Pantries and Preparedness. Prudence.

Monday night after Australia's terrible day on the stock market I sat up and watched the US market open. So I witnessed live the Dow plummet 1000 points in four minutes and saw the reactions. It is not for the faint hearted! I did witness history though! Various opinions became part of the news stream and one was from a former advisor to the UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. He tweeted three pieces of advice. They were to get cash now. Get bottled water and a month of food. Do not rely on banks or ATMs. That we need these things because of what could happen and that what he thinks could happen could be "twenty times worse to 2008".  Once I verified who this was and that he indeed held that position I re considered what we have.  And saw people who clearly had no preparations at all wondering where to start. Which made me want to cry as it meant they had no idea about the various things going on and why they should be prepared. 

Now we do not know what might happen but there are a lot of worried people and there is a great amount of volatility and uncertainty. Days are being renamed "Black Monday" actually I think we have now had "black Tuesday" and "black Wednesday"?

This brings me to the word prudent. It is a great word and I never appreciated it's meaning until I was repeatedly faced with the blog title "The Prudent Homemaker". Understanding it kind of snuck up on me. Now it is my number one word associated with preparedness. There are many scriptures that use this word and also about it. 

It means careful ie exercising caution, circumspect ie heeding potential circumstances, provident ie providing carefully for the future, responsible and wise.

You cannot be prudent without also being watchful. You cannot prepare for a coming storm if you do not know the storm is coming.

"The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty" Prov 22.3

And this is what I thought when I saw people going "oh, do you think I should prepare?"  I felt like screaming "well, yes that would be a good idea" at the screen! 

Prudence is also action. Just knowing things isn't prudent but acting, making a plan etc is.

It is really interesting how learning one word can make a difference! It made a difference in my understanding and my plans. It gave me something to aspire to!

It is prudent to prepare for a storm. If the storm passes you by then we have useful assets. If the storm hits you will survive.

Last week I posted about using inexpensive items for storage. I am saving baby formula tins for a new set of canisters but it is going to take awhile to get the six I am needing!

Vicky posted me some photos of how she made things to match her kitchen which is black and white. She has been getting large buckets with lids from her local bakery. These are wonderful. After cleaning them up they are very good storage for free. She purchased vinyl to cover them (I think we would call this contact?) and this one she has packets of noodles etc stored in...

I love it! How handy would some of these be!? Ask at your own bakery, take away store, cafe... they are around and free if you will wash them up. They have good secure lids and are air tight. They are strong and also stackable. And I am getting some! Andy currently is delivering goods to several restaurants. He said if I want these buckets they all have them! So I am going to use Vicky's trick and clean them up and make them over. 

Vicky cut down boxes to form trays to hold various packets. She covered these also and made labels. They look so nice!

As an extra storage space Vicky uses a tote that matches, it sits on her floor looking nice but is full of shampoo, conditioner etc.

When you think about it a tote, basket or trunk can hold an enormous amount and be used as extra storage space.

She made herself labels for the jars she had saved up as well...

Cans have the date written on them so she can rotate them successfully.

(I need to be doing this.)

And she uses clear tubs for packets. These can be stacked also.

One of the tips I loved :

"Rotating things in the pantry can be quite a chore at times and space a real issue so a few little things can make a big difference and save time as well. For example if it's too small make it bigger. 

And if i's too big make it smaller. Sometimes the packaging takes up valuable real estate in the pantry so what I did here is take pasta dinner mixes and downsize them to a plastic shoebox and cut the directions off the box and put I with the mixes." 

This is so true. Packaging can be so bulky and deceptive. I know I reduce a lot of boxes etc using my jars as the storage and getting rid of the packets. But considering if bulk packaging is worth keeping is a good idea. Vicky cuts out and keeps recipes and instructions from the back of packets but not the packets themselves. Good thinking! When space is important these ideas are really smart.

I just love seeing in other pantries! These were wonderful too because Vicky has done it all so inexpensively. I know she got more buckets from the bakery just the last week as she has been cleaning them up and building her collection. Thank you Vicky for sending these to me! 

I love practical solutions that look nice! 
At the Cheapskates workshop part of the discussion was getting non food items out of your pantry and finding new homes for them. Then your pantry has so much more room for food. When I did this I was shocked. My pantry "full" of food was in fact half empty. Suddenly I had so much space! This subject is Wendy's current topic on The Cheapskates Forum. I was able to re home all kinds of things and this made a big improvement to my pantry. Reducing packaging and re homing non food items combined to create a lot of room I never knew I had! It gives you a clearer idea of what you have.

Have a prudent and diligent week!  That's my new saying! Remember every little thing you do adds up! xxx