Daily Briefing for Thursday, October 18, 2012

The Food Storage Unit

I have a friend who has taken to storing part of their food stores in a local storage unit.  I'd like to tell you about it.

He picked the storage unit based upon a number of criteria: 

• Locality to his house.
• EMP protection. (this particular unit is essentially a concrete bunker in a climate controlled building)
• Ability to get access most hours of the day without a lot of hassle.

In his unit, he's left a small walkway all around the food he's storing in the unit.  The walkway is essentially a mine field of rat bait and glue traps, regularly sprayed for bugs.  The glue traps are changed out as needed; he says he visits the unit at least once a week to keep tabs on it.

To help secure the food, my friend stores only food grade buckets and number 10 cans in the unit. 

There's a lot of down sides to having food kept off premises.  Getting it out of the unit can be tricky, especially if there's a lot of it.  I'm pretty sure the owner of the storage unit probably doesn't want food stored in there, although I suspect the way it's being stored prevents it from attracting vermin.  And there's the rental fee every month - money that could be spent on other things.

Overall, I think it's a good concept.  Just make sure you've got as much food stored at home as you can before storing off site.