PAW Supply Closet

[foxfire]

Eric,
I think you've done a great job, not only on your closet but on the beginnings of your stash.......and...I love the red walls with the hardwood floors, very nice!!
Is that Eeyore on the dresser?...you must tell me where you got that!!!

foxfire

[ninja-elbow]

You should have posted a pic of the ceiling after you fell through it.

I forgot about that - I wish there was a video of that

[jamoni]

Well, as long as it's flat paint, that's alright, then.
I'd post pics of my stash (or "man closet" as the SO calls it) except it's a little on the disorganized side right now.

[Erik]

Eric,
I think you've done a great job, not only on your closet but on the beginnings of your stash.......and...I love the red walls with the hardwood floors, very nice!!
Is that Eeyore on the dresser?...you must tell me where you got that!!!

foxfire

SEE, Jamoni? I do have taste after all! MUHAHA!

Foxfire, that is NOT Eeyore, merely a plush mechanized pig I got my wife that sings "My Girl" when you squeeze it's paw.

Doc: Wedding? What wedding!? Are you getting married! Holy schnikes! Can't wait for those supply photos.

Now that everyone know's Doc's address, send him gay porn! He loves that stuff!

-Erik

[foxfire]

NOT Eeyore

I stand corrected sir, please accept my apologies!!

foxfire

[Capt Cook]

Now we can open up some of the containers.


One of the crates is (nearly) full of canned goods. Please note that these totes are HUGE, much larger than they look in the pictures. Note the can opener. I mostly get these cans at dent discount. Many of them will be good for a year or two after the expiration date. I usually won't buy canned food for PAW storage unless the last two numbers in the expiration year start with a "1," such as they years 2010, 2011, etc. Is it true condensed milk lasts nearly forever?


The cube-shaped boxes contain gallons of water. I only have 22 gallons right now, plus about five gallons in single-serving containers. That is not good. For my wife and I, that's only about 13 days of water total. Not enough. For 69 cents a gallon, I really should get another fifty dollars worth at the least. Experts, I've also heard that water in those gallon containers will last indefinately. Is that true? I don't care about the taste, just the potability. I got those two bottom crates of two liters for free just the other day. A discount place I was shopping at was giving away two cases per customer. Maybe I'll send my wife to get a couple more today.

Well, there you go! Comments and suggestions accepted!

-Erik[/quote]

Hi Erik,
Great job on the closet. I'm a journeyman Carpenter so I should know!
Here's a couple of comments for you since you asked.
Keep your cans stacked upright, not on their sides & dump out anything with a high acid content like tomato. It eats right through the can in a much shorter period of time. Use some smaller containers for the heavy cans so you can still lift them.
As to the bottled water, you should have enough. Don't load your closet with water, it is very heavy & will stress the floor. Get a gallon bottle of bleach & you can use other sources of water & purify it instead. Much more efficient & takes less space.

Great job of preparring, keep it up & keep us posted on your supply cache.

[jamoni]

I disagree about the bleach. Bleach doesn't kill heavy metals or chemical poisons. It doesn't destroy the poison products of microorganisms, just the organisms themselves. And if you're bugging in, you want to keep your head down and show yourself as little as possible. Going out to gather water is an unneccesary danger. You should have the bleach, but as a backup.

[Glockmeister]

Great Job!! Much better than I could ever hope to do. You should be proud of the way it turned out,..now, where's the "Snake"??

[Grace]

I don't think the tomatoes will be a problem. The fact that they eat through aluminum is no secret to anybody, including the manufacturers, which is why every single can that has a tomato product in it is lined with some kind of white plastic thing. Or, at least, every can that I've ever opened.

[Erik]

Great Job!! Much better than I could ever hope to do. You should be proud of the way it turned out,..now, where's the "Snake"??

Okay, okay - I didn't put the snake in the closet. Caroline is staying in the bedroom across the hallway. She is a brown-phase Sumatran Blood Python. Let me know if you want pictures of the cutie.

-Erik

[TheFreakinBear]

Seeing your post made me realize the importance of said closet. Being as my wife and I live on post and pay "rent" for our house, we can't do anything like what you did. However, we turned one of the closets in the spare bedroom into what you have. We've got 3 cases of water, a 5 gallon jug of water, a case of gatorade, a case of MREs, medical supplies, our spare bug-out clothes and accessories. We still need to add more food but in my opinion if we can get another case of MREs then we should be set. I forgot to mention we also keep all of our spare batteries, flashlights, mirrors, candles and lighters/matches in there as well. Likewise, in the "Office" I keep all of my tools in a nice little organizer so we would also have access to spray paint, nails, hammers, etc. if we had to close off the downstairs.

Something to consider if you do have to close off the downstairs is do you have a means to get back down should you have to? Do you have a means of transporting supplies upstairs? You could get a nice rope ladder for yourself and you could get some rope and a bucket for the supplies or just carry a backpack on you. Just a few things to think about.

[jamoni]

One thing I have in my "man closet" as the SO refers to it, is a glowstick, hanging from the ceiling, right where you'd expect a light pull to be. Quick, easy to find light in an emergency.

[herbalpagan]

a house further into the country and a supply closet is one of the things I look for when we go to places.
An interesting thing to note;I have found at least two survivalist types homes while we have been looking. How can I tell? Well, when one of the features is a "hidden gun safe" and another is "hidden basement access" and the basement has a "hidden safe room" I think they might be survivalists. Also, the reason these two sets of people were selling is because one wanted to be somewhere more remote and the other wanted to be in Vermont where they aren't so picky about you shooting your gun.

[TheFreakinBear]

That sounds awesome. I remember hearing of somebody in my hometown who had tunnels under their house through their basement to somewhere else down the road. I guess it was originally used for the underground railroad. If only I could remember who it was but anyway it was really cool to hear about. I would love to find a house like what you are talking about. It would make everything a lot easier lol.

[JägerZ]

Eric, great job on your closet!

The only thing I would have done differently would be to camoflague or in some way conceal the entry.

But congrats on a job well done!

[Nostromo]

Haha I have just read every post, and the last one was what I wanted to say.

You should have concealed the door

[artyboy]

I noticed you mentioned buying dented canned goods to save a few bucks. For long term storage you should make sure that none of your canned food has any dents in it. Dents can cause small holes or a weakening in the structure of the can that lets bacteria in.

[Jamie]

Eric,

I lived in a great house in Syracuse during grad-school that had a "closet" that was hidden behind a book case...it was hinged on one side and my wife (then GF) called it the batcave...

At some point it might be fun to figure out a fun way to hide your closet a bit, then the only people who would know would be the couple hundred (thousand?) people who looked at this thread online...
nfa

[Erik]

It's a good suggestion, but I have no desire to hide the room. Frankly, I would have just stored the stuff in existing closets if I'd had any.

-Erik

[DrthTater]

Looks good Erik.

Perhaps you can help me with a few projects I have in mind...

[lefty]

looks good to me

[Funk]

Nice job on the closet install. I know what a pain it can be to spend most of your construction time trying to remedy the crap work someone else didnt do correctly. I don't think your time frame is bad at all taking that into consideration.

The red looks cool. The yellow would probably scare me away from the kitchen or blind me in the morning, but i think all the other colors look really good.

Now you just need a pulley system attached above the window outside of that room. Leave a rope inside the closet and if you have to bug out further you can lower your boxes into the truck without having to use the stairs. Something like a metal crate to use as a basket for the elevator would probably make it easier and you could use it to bring things to the upstairs as well if you ever got into the " barricade the stairs and wait it out up top" scenario.

You would still be able to scout the area and bring supplies back into safely easily and it would provide an easy way to unload everything and everyone(including sick/injured possibly) down into your waiting pickup if a fire or something threatened your house. Nothing fancy just one of those barn pulleys attached securely outside and above the window. I'd use a metal flashing and then a support beam of at least 2" thick hardwood to attach it.

[TheFreakinBear]

BUMP! Here's another classic thread by Erik. If only everyone was so handy as Erik is.

[Leatherman]

I have the same type of dark red color in my living room, don't listen to the uncultured heathens about paint!
Anyways, my only concern about your supply closet, is rotating a food seems like it'd be a pain in the butt to go through and dig into the boxes to find food that's about to expire. But I definately like the supplies, working on changing my storage room into a supply room for food and medical stuff, along with as much water as I can get.