Food and Home Storage Shelving

I would like to respond to a question I recently received about building useful food and home storage shelving. This person had an unfinished storage room which her family wanted to prepare in an orderly manner so storing and retrieving storage items would be expedited. Because it does make a difference how you approach this project, it is worth the time to think through this need! The specifications of shelf depth, spacing of shelves, and preparing either a room or a wall to most effectively store food and other nonfood items is very important to calculate.

Let’s consider several ideas. You will need three depths of shelving. “Deep” shelves, as I call them, are shelves that holds cases of paper towels, toilet paper, disposable diapers, and other more bulky things. These need to be about 18”-20” deep. “Medium” shelving is shelving about 15-18” deep that holds flats of canned soups, fruits, and vegetables. “Narrow” shelving is only 10-12” deep and is great for holding cake mixes, cereal boxes, and other foods that come in smaller sizes. This narrow shelving is also useful for shampoos, lotions, bar soaps, medications, and other sundries.

In addition to these three different depths of shelves, you will want to have three heights of shelves. The first shelf from the floor should be about 30-36” above the floor. This will accommodate stacking two traditional round food storage buckets, one on top of another, so that items such as flour, sugar, oatmeal, and powdered milk can be kept in buckets using gamma lids for ease of access. As a side note, I like 4.25 gallon storage bucket best because they hold about 20-30 pounds of dry food which is just about right for an adult to move around without difficulty. Then there should be several 15-18” tall shelves for the taller grocery items like the large cereal boxes, popcorn cans (which I use to store many items after the Christmas popcorn is gone), and taller plastic bottles. Lastly, have several 12-15” shelves, which will easily hold shorter products with the necessary additional space to reach your hand in over the products to place newer products behind the old when you are restocking. Any space left above easy reaching distance could be left empty for lightweight, bulky items to be stored way up high (always remembering to put the uprights to the ceiling to keep items from dropping off the ends of the shelves).

Keep in mind, when you make shelving, to have the uprights (supports) quite near each other (within 3 feet apart) as canned goods and other items can be quite heavy when stored in bulk. Take the time to paint and otherwise make this area beautiful. This will make going to your food and home storage area delightful. Also, have a little bit extra lighting (as storage areas are usually without much natural light).

Remember, different depths and heights of shelves with sturdy supports in a brightly painted place with good lighting makes purchasing and storing your food and home storage a very pleasant experience.

As you finish up the storage room, add several additional useful items. A wastebasket is great for the excess packaging which is always a part of storing food. A nightlight will keep this area lit even when the main lights are not on. A place for storing grocery bags is also useful. Having extra labels and a couple of permanent marking pens will facilitate keeping all your items dated. Lastly, a date stamp and pad makes finishing up storing food and home storage convenient.

If your storage room or area is quite large, cases of food and storage buckets can be stacked in the center of room to make good use of all the storage area. Remember to label all items at both ends with name and date of purchase so you can easily see what is in your buckets and boxes and how old the items are.

If there is room, have a small table where you can place items when you first bring them to the storage room. While this is not necessary, it surely makes storing food and sundries nicer because you have a work area where you can label, unwrap, and work with the storage items.

As you prepare and complete your food and home storage shelving, think carefully about your needs, measure and build with wisdom, and add the extra accessories to make working in your storage room a delight!