Create Your Own Emergency Preparedness & Food Storage Binder

Get Prepared the right way! When creating your emergency & food storage plan you need to make sure you have a place to keep it all! There are so many emergency preparedness and food storage binders out there, but my favorite by far is the one I’ve made myself.

When you make your own you can customize it however you like and add or take away whatever information interests and pertains to YOU! Below I list some of the things I have in mine, but feel free to change yours up to whatever makes you happy.

The best part about having a binder, is now you have a place to store all the great info you’re printing off from this website! Hint Hint

Emergency & Food Storage 
BINDER SUPPLIES:

• 2-Inch BINDER - I went with a 1.5 inch, but I wish I got a 2 inch binder (you fill it up fast). Make sure to get a fun color so you like to look at it and especially open it
• 8 MAIN DIVIDERS (Large) - Get a pack of 8 Large Divider Tabs, you want them bigger than the categories that will go behind them. I also ended up getting ones with pockets, because they’re just cute!
• 24 CATEGORY DIVIDERS (3 Packs of 8 each) – I got 3 packs of smaller dividers and these go behind the Main Dividers for the different categories.
• BINDER TAGS - You can print the ones I used here: BINDER TAGS. I put them in order. The ones in CAPS are the Main Categories and the Lower-Case ones are the sub-categories that go behind.
• COVER PAGE - You can print off the cover page and label for the spine of the binder here: COVER SHEET.

Emergency & Food Storage
BINDER TABS:
1- PLAN

This tab you will be putting your Family Plan and everything that goes with it! If you don’t have a plan yet, don’t worry, I will bug you until you do!

• INVENTORY – Here is where you put your inventory list of all the items in your food storage. At least once a year you need to review and update what you need to buy, change, or add.
• DISTRIBUTORS - Put a list of all your supplies or places you order from. I keep a few extra order sheets and price lists here so I can have it next time I need to order.
• ORGANIZE - You can make spreadsheets where your food is located in your house, ideas, or whatever helps you stay organized in this section.

2- RECIPES

Put all your Favorite Food Storage Recipes here, or at least the ones that are in your Meal Plan. You can categorize these however you like, but these are the categories I did:

• BREAKFAST
• MAIN MEALS
• BREAD
• DESSERT
• EXTRA

3- REFERENCES

This section is critical, especially when putting together your plan. It has everything you need to put together an effective and accurate plan.

• SHELF-LIFE - How long does food last? I keep all the Shelf-Life information for different foods here.
• EQUIVALENCE – I have lots of equivalency charts that help me out so I don’t have to do the math.
• SUBSTITUTIONS – There are so many ingredients you can substitute for other ingredients, which has definitely come in handy.

4- FOOD BASICS

Learning to use some of the different grains, soak beans, sprout, and so much more can be tricky. This section is to help organize all the great knowledge you are accumulating and know how to best use all the food you are storing.!

• GRAINS
• LEGUMES
• SPROUTS
• FATS
• DAIRY
• BAKING
• PRODUCE
• WATER

5- PRESERVE

Food is NO Good unless you know how to store it and preserve it.

This section is dedicated for all your canning, dehydrating and other knowledge that can help you preserve and store your food.

6- EMERGENCY PREP

You can’t forget the emergency preparations that need to take place! This section is broken down to all the things you need to have or know how to do in those worst case scenarios.

You never know when you might be without power, water, need to evacuate, or maybe even administer 1st Aid.

• DISASTER KITS – Sometimes you need to leave home fast, put everything you need to take or get ready in this section.
• ALTERNATIVE COOKING - It’s not always certain if you’ll have power, especially after a natural disaster. Knowing some alternative cooking methods can make all the difference.
• SANITATION - Sickness can take over quickly if sanitation procedures are not followed in a disaster. Do you know how to do laundry, have a back-up toilet, or enough hygiene products to keep everyone clean?
• 1ST AID/MEDICINE - Learning some basic 1st Aid knowledge can really benefit you, especially if getting to a doctor quickly is not an option.
• DOCUMENTS – If you had to evacuate quickly what documents would you take? What about if you had your identity stolen? Take a little time now to know what to do before a disaster strikes!

7- GARDENING

For all the pros out there that have advanced to making their own food this section is for you! I can’t wait to start filling this part up with everything I learn from starting my own Garden!

8- OTHER

Take notes in this section, put handouts or whatever else you discover along your journey to self-reliance!

Now Start Filling Your Binder!

The more papers you have, the smarter you look, so here are  some great resources to start adding some bulk to your emergency & food storage binder:

Favorite Preparedness Bloggers - Check them out! You will NEVER run out of great information, but you might run out of binder space!

Prepared Housewives – Click Print below any post and you can have this info forever!

Everything Under The Sun -  If you print nothing else, this is a MUST! She breaks everything down into simple terms, and best of all has a wonderful Equivalency Chart that will help transform your Food Storage!

Peace of Preparedness – She has put many of her presentations and information on her site that you can print them off absolutely free!

My Food Storage Cookbook - Highly recommend this site to fill up the recipe section of  your binder. Need some ideas of what to make or how to incorporate food storage items, this is the place to go!

Do you have an emergency & food storage binder? How do you organize and keep track of all your information?

Let me know if I missed anything!

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