Prep Storage Tips

I'm interested in others strategies here and will start with mine.  For me it has been just over six months of prepping and have learned alot for the forum and trial and error.  To keep my preps fresh and with the new year right around the corner, my 5th grader came up with a clever plan for rotation of our preps.  He suggested colored sticky dots with a different color for each year to be placed on canned goods etc.  (I need reading glasses and reading the dates is a pain.)  We then write the month number on the dot and it is very easy to spot and rotate now as needed.  2007 will get a different color and so we go.  Anything with less than 3 months to go gets put in our cupboard with a red dot for "Use Now"  Preppin is fun as I no longer have to run to the store to get something I need to cook with! 

We write down the date of purchase on the top of the can (and try not to write over the date codes. Not a perfect system, but it's easier to tell at a glance when something was bought, rather than remembering what color is what year. But we're open to suggestions.

My goal also with the dots is not to keep anything over a year to keep my stock as fresh as possible and the 2006 blue dots are dwindling down and I may donate any left over oddities to the local pantry so they don't go to waste.  Right now I am in full rotation mode and every time I go to the store new stuff goes into  storage and I "shop" from the preps especially with noodles and mac n cheese.

     Cruiser,I love the colored dots idea with the month listed on the dot.  This is a system that any member of my family (young or old) could easily follow if I were out of commission.   Even younger children (5 and up) could help with this organization and rotation.  Will have to check the office supply store for dot colors and other shapes to possibly come up with a system of year & month in different colors.  Or that may be just too much effort for what you get out of it if you already have a large inventory.