Can Rack

When I really started getting serious about getting a year's supply I was worried about where I would store it all. We have a walk-in pantry with big, deep shelves, so I tried to envision how I would organize things. I went out and started buying canned food. I stacked them in rows on the shelves (two high) by type of food. This looked nice and I thought it would work. Soon, however, I realized that my children were not as good at keeping cans in the right places as I was. Also, when it came to rotating, I couldn't reach to the back of the rows, so I was just putting the cans in front.

Finally, I decided to spend the money on a can rack from Shelf Reliance. The only place I could think to put it was in a bedroom closet. I measured the closet and was happy to discover a rack that fit the dimensions with just a little tweaking of the closet (had to move the middle bar brace over and take out the moulding along the floor).

The can rack took a few hours to assemble and get just right, but I really liked how you could customize each row's can size to fit your needs. Now that my rack is up and full (about 300 cans!) I love it! There is even an area on the top for a shelf that will hold 40-60 more cans (depending on size).

In addition to the racks at Shelf Reliance, here are some other sites that may be of interest to you if you are needing to revamp your can storing system:

Rack N Roll- Our units are custom made to fit your existing shelves and are geared to your food storage-specific needs. http://www.rnrfoodorganizers.com/

• Use Roller Units for canned items, such as vegetables, fruit, olives, pie filling, tuna, tomato sauce, mandarin oranges, evaporated or condensed milk, green chiles, etc.
• Shelf Sliders hold all kinds and sizes of boxes, packages and containers, such as cake mixes, ketchup, gelatin, pickles, cooking oil, dry soup mixes, spices, peanut butter, etc.
• If you have food items such as soup mixes, popcorn, muffin mixes, macaroni & cheese, etc., Drop Units are what you need – load from the top, pull from the bottom

Build Your Own- From the Food Storage Made Easy website, free plans, photos, and video showing the final product

http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2009/02/16/build-your-own-can-rotating-rack/

Shelf Reliance- Featuring patented front-loading technology that automatically rotates cans on a first in first out basis

http://www.shelfreliance.com/shop/frs

Happy Hunting! Feel free to email me with any questions!