I you have a garden
of any size, raise livestock on the homestead, or just like to buy a
lot of stuff on sale for your pantry, you are eventually going to
need some proper shelving. I realize that this is not the typical
type of article I write here on CulinaryYou, but this is part and
parcel to the 'minimalist pantry' series. One of the first things we
started doing when we wanted to cut down on our food bill, was raise
our own livestock (rabbits and chickens) for meat. In addition, we
plant a pretty good size garden for the two of us. This spring alone
we have harvested over 100lbs of tomatoes, and about 40lbs of
cucumbers so far, in addition to about 40lbs of blackberries, yellow
squash, green beans, and peppers; you get the idea.
Well I have always
been a canner and if you have been reading any of my articles on this
blog, then you know that I can a lot of vegetables (tomatoes, green
beans, pinto beans, black-eyed peas, squash etc...) as well and
meats, jellies, and jams. The great thing about canning your harvest
is that is is shelf stable, so if the power ever goes out as a result
of a natural disaster or we ever have our power cut off, we will
always have food to eat. Are we preppers? No, we are homesteader's or
farmer's which in many ways are the original preppers. We strive to
be as self-sufficient as possible, however I still hold a full time
job as a registered nurse, because farming just doesn't pay the
bills...[GRIN].
Anyway, if you can
as much as we do, and/or buy a couple of extra food items to stock
your pantry at your local grocery store when things go on sale, you
will eventually need more shelf space. Most shelves that you can buy
for your pantry, simply are not pantry friendly. What I mean by that
is there is a lot of wasted space between the shelves. Yes you can
stack some canned goods, but stacking your home canned meats and
veggies is not a viable option. So in this article, I am going to
show you how to purchase inexpensive shelving units and convert them
into the optimum canning shelf.
Plastic Shelving
We purchase 'Plano'
brand (model 950500) plastic shelving from our local Walmart for
$29.49. This five shelf unit is stackable and interlocking which can
be a blessing or a curse. A blessing when assembled correctly on a
flat, stable surface; but they can be a curse if you do not set them
up correctly. I learned the hard way, but I am going to share my
experiences with you so that you do not make the same mistakes that I
originally did. Please, I beg you, learn from me, or you will regret
it, mark my words.
Because we can meats
and vegetables in both quart and pint jars, it was important that the
size and height of the shelving met these specific needs. In order to
do this we cut the legs of the shelves down to 11 inches. Then when
assembled the actual space between the shelves is 9 inches (you lose
two inches in height as the legs sit in a recess on the shelves).
This is the prefect height for both quart and pint canning jars.
There are two big advantages to cutting down the legs to 11 inches.
The first is that it actually makes the shelves more stable, and the
second and maybe the biggest advantage is that is allows you to place
twice the usable shelf space in the same area.
Cutting The Legs
Essentially the legs
that come with these shelves are 1 ½-inch thin wall plastic tubing.
The are actually the same size as thin wall PVC of the same diameter.
Because they are thin wall, they are difficult to cut with some types
of PVC cutters as the cutters tend to squash the legs rather than cut
them evenly. Now you could try and use a hacksaw to cut the legs, but
if you do not cut them straight your are going to have a lot of
problems as you begin to stack the shelves. Any small off-set will
begin to become exaggerated (get worse) as the shelving gets taller.
Take it from me you, you want your shelves to be as stable as
possible.
I personally cut the
legs of the shelves on my miter saw (aka chop saw). I measure 11
inches from the blade and place a stop block on my fence and hold it
in place with a couple clamps. It makes repeating the same cut over
and over go fast and keeps the cuts accurate. If you do not have the
ability to use a stop block with you mitre saw, then measuring each
leg and marking it will have to do. Just remember, measure twice and
cut once.
So what happens if
you screw it all up? No problem, just go down to your local hardware
supply store and buy a 10 or 20 foot piece of thin wall PVC and cut
it to any size you wish. It will not be as pretty as it will have
writing on it, but who cares, we are taking shelving. However if you
do not like the writing you could sand it off.
Putting It All
Together
So I am going to
tell you upfront, we live out in the country and we live in a
'double wide palace', that's a manufactured or mobile home if you
didn't get my drift. Although it is a very nice one, it is still a
manufactured home. Having said that I am not keen on screwing my
shelves to the wall. If you live in a conventional home then I would
suggest that you attach every other shelf to the studs in your wall
(they come with pre-drilled holes). I especially recommend this if
you have to place your shelving in a room that has carpet. I was
unable to do so and paid the price. So best recommendations is place
your shelving on a flat, hard, level surface and attach them to the
wall and her follows the reason.
Builders Note: We
always leave the legs on the first level there original length so
that we can place larger totes on the bottom shelf that contains dry
goods such as flour, sugar and other bulky supplies.
These shelving units
lock together, this in turn makes them very sturdy and gives them
strength. It also means that if one shelving unit fails, then all the
interlocking shelving units fail. It is an all or nothing
proposition. My point, my shelves were interlocked together (which I
recommend) and then placed on a carpeted floor in our spare room we
call the pantry. Because we live in a manufactured home, I was leery
of attaching them to the wall. Well one of the shelving units was
beginning to lean, and before I could get the situation rectified, it
fell over taking all of the shelves with it. To say it was a mess was
an understatement. This was not a fault of the shelves, rather a the
fault of the user. The solution to the problem was quite simple.
Because I did not want to attach the shelves to the wall and I have
to place them on carpet, I placed a 1x4 board under the front edge of
each shelf. This in turn give the shelves an ever so slightly
unnoticeable lean towards the wall, problem solved. So if you have to
place your shelves on carpet, this simple solution could save you
from a massive headache.
Built To Last
These particular
shelves are quite heavy duty with ribbing that runs underneath the
shelf to give it both strength and stability. The box states that the
5 unit shelf can hold a total of 375lbs (75lbs per shelf). Unlike
other shelves they do not bend or buckle under weight. In the picture
below you will see that I have 20 quart jars of pasta sauce on one
shelf (49.7lbs total weight) and the shelf is nice and straight.
Because they are made of plastic they will last for a very long time
if taken care of properly. Even when my shelves fell over, none of
them sustained any damage.
Conclusion
So this is the
simply shelving solution that we use on our small homestead to store
or canned and purchased goods. They have really worked out well for
us now that I added the small spacer board (1x4) under to front lip
to give the shelves a slight lean towards the wall. At less than $30,
they are fare cheaper than trying to buy and or build shelves from
wood. The fact that they snap together easily is also a bonus. Best
of all if you decide later that you want the shelves area taller, you
can purchase inexpensive 1 ½-inch thin wall PVC from your local
building supply and cut them to the size you desire.
If hope that you
have found this information helpful. It was my goal with this article
to not only show you how to add simple inexpensive shelving to your
pantry, but to help you to avoid the mistakes that I made when I
first started out. As always, if you have enjoyed this article,
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