and even stash items in marked boxes in the rafter where there are openings that won’t touch a hot water pipe.
Stockpiled school supplies go on another heavy duty shelf in the basement with office supplies we are not using. I keep a Rubbermaid box with stockpiled Christmas and birthday gifts.
We also keep extra makeup items and toiletries in a containers in the hall closet. I store personal supplies in a box in the master bedroom and hosiery (thank you Walgreen’s 80% off!) in a container in the top of our closet where we added an extra shelf for extra storage.
We have to be creative in a 1100 sq ft house plus 1000 basement with 9 people.
We live in a small 3 bedroom apt with NO storage and no garage or anything. one of our 3 bedrooms houses our 3 bikes on one wall. We took 1/2 my closet and put a shelving unit in it. this houses our extra food. then we have stuff under all our beds, under all our sinks, we even used to have stuff in the babies closet on a shelf since babies don’t need a whole closet to themselves. the key to to use the unused space in your house and thing high and low. Use the shelves that go over the toilet to store the bathroom items. use the walls, under the beds and the closet space. The other very important thing is to really only have what you need. don’t buy what your space can’t fit. And keep all things in your life simple.
We use shoe units that you hang on the back of doors. they have the mesh pockets..walmart had them on clearnace for 2.00 and we bought four. They hold a TON of stuff! 🙂
I slowly am converting my “hallway closet” on our 2nd floor. I was using it for linens and towels. So I have been using one shelf for my stockplie and plan to make more room. I like the under the bed idea too!
I store my stockpile in my husband’s office downstairs on the shelving racks we got at Lowe’s some years ago. This works out so great for us and I feel so bless to have it!
My husband installed shelves in our kitchen right above the door to the laundry room. I store stockpile food up there. In the laundry room we installed shelves above the washer and dryer and that is where the detergents and fabric softeners go. We did the same above our deep freezer and our extra paper products go there. All our toiletries I store in the bathroom.
I use a cheap shelf from walmart that I put my stockpile stuff on. It is at the bottom of my basement stairs. I am all for using every available space!
I put our linens in a bathroom closet, and use our linen closet as a pantry. 🙂
My DH says that if I get really good at stockpiling, he’ll add shelves to another closet.
We use the flat stackable containers to keep hygiene items separated (toothpastes/brushes/floss, deoderants/razors, etc). We have a huge pantry in the kitchen that holds most everything nicely. However, we hardly have freezer space so I’ve used my dad’s large freezer to hold our overflow frozen foods.
By the way – I have to love your choice in jewelry. Lia Sophia rocks!!!!!!
I love the necklace, too! I was sent it as part of this giveaway: https://moneysavingmom.com/2010/12/48-hour-giveaway-lia-sophia-jewelry-2-winners.html and have worn it repeatedly!
The earrings were an amazing deal I got through one of the Eversave vouchers. They are my favorites!
Sweet!! lia sophia is what I do for a living so when I saw your jewelry I was like “woohoo!!” I get regular orders for that necklace – it’s a big hit! 🙂
WOW you look amazing in this video! Very pretty! Oh, and thanks for the info, too! 🙂
I agree! You seemed much more expressive…happier even! Very pretty!
I agree, you did seem really happy!
Thanks for your kind words. It made me happy to hear that because of two things:
1. I recently started taking a couple of new supplements and have been trying to get more sleep. I’ve definitely felt more energetic and I’m excited if others can notice a difference, too.
2. Maybe it means I’m finally starting to warm up to the camera a little? I’ve had camera-phobia for a long time and am trying to make myself get over it, which is why I committed to doing this video series! 🙂
Radiant is what came to my mind! 🙂
I’d love to know what supplements you are taking now! I could use some more energy. 🙂
Also, was that bottles after bottles of Mrs. Meyers cleaners in your cabinet? Can you actually find those on sale? That would be great!
You can email me about the supplements and I’ll be glad to share.
My mom found some great deals on Mrs. Meyer’s products at the health food store not too long ago and Soap.com runs sales on them, too. However, those are one of the few things in my stockpile that I *didn’t* get with coupons. Last year, there were some amazing deals on diapers from Diapers.com which I posted and, in turn, earned a lot of referral credit to Diapers.com/Soap.com. The credit was expiring and so I ordered diapers for friends and then Mrs. Meyer’s soap to use as favors at a party. I ended up ordering more than we needed for the party, so now I have quite a few extra bottles.
Would you like some bottles? I’d be happy to share with you. Just email me your address.
My Target store has $1 off mfr q’s hanging on the bottles of Mrs. Meyers hand soap 🙂 I resisted the urge to take them all but they don’t expire until 12/31/11. They are just for the hand soap though, but I love the basil scented soap!!!
I was going to say the same thing! You look so beautiful today! Thanks for making these videos 🙂
So funny–that was the first thing I noticed, too! I love Mrs. Meyers products!
You do seem much more relaxed and happy to be on camera. 😀 From a sometimes theater person some tips for being in front of people/a camera…
1. Belly breathe and then fill up your lungs. Don’t just breathe into your chest. When you get nervous your focus goes to the head and your breath is shallow.
2. Notice and feel your feet. This can help you remember to breathe deeply too.
3. Notice your posture. Keep your head level rather than reaching up with your head/chin for the words you want to say. That will help keep your voicebox open and your throat relaxed.
4. Pretend you’re really just talking to a friend who’s totally interested in what you have to say. (It’s true anyway!!)
That’s just off the top of my head. Hope this helps. I tell everyone who wants good frugal tips to visit your site. Keep up the great work!
I agree! Is it the beautiful blue shirt? Or the shining hair? LOVED watching this video! 🙂
Seems like this is a popular topic lately! I think people are in the stockpiling mood because we all know prices are headed up.
When we lived in a small apartment I got really into collecting Frequent Flyer miles and was buying boxes of cereal at the dollar store to get these coupons off the back to send in for AA miles. Then I stored all that cereal on top of the cupboards in our kitchen. There was a space of about 1 foot between the cupboards and the ceiling, and instead of something decorative it was just stacked with cereal boxes. Not classy, perhaps, but it worked.
You could hang curtains from the ceiling if you wanted to hide the boxes and make is a little nicer. That’s what I’m going to end up doing in my new apartment. We’ll have a great utility room too, but I want to use all the available space I can.
Fabric is a great way to create hiding places. For example, putting fabric over my glass-topped side table, big enough to drape all the way to the floor, I can store anything underneath and it still looks presentable. If you have a long room, you can “shorten” it by hanging drapes or fabric across the end of the room, and putting your stash behind that.
Our house has a lack of storage, so I had to get creative. Toilet paper is stored under the master bathroom sink, cleaning products, laundry products, diapers & wipes, and pet food and treats are in the cabinet above the washing machine. Our personal care, medicines, and food are in the closet in the garage. It is a little tight, but we make it work.
I just learned that we live 20 minutes from eachother! I had no idea where you were from, and for all I knew you lived clear across the country from me. Someone in my coupon class Saturday told me I live in a small neighboring town by you!
I suggest your site to all my students!
It’s a small world! 🙂 Maybe we’ll run into each other at Walgreens sometime since I tend to shop wherever I happen to be out and about — sometimes 20 minutes away. 🙂
I use the plastic 24 slot over the door shoe hangers that I can hang on the back of doors. I have one on the door in my pantry and one on my bathroom closet door. These are a great, cheap way to store LOTS of household items without taking up space.
I do this too and it works great for shampoo, hairspray, deodorant, etc in a space that would otherwise not be used for anything.
thanks Stephanie, i love that idea!!!
I do this for medicines, etc. The pouches are clear, so you can label them and then see at a glance if you are out of something in one of the categories (like “children’s pain reliever”, “cough medicine”, “bandaids”, etc). And little tiny packages of things do not get “lost” in a big closet. We also do pantry shelves in our basement-three to be exact. Love reading the creative storage solutions, everyone!
I like this idea, too! I have some shelves in my basement which we put up just for stockpiling, but I like the over the door bag so the little things don’t get lost.
That’s a great idea!
I keep all my kids clothes in dressers and use their closets for stockpiling.
I have shelves in our garage that my husband installed. I store shelf stable products out there. I also take advantage of “under-the-bed” storage you mentioned. I have 3 tubs under our bed filled with razors, shampoo, lotions, pretty much anything. I really need to take advantage of your suggestion of adding another shelf above my washer and dryer “closet”. I think we could add more things in there.
Thanks for sharing your video!
It would be so easy for me to let my stockpile get out of hand, because excessiveness is just how I roll!
I keep my toiletry items confined to what can fit in the bathroom counters, and I have a section of my pantry set aside for “extras” so the kids know not to start eating something if we already have one open.
Yes, me too!! I used to buy a ton of stuff if it was on sale without considering storage. I once had 30 boxes of cereal. After living with cereal stored on the garage floor, I concluded that we have enough room for 14 boxes of cereal in our stockpile area. No more. Even if an exceptional deal comes along. Right, Laura?!
We have unfinished rooms in our basement, so we dedicated one as our “pantry room”. We bought utility shelving to put in the room and we can store everything we need on those shelves and we don’t have to worry about them collapsing on us, either! =)
Ha! Ha! My friend was just texting me about where is she going to put all of the stuff I just brought to her house, and jokingly I told her to empty out her hubby’s dresser drawer! 🙂
When we lived in a very small 1100 sq. ft. townhouse, we stored everything in the closet under our stairs. You can see it in this video…
http://thefrugalfind.com/online-coupon-class/how-to-stock-pile/
Funny…I live in a 1000 sq ft, 3 BR apartment, and it’s very spacious! =) Lots of storage too!
We have several places where we keep our stockpiles…shelf over washer/dryer, certain shelves in our basement storage room, underneath bathroom vanities, and we recently had a minor renovation so we installed a big cabinet in my bathroom over the toilet.
It must be past my bedtime, I read your last sentence as: “we installed a big cabinet in my bathroom UNDER the toilet.” Then, I sat there wondering how in the world you all installed a cabinet under a toilet!
hahaha….
Too funny!
hahaha… that made my day! 🙂
I design closets for a living, so I am used to finding extra space! Most closets have tons of extra space. Even looking at Crystal’s closet it looks to me like there is wasted space in there. If you don’t want to hire a professional to come out and re-do your closets, you can get inexpensive racking at Home Depot or Lowe’s (or at a builder supply resale store if you’re lucky!). You can use this to fill in extra space and get the most out of what you have.
I live in a super-small efficiency (it used to be a roadside motel)! I store my stockpile in a blue rubbermaid tote in my car and in a skinny rubbermaid tub under my loveseat. It’s neat and tidy, and just enough for my husband and I.
We have a built in glass curio type cabinet. We don’t have nice crystal or dishes, so I added fabric panels and now I have 20 boxes of hamburger helper, 20 boxes of rice a roni, 25 various boxes of pasta and assorted other things!
We keep extra food in a closet. We call it our pantry. There are also shelves above our refrigerator that are now full of food. Our bathroom has large cabinets above washer/dryer and they hold most of our toiletries. I was going to keep an inventory sheet of them all (e.g., “shampoo – 4”) but then decided it was easier just to label all the shelves so I could just see what each product had extra of. We do stock pile but then also give products to family members and local shelters, too.
We use the same idea, by placing items above the washer and dryer. I use a spreadsheet to keep track of how many of what we have. I even use it for the pantery downstairs in our basement. That way before we go shopping for food we can go through it to see when things need to be flushed out and what we get great deals on with coupons.
The top of the fridge! This is one of my secret hide outs. We don’t have cabinets above our fridge (we rent a small 1-bedroom apartment). I stack canned goods, bulk flour/sugar/oats in canisters, coffee pushed up against the wall with the help of a step stool. You can’t see the stuff from the ground level if you’re worried about that. If you have cabinets above the fridge, there is usually a little gap between the fridge & the cabinet. You can slide boxes of cereal, rice, pasta, etc. and get a little more storage space.
Be careful, though. Putting too many things on top of a fridge or freezer inhibits the appliance’s ability to remove heat. Take it from someone who ruined a perfectly good freezer that way. 🙁
I try to store my stockpile in the garage, but it’s hard during the summer. I used to toss stuff that got too hot/melted/etc! So, we came up with a solution. We bought some window tinting at Lowe’s and my husband installed it on our garage door top windows. Now it stays a cool room temp and I don’t have to worry about my food stockpile going bad.