Food Storage Problems? Solved

I feel really strongly about building up my food supply, and hope to have a three month supply soonish. So when Shannon from Shelf Reliance emailed me and asked if I would be interesting in trying out their Cansolidator Pantry and giving one away on my blog, I was excited. Anything to help make my food storage more organized and manageable is very well received. Here is my pantry:Notice where the white Cansolidator Pantry is located. When we first moved here last July, that area the size of the Cansolidator Pantry is how much food storage we brought from Iowa. 15 cans of food, to be exact. Aren't you impressed with how much I have collected in the last 10 months? The problem is, I'm not very organized...when I get home from the grocery store, I shove stuff in the pantry wherever it will fit.

When the Cansolidator Pantry comes to your house, it is not put together. You have to do it yourself. I immediately asked my husband if he would do it, and he said, "Nope, this is your thing. You can do it." I just about started to hyperventilate, but I pulled it out of the box and read the instructions. Oh, good - there are no screws or tools involved. It was really easy; I put it together it tear-free. So then I got a couple of cans to figure out how far the spacing should be, and that's when my kids noticed what I was doing. They came over and started putting one can at the top, and watching it slide down to the bottom. Over and over. They each said, "This is fun!" at separate times. Yes, it was a great game, until Aidan dropped a can of kidney beans on his toe. (P.S. In this picture, I hadn't quite finished putting it together. But the kids couldn't wait to try it out. That's why the white bar is laying on the ground in front of it.)So, here's why I like the Cansolidator Pantry: I really like how it rotates your food. You put the newest stuff on top, and pull out the oldest stuff from the bottom. It has room for four different rows of cans. If you will notice, I have a little space left in a couple of the slots, so now I'm excited to buy more mandarin oranges and refried beans to fill the space. The only "con" for me personally is that I tend to buy two cans of stuff that I use only occasionally, so it would be hard to have two cans of many different items in it because you would only be able to use what you can see in the very front. (Did that run-on sentence make sense?) But because I buy cases of mandarin oranges, kidney beans, green beans and chicken broth, it is definitely worth having at least one or two of these Cansolidator Pantrys. Plus, it's a fun toy, until somebody's toe gets hurt! Seriously, I really like it, and I will definitely be putting it to good use in my pantry.

One of you lucky ducks will be winning a Cansolidator Pantry. You get two chances to win: #1, leave a comment on this post; #2, sign up for the Shelf Reliance newsletter (click here and put your e-mail in the box in the top left corner of the page), and then come back and tell me you signed up (continental US only). I will be announcing the winner next Friday, May 29. Good luck, and may The Force be with you (Christian and Ethan have been watching the Star Wars movies together - I just had to reference The Force).