RV food storage

I did cover this before, but I understand that my huge reader growth, rivaling that of the birthrate of an infertility clinic, dictates that I cover this again. Also, before we start, I'll cover my policy on the comments section moderation once again. Censorship, in my opinion, has no gray areas. You either allow free speech or you don't. There is no good reason to block what others see. It is like any other freedom. You either are, or you aren't. As soon as you start making exceptions you open Pandora's Box. Corporate censorship is almost as bad as government censorship, since it is merely sucking up in one form or another. Sure, Big Daddy Government, I'll be your unpaid toady, turning in those with unpatriotic ideas so I'll be the last one to go to the re-education camps. I understand each blog is like a small business. Their owners should be allowed to run them as they please. If one has a high readership of sensitive religious types, by all means keep a lid on the comments. You don't want to offend. Myself, I run an anarchist organization. It reflects my political ideas. I hate the racist crap as much as the next guy ( of course, to be honest some of the jokes can be funny if you like your humor rough and unpolished ) but I won't use that as an excuse to censor. My blog might be one of the few places you can say as you please, even if I don't agree. It doesn't make any difference, only having a thousand readers. But it's the last bit of defiance I'm still allowed. This is not a license to print nonsense, or stray off topic, but I won't stop the idiots. I hope that makes sense.
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Storing crap in a trailer can be a tough business. There is inevitable clutter if you don't have a separate storage area. And there never will be enough storage space, even in a forty foot fifth wheel with pull-outs. I've owned 16 footers, twenty-five, 35 and currently a 32 foot trailer. Some are much easier than others for storing your years worth of food, but none are impossible. The eight foot cab-over would never store enough, but that should be the only exception. Right now I have almost two years worth of food in my trailer, and that is with the storage space under the bed full of books and camping gear. This trailer was easy, since it has storage under the bathroom that holds three hundred pounds of wheat in buckets. But I've also stuffed that same three hundred pounds of food in sixteen foot trailers. Granted, at the time I owned almost nothing, having just got out of the service. And the climate was so mild I owned nothing more than sweaters, jeans, tennis shoes, etc. So my trailer had no storage other than prep food.
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On a sixteen footer, you may have to fold out the couch every night for a bed, but there are at least four or five storage areas under that and the other seats, plus one outside storage bin. If you vacuum seal bags of wheat, you'll be able to get enough wheat stored in there for your bare bones starvation diet. You won't fit in nine hundred MRE's or several hundred cases of canned food. It will be a thousand calories a day grain and bean diet. Some of the grain will be used for sprouts, the beans are your protein. There are plenty of other storage options outside the trailer, but if you're living in a tin box more than likely you can't afford them. I have two pallets under the overhang of my fifth wheel piled high with storage foods, covered with a tarp. That cost about ten bucks, seasonally. But I also keep the wife at home, and the neighbor dogs love to hang out at our place, so my security is pretty good. Far from perfect, but I'll be damned if I can see putting out the big bucks for the illusion of further safeguards. Sure, when the whole ball of wax begins to melt, I might worry more about theft. But by then I'll most likely be home permanently. And it's not like you can tell what the tarped pile is. But, back to interior trailer food storage.
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Next we go up to your regular cupboards, those in the living room and kitchen. You can fit a lot of food in those. I have no idea what weight they will hold, but I've put almost a hundred pounds of beans in one of them. I kept getting one or two small bags at a time, then transferring them into Christmas metal tins as I pulled them from the trash. Being lazy, sometimes it took me awhile to transfer them. Which is why I had so many in the cupboard at one time. I do have the Hippy Bread Van that holds a lot of storage ( almost a ton before I transferred to the pallets ), but I have held food in the trailer for long periods of time. If you forget about the clutter factor for now, you can too. If you've stuffed a large family into a small trailer and can't set up outside storage, I hope you are pulling it with a van or enclosed pickup. There is some storage. That is one drawback to the fifth wheels, no storage in the pull vehicle. If you've settled in one place and build on an enclosed porch, you can make couches and beds out of plastic pails containing your grains.
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So, settle on a bare bones food storage. Vacuum pack bag the grain and stuff in every nook and cranny possible. Even in a small trailer, you should have enough stored to help you sleep soundly. I've gotten several hundred pounds under the bed/couch and almost a hundred in the small outside storage areas with these bags. You can put a layer on the bottom of the closet. It is not impossible if you sacrifice the space for other items and put up with clutter.

Original at: http://bisonsurvivalblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/rv-food-storage.html