Caution On Food Storage Shelving, Brief
2 min readBy Charles Harpole
charlesharpole.wordpress.com
The most prevalent error I see with food storage shelving is storing glass containers on high shelves with no “front bumper” to retard the glass containers from falling down during earthquakes or other upsets. All that carefully preserved tasty food could easily come crashing down.
All food containers are subject to problems. Glass jars are, of course, in the most danger, but bent cans and ripped bags can ruin your preps. Space concerns necessitate shelves to hold everything, but the shelves need good design.
How to improve your food storage shelving
Wood shelves need to have added a railing or bumper along the front edge to keep glass jars and any kind of can from falling down. Any slight shaking of the whole shelf can give really sad smashed results.
The other answer is to use closet shelving that have a railing or bumper along their front edge (the back too unless it is against a wall). I think another answer is to use the strong wire grid shelving material, covered with a plastic and usually white, that is used often as the closet shelf in bedrooms of new homes. It is cheaper than wood working into the closet for a wood shelf and is very strong. It has a lip or bumper running along one side and is usually installed in closets with the lip down (which provides a place to hang clothes hangers, making it ideas “one step” closet use).
The prepper can turn that plastic coated wire grid closet shelf over and have a built in bumper to avoid those glass jars and cans from being shaken—or bumped—off and lost. Such a small plan like this will give enormous benefits as you can see !
Hello Mr. Harpole,
I have always wondered why people don’t put restraints on their shelves for just the thoughts you state in your article.
I guess myself, having been in the navy on a submarine, this is common place.
I do have another recommendation of using bungee cord across the front of the shelves instead of permanent bumper stops. This allows ease of retrieval of items.
I think this is a great idea, I have the locking foam floor covering on my basement floor as well. At least, if a jar falls, it has a slight chance of surviving on the foam verses the cement! I got the foam at Harbor Freight pretty cheap.
This is good idea, indeed! It is similar to the way I store my food! Thanks for sharing!