Where
do your appliances live?
I
have an array of really cool appliances that—I use—and thy do amazing things. I
rely on my crockpot, food processor, stand mixer, wok, Panini maker, roaster, and food dehydrator.
Until
recently, they all lived inside my house taking up valuable space in a cupboard
that could be better dedicated to food storage.
I’ve
said before that being a prepper is all about mindfulness and on the surface,
having my appliances where I use them makes sense.
Except
that it doesn’t.
Foods
last longer when they are not exposed to the high heat of a garage. Appliances
don’t care about temperature. You plug them in and they serve. They can live in
the garage.
The
Lowe’s cabinets hid the clutter and when my ex-wife moved out space opened up.
I also purged a lot of excess and freed up more space.
Thus,
relocating the appliances, my baking pans, and infrequently used large mixing
bowls to the cabinet in the garage makes perfect sense.
They
are 15 feet farther from where I use them. How is that a hardship?
I
now have opened space to go from a two-month pantry to a four-month goal.
Yes,
I know how to do things by hand should I need to, but—as a man—I love tools and,
when I’m in the kitchen, I need kitchen
tools.
When
I make sauces and broths, my appliances make the task much faster.
In
fact, I see now that I was a prepper in training all along in that I knew how
to cook and had the smarts to figure out how to marry my skills with efficiency.
I’m
sure some are surprised by the lack of a bread machine. I’m not a bread person, so if I did not have
bread, I would be just fine.
But
if I’m going to do bread, I will do it “old-school” and not use a machine.
It
is my task to use my in-house cupboards more efficiently.
That
is a challenge. While I can store a lot of food it the deep cupboards, rotating
it presents the next challenge.
But
that is the challenge of every prepper.
At
least I have the copious space to prep.
This
is not a whine.
This
is myself embracing mindfulness. I am
merging goals with resources while reevaluating preconceived notions while
making my prepping unobtrusive.
This
is myself growing into the mindset and lifestyle.
When
all is said and done, the moment we being to prep and store food brings with it
an examination of how we live.
Many
of us live carelessly.
For
me, my most recent moment of careless living was to be appalled at how I had
allowed valuable cupboard space that could be devoted to storage of food to be
dedicated to my appliance collection.
My
purpose is not to point the finger and wag my mouth. Far from it.
I
am saying take stock of how you use and allocate your space.
Can
you enhance the state of the art?
It
is my belief that I must constantly question how I live.
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