Mindful Engsgement #1

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.

 My garage is finished off and, about 10 years ago, I installed four, stand-alone, double-door, white cabinets from Lowe’s. Prior to that I had been storing items in plastic tubs.

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.

 I am blessed that my house was designed with so much storage space.

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.