Excuses Beware

The beginning:...no. Wait. Maybe I shouldn't start there. Perhaps you've been there. That place where you dread food storage, and you can't wrap your head around a staring place. Not with your budget, not with your space, not with your sloppy shopping habits. That's an adequate description to take you through the last four and a half years of my food storage career (and a dismal, unemployed sort of career it was).

So that's where I started. Somehow, though, about eight months ago, I reached a different sort of place. One that has some hope, one that sees possibilities. One that actually has a closet with water and cans of food in it. That kind of place. I suppose the next step is to have another closet stocked with desserts, but...we'll get to that.

The real, true blue starting place: I decided that I would have food storage. It was as simple as that. I kicked the complaints, the excuses, the fear, the "I don't know how to do it" comments out the door and sat down at my computer and started looking for solutions. (and by kicked them out the door, I mean we had a long, brawl in the parking lot of my apartment complex. Yeah. One of those.)


I remembered my friend Marge. She lived in a one bedroom apartment. In her bedroom was a bed, a sweet walk-in closet, and...what was that?! along the wall opposite her bed? A tall shelving unit full of...food storage.

With that mental picture in mind (and with her awesome attitude of: The prophet said to have food storage, so I have it, also in mind), I decided that I could do it too.

As for doubts, excuses, frustration...all of those things didn't go away. But instead of focusing on all the reasons not to, and all the scary things that could lead to me needing food storage, where to put it all, how much to get...you know the list by heart too... I kept my mental picture of Marge's food storage shelf in mind and started planning. [Aside to Marge: Hi Marge!]