02341 Design a storage solution for your household food system
First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans; after this we transform those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination. — Napoleon Hill
Permaculturing your kitchen involves a certain amount of stuff. Stuff can be useful or it can be a dispiriting collection of useless junk. The difference between the two is organization. Most of us have limited space. We need to look carefully at our patterns of work and equipment use and design creative solutions to our own personal “Dilemmas of Stuff.” In this particular case, I want you to think about storage solutions for your lifestyle’s food system.
Your lifestyle food system may be small. You may live in a dorm room. In that case, you might have a microwave, a crockpot, and a hot plate and a box of food.
Or you may live in a full size house, with a good sized kitchen and lots of kitchen stuff and a year’s worth of food stored for your family in case of a systemic crash.
Most of us are somewhere in-between these two extremes. I’ve lived with a lot of small kitchens in tiny apartments in my days. Sometimes I think I had more fun, and was more creative, with the small kitchens.
Observe.
As always in permaculture, we start with observation. Long and slow observation, over time. There is no point being in a hurry. We don’t have time to be in a hurry. We are in trouble because we’ve done way too much hurrying, and thus we cut corners, make mistakes, go down dead ends, and reinvent way too many flat tires.
We remember that if “you always do what you always do, you will always get what you always get. We observe our individual food experiences in the context of our collective experience as humans. Those who don’t look before they leap may jump right out of the frying pan into the fire. That is not a good place to be.
Are you satisfied with your present method/structures for kitchen storage? If it isn’t broken, don’t try to fix it. Observe your situation to make sure you are set up in a way that meets your household needs efficiently.
What are your goals for your kitchen storage? What are your needs? How do these rank in priorities?
Start with the list you developed of all your kitchen stuff and the inventory of your food storage. Take the list and go and look at each item on the list. Where is it now? Is it rationally placed in proportion to its use? How often do you use it? Can you find it quickly? Is your storage “zoned” so that items used frequently are close at hand? Do you have a bunch of stuff that you don’t need and never use?
Who does this work of getting things out for use and putting them back afterwards? One person by himself or herself? The whole family? Rotating jobs? Does everyone in the household pretty much know where everything is or do folks do a lot of hunting and searching?
Study and Evaluate.
For example, suppose you only use the food processor once or twice a month. Yet, it sits on the counter close to the food prep area, where it takes up space and gets in the way of the kitchen’s daily work. Is this the best storage choice for this small appliance?
Take your list and sort it based on how often you use each item. Daily (or near daily), weekly, monthly, seasonally, and annually would probably be enough categories for most people. Some examples might be —
- Daily — coffee grinder, coffee or tea pot, general cooking pots, knives, dishes, serving ware, kitchen towels and cloths, napkins.
- Weekly — baking station, blender,
- Monthly — fermentation station,
- Seasonal — canning station
- Annual — dishes for special festive occasions, turkey roaster
Are you anticipating acquiring additional kitchen equipment that will need storage? Do you have the storage equipment/structures you need? If not, what needs to be built or bought?
Do you have the necessary skills?
Do others need to learn these skills?
Do you have enough space? Do you need more? On what schedule do you need more? Daily? Or do you need a “space surge” when you process garden produce in the fall for winter eating?
Design.
Make your design choices based on your observation and evaluation.
How many functions can be stacked on the various elements of this kitchen equipment storage system?
How many beneficial connections between your kitchen storage systems and the rest of your life can you establish?
How will this result in less work?
How will this make food preparation and storage easier and less work?
How will this help you use less fossil fuels?
Where? When? What? How? How much?
Stage your decisions.
What comes first? Middle? Last? Never mind the fact that this is a small design, put first things first and second things second and third things third, so you get a feeling of what it is like to organize a set of tasks such as this.
Budget.
If any of this will cost money, get some estimates and develop a budget. Decide on a source of funds.
Write the report.
Add it to your developing lifestyle design plan.