My Grandma was a bargain shopper and let grandkids “shop” her food storage when we were in college. It was a great blessing to many of us

The way your husband expresses his admiration for your efforts is fantastic. I wish I had that in my life.

I’ve been married for 25 years…I ended up donating my wedding dress to our church when it became clear that my daughter would not want it…it became a real blessing to the woman who ended up receiving it. It allowed her to have an incredible wedding on an extremely small budget. 💜

Wedding dress recycle idea- I found a seamstress who made two baby gowns and blankets for babies who passed at birth. She then made each of my boys handkerchiefs. One was done more masculine and one was made from the lace of the dress (for their future wives) for their wedding days.

Please never stop adding those funny clips like the "expired!!" And "box inside of a box" 🤣🤣 the timing of them just cracks me up every time, also thanks for the much needed inspiration to tackle some projects I've been putting off 👍

Awe... when your sweet hubby said "you actually did a really great job"... I teared up.💙 Any husbands watching this, please love and appreciate your wife this much...and tell her! It means a lot. I would so want to "cuddle" my hubby if he complimented my efforts so sincerely! 😘

I love how your husband thanked you and said you should be proud of yourself!!!🥰

You will save a whole lot more money now and have a lot less waste by being organized and making sure to organize by expire date. You did a great job .🙌

I love the fact that you love the bookcase your grandpa built. In this day and age too many people don’t have or keep sentimental items. They toss things out and run to IKEA for a new one 3 years later. It’s a beautiful bookcase that hopefully one day will reside in the home of one of your very own grandchildren. They will be able to tell the sweet story about how it was built by their great great grandfather! ❤

Regarding your wedding dress…. I donated mine to Angel Gowns. It’s an organization of volunteers that turn wedding gowns (and the like) into beautiful outfits for babies that don’t make it home from the hospital. It was the most generous donation I have ever made. I cried knowing that my dress would make someone else’s sorrow a little less sorrowful.

I donated my wedding dress to my kids’ high school drama department. They used it for a production of “Into the Woods”, and then cut it up for another costume. It was great to see it on stage and being useful. :)

As a retired teacher, after idid alesson on mealworms, I never keep oats in a cardboard container or bag!!! " We have pickles!" LOL. Nice job!

I wrote a book on family preparedness. I recommend the OAR system. Organize what you have, purging what is outdated or superfluous. Acquire what you need to fill in the gaps. Rotate your supplies to eliminate waste. I’m watching this while purging my two kitchen junk drawers. Ned to take my own advice.

While Hailey may not be able to wear your wedding dress, she may be able to use the fabric to create her own. Or even a dress for her rehearsal or reception. If that’s not of interest, here are usually groups that accept out of date dresses and remake them into something special.

Love how supportive your husband is of you. And getting everyone on board will help keep your basement pantry looking that way

My dad made bookshelves like that and I inherited it... That generation had wonderful skills.

We have a woman locally that takes wedding dresses (and formal dresses too!) and turns them into infant memorial/burial gowns. It's called Mattie's Memory. Maybe you have someone locally that does something like that if you'd like your wedding dress to be put to good use ❤️

Canning is my new obsession. Our grocery store often sells boxes of produce for $5. Which is a steal of a deal given how expensive produce is lately! I just bought a box of 40 pears and am going to can them. I also bought a box of 50 mini cucumbers & turned them into pickles! I love being able to buy & preserve food for a later time, adding to my food storage. ☺️

You did a great job, so organized and spacious now! I would love to see your mom’s food processing room if she is willing to share with us!

My basement storage always has peanut butter...always. My husband says, "When you go to the store next, we need peanut butter." (Every single time we run out upstairs) *HUGE WIFE SIGH* I love his little upstairs-only organized heart.

Be careful with cleaners on your wood shelf. You may want to put them in plastic bins or on a plastic liner. I've had the plastic jugs leak at the seams onto my shelves.

I run a daycare, open 24 hours a day. I have a huge pantry down in my basement. I call it the grocery store! So the kids think it’s funny when I tell them I’m going grocery shopping!

You did a marvelous job Christine! You stayed very dedicated and committed!

This project actually looked like a pretty good time! You know…if you have nothing else to do. 🤣 Such satisfying results!!!

Loved this video! 😊👍 Re: your wedding dress...I'm not sure if you have something similar in the States but in Australia there is an organisation called Angel Gowns. They take donated wedding dresses and turn them into beautiful gowns for babies that have passed away. Such a precious gift to grieving families. 💜

We used my mother's wedding dress and turned it into the ring bearers pillow and the flower girls basket.

It's your husband's words of affirmation at the end for me! I'm glad I watched until the end. 😍 Plus the way he was inspired to beauty the space... Your labor of love and peace was a catalyst. Great job!

My aunt had her wedding dress made into a christening gown for her grandchildren. The room looks amazing you did awesome.

Great job!!!!! Would love a tour of your Mom’s food processing room - we are thinking of building out one and looking for ideas- plus I just love canning!!!!

Having your own grocery store in your home has become increasingly more popular. Idk if the preppers or couponers started it, but it is one of my fave things to watch on social media. And I think it's largely an American phenomenon because Non Americans are always in the comments whining about it. I love it. Lol. Another great vid, Christine!!

It looks so good!! I love how supportive Dave (and the child "oh crap") were at the end. You could tell how pleased he was with what you were able to accomplish. Now, eat through your freezer...before you bring more meat (bananas) home!!

My daughter got married just over a year ago. I had a very casual wedding dress, which I knew that she would not be interested in wearing. I asked her if she would like like me to make her ring bearer pillow from the dress. She was thrilled! I just wish that I had thought of this before my two sons were married, because it is a way to incorporate a mother's wedding dress into all of her children's weddings, regardless of the child's gender.

My family is moving across the country and have been on mission eat whats in the house for what seems like 5 months lol. Being prepared is mocking me! But I guess its good to know how well prepared I was should anything happen.

I would also recommend writing the date you re-package into other containers. Plastic containers will work for shorter, rather than longer term storage. If you can, use glass for long term storage. Love your videos 😍

Getting rid of the cardboard, plastic etc., is so satisfying. Creates so much more room and makes everything much more visual.

When I bring items home I immediately write the expiration date on the front label and top of the lid with a Sharpie. Then it is easy to use items before they expire and are wasted.

My inner hoarder is absolutely horrified you donated those bins. They are super cool and I am forever short a bin. haha! As for the wedding dress, I would donate to an Angel Babies type organization that re-purposes the fabric into burial garments. ETA: I love how supportive Dave is at the end.

Great job! A great tip I recently learned is to write (in sharpie)the month and year of expiration on top of cans and jars. Ex. 2/23 it makes it so easy to see what to use first :)

Keep the wedding dress and have a "getting ready" robe made for the day of her wedding! She will love it forever! ❤️

You did an excellent job of organizing your food storage room! Mine is set up very similar with the heavy duty racks. One additional thing that I do is to put the expiration date on the front of every single item with a big black magic marker so that I know which one to grab first. I always try to put the newest bought products at the back of the line, but that doesn’t always happen, and so putting the date on them helps. Good job!

So nice to have validation for your hard work from your husband. He gets it!

I call it a pantry. I’ve been married for 24 years. I’ve done this using coupons and bulk shopping the entire time. When my husband’s company went on strike, I only had to worry about the bills. Made things less stressful. I also have a garden and can. Canning takes space. It saves money. Well worth the work. Looks good. Did you buy those oats in 2020 from that restaurant?

This is what wealth is. Not superficial wealth, but family, food, and hard work!

I did this myself recently. HUGE project. It took me the better part of 2 days as I was working around disabilities. I totally get what you were feeling doing this. Job well done.

A friend recently had her wedding dress turned into a robe for her daughters & future generations to wear as they get ready for their own wedding! I missed doing that with my oldest two daughters, but I'm going to do it for my youngest daughter!

Great job Christine! Couple things I'd do differently, glass jars on the bottom shelves may help prevent breakage. Also, I'd put the heaviest items on the bottom shelves as it may prevent toppling, but definitely don't go back and redo it! See how this works for you.

I have my own side-by-side fridge, an upright freezer & 2 large, heavy duty shelving units dedicated to my food supply. Non-food items are kept in the utility room. This is in my son's house, so I have to keep organized.

Awesome! Your space looks great. Doesn't it feel good when you complete a project like this? Love your grandpa's bookcase! I, too, struggled with what to do with my 30-year old wedding gown. I ended up giving it to a seamstress friend of mine, and she made a throw pillow for me. I gave the rest of the fabric to a friend who'd recently had a baby and she made a christening dress for her. Thanks for the informative, fun videos!

Love love LOVE the wedding dress!!! If mini-me won’t want it, you may have a granddaughter one day. Might be nice for her to have something beautiful you once owned!

New subscriber! At the beginning of the pandemic I realized I wasn't utilizing our large food room (as we now call it). I kept the majority of our food in the kitchen cupboards. When I moved nearly all the food into the food room and organized it, that room became my favorite room in the house. I could see all that I had! I knew when I needed to buy more of something - or had too much of something that we don't eat a lot. And being able to see what you have on hand food-wise also relieves stress! 😊

I appreciate the reality in your videos. It makes me laugh and enjoy them that much more! Your Hub is pretty impressed with you!

thank you! I just went through kind of the same thing. Made sure everythin was labelled month/year and newest in the back, oldest in the front. And categorized beans with beans and fruit with fruit etc. So easy to pick now. Also added drawers for the small stuff. Now need to maintain this with a half yearly wall to wall check.

I finally donated my wedding dress a few months ago. It was taking up space in my closet. I asked by two teens girls if they would want it and both said no. 😂 Take the plunge and donate it!

I once had one of my kid's friends ask me why I had a "grocery store" in my basement. It was hilarious!

I had never seen anyone store their kitchen appliances outside the kitchen until I came across your videos and a decluttering youtuber (Canadian?). It makes a huge visual difference to be at peace with your kitchen doing this. And thank you also for the semi long term (minimum of 2 weeks) of food storage. Has made a huge difference for us since Covid.

First thing I would recommend is to put a label w/ month/year on top of each perishable ! I always shop my store before I go to a big box this helps with rotation and ensures nothing expires! You’ve got this!!

I would love to have something like your basement one day. Apartment living doesn’t allow for this kind of food storage very easily.

The quilt you made with your grandmother and the bookcase your grandfather made - sweet memories and souvenirs to have

Such an awesome job, my friend! I know it feels so good to have everything freshened up and a home for everything. I just recently went through my five full freezers and organized those and wow, I feel like a new woman 😂😂😂. Congratulations on the new furnace, a new honorary member of the family! You should name him Mr. Money Bags or something 😅

I buy things I USE. My husband calls it my "grocery store" too. Things are rotated on a regular basis. ALSO... rice/flour/oats are put into the freezer for a week before I put them in containers, unless they are vaccum sealed already. This kills all bugs. My MIL gave me that tip ❤

Frugal, If you still have the rice wrappers, perhaps you can tape the rice label all the way around the container so you have the contents, best by dates cooking information and nutrition information

I made my wedding dress into a shirt (basically just cut off the skirt & added trim) so I could wear it on our anniversary when we went out for our fancy dinner. My dress was very simple & worked well. I like the idea of turning in into a baptismal gown too.

Save your wedding dress! I saved mine and through the years we have cut my dress up to make sentimental things for my grown children’s weddings, ie ring bearer pillows, handkerchief’s we sewed into the hem of wedding dresses and baptismal dresses, covered a Bible in it for weddings. Really, anytime you want/need something sentimental for an occasion. So glad I saved mine. My kid’s found it very nice to have touches of our wedding used discreetly for their weddings.

Hi! Just wanted to say you’re doing a wonderful job of inspiring me to cook more and budget my grocery shopping for my family. I have gotten so much inspiration from your channel ❤

I totally think you should keep your wedding dress. Even if Hailey doesnt want to wear it as is - perhaps you can make a baby girl dress or handkerchiefs or even just a ribbon for her flowers. You never know and I think that is something well worth keeping!

Love Dave's praise! He is so sweet! Great job with all the cleaning and organizing!!!!

For your wedding gown, consider making a pocket square for your sons and a handkerchief for your daughters for their wedding days. Also I took an appliqué from my dress and my daughter used it as a stem wrap for her bouquet. ☺️

WAY TO GO CHRISTINE!! 👏👏 Your storage room is now AMAZING!! What a lot of hard work you put into this. You are a rock star on this. I had a talk with lazy Angela (aka: ME), and she agreed we are motivated now because of your video. Thank you for continuing to inspire!💗

Looks amazing! Dave's reaction is the absolute best :)

Looks amazing. I love your Grandpa’s shelf. I just might make one like it some day. I was also thinking through the whole video that a proper ceiling in there would good to keep the insulation up. 😂

I was moving overseas and donated my wedding dress to a woman who used old dresses for infant burial gowns. She took the skirt and made a Christmas tree skirt for me to keep; the remainder was used for the baby gowns. It was perfect!

I love Dave’s reaction 😂 ‘We can buy more food’ lol.

I call this kind of a project 'if you give a mouse a cookie'. It looks great!! You've inspired me to clean up my food supply shelves.

Becky from Acre Homestead have the food storage bucket with gamma seal lids, perfect for that bag of rolled oats.

Use the wedding dress to make a quilt. That will give you memories and a new quilt❤️

Over here loving your husband’s words of affirmation toward you! Y’all are the cutest. ❤️

I love your husband's reaction at the end! So sweet! This past Feb 4 marks 45 YEARS ago that my hubby and I met! I hung onto my wedding dress (coming up on our 42nd wedding anniversary this June). So far only 1 of our 4 kiddos is married. My daughters are not the same size I was in my youth. So...I finally donated my dress to a charity shop. I thought about selling it, but I'm not the type to mess around with such things. Hindsight being 20/20, I should have immediately tried to sell it back in 1981! [[ sigh ]]

Hey Christine, I sat in my long time storage room they other day and dated every single item and put them in order of expiration dates. It made me feel much better about knowing what I have and to use it before it goes bad. Have a great day.

Our house has 2 furnaces and 2 air conditioners. This past summer we had to replace one air conditioner and one furnace, get a part on the other furnace, reroute our one air conditioner to be downstairs since it wasn’t big enough to cool the whole upstairs, redo electrical outside (previous owners had indoor electrical outside 😱) redo 8 feet of our duct work and a little bit of other work. It was over 10 grand 😭 we moved here in late 2021, first house, so it was painful LOL Love the organization!! Makes my heart happy. Would love to find a space in our house to have something like this! Also I think that bookcase your grandpa built is beautiful!

My wedding dress (38 years ago) was remade from my mom's dress - which had been hand sewn by my grandmother. A dear friend of our family took the dress top apart and created what I wanted. . . . . . neither my daughter nor my granddaughters will probably use it because of the style BUT really want to keep because it's candlelight ivory velvet - very lightweight but cannot be purchased anywhere for years now . . . . . . maybe one of my granddaughters will deconstruct it for their own wedding dress in the future !!!! . . . . . much needed inspiration today - thanks - really needed declutter coming up !!!!

I love that shelf! The story makes it even more awesome! I hope its a family heirloom for generations. My wedding dress is in the basement of my parents house, for the last almost 20 years. Right next to my Sister’s dress. 🤦‍♀️

On your dollar store bins add the clip on chalk labels. Easy to see at a glance what’s in them.

Beautiful bookcase that your grandpa made! You have your memories in your wedding photos I would pass it on. There’s lots of brides out there that can’t afford to have a wedding dress.

Those bins are great to store vacuum sealed food items long term like flour, oats, grains, pasta ect. They keep the bugs out. I look for them at thrift stores. So thank you for donating them. 😀

Great job Christine must feel amazing to get it done even if you needed the nudge. I agree with 'like for like' pantry organization otherwise I get lost to what I really have. Wedding dress is a tough one, would be great if you could sell it, might just be another lucky lady out there who's been looking for something like this. Or give to a charity group that provides graduation dresses to those who can't afford them maybe they could dye the dress, or a theatre group. Next job...drywall the ceiling go Dave go ! great video Christine ♥

Marking the expiration dates on the cans then stacking them that way is key to not wasting food because it's expired. You should repackage all your oats because they due go stale. I'm in the process of this as I just made one room I to food storage. Good job!

I keep a household notebook. I have one annual calender and then calenders for each month. I keep track of appointments, when to buy my meds, etc. I have a sheet protector behind each monthly calender that I keep my receipts in. The next tab is my supply inventory. I have created a table for an entire year with a list of all the items I use on a regular basis (paper products, hygiene products, cleaning products, etc). The last week of the month I go over the list and update how much I have left. If I see I'm getting low on an item I make a note on a monthly shopping list that I need to buy more. Since I get paid monthly I can make my grocery list plus easily add the supply items I need to replenish. I don't track the groceries but I can, at a glance, see what I have. I only buy extras of things I know I will eat regularly and watch for sales. I keep a permanent marker with my canned goods and before something goes on the shelves I write the expiry date on the top and on the label. I've recently started pressure canning "meals" that I only need to open and reheat. I've made soups, canned beans, pulled pork, chili. If I'm making something, why not make a lot and can it. It also gives me more space in my big freezer. I have a digital canner that saves me a lot of effort. At this point in time I think most of the supplies I have will last me a year or more. My food supply would probably last about 6-7 months.

Spent the day organizing our storage and watching this is almost as satisfying as doing that

I love when you guys interact, love the dynamic.... Great job in the storage room!!!

Next project: Organize the freezers! :D I guarantee it will turn out like the basement food storage shelves did.

I'll never get rid of storage plastic containers... never, not only they're expensive to replace them today, but been generic you can always find stuff to store in them! 😭🥴

RE: TP 2 People in our house. We bought a bidet in late 2019. I have come to realize that we literally use NO TP unless we have visitors. I keep baby wipes in the bathroom and we use them as necessary, and I have 2 packages of 18ct washcloths for drying off on a shelf that I can reach from the toilet. A $1 package of baby wipes lasts 3-4 weeks. Someone in our house (I won’t mention HIS name) used a LOT of TP and a roll lasted an average of 1.5 days - no kidding. Saving money, saving our septic tank, we feel SO much cleaner that we hate having to go to the bathroom elsewhere.

Wedding dress ideas - Be sure to save a piece of the fabric for your daughter’s wedding (something old), but I would either use it for a quilt topper or for pillow covers for a guest room/office. It’s beautifully designed and is in great shape!

Basement looks so bright and fresh without the carpet and now it's so organised - such a huge difference!! I believe the huge bag of oats was mid 2020 ;-) The bookcase your Grandad built is a lovely piece of work and I can understand why you want to keep it in your home.

This has to be the MOST useful video I have seen in a very long time. The other preppers tell everyone what we need to stock up on. But not how to store it & keeping it all organized. Please give us more ways & places to store our supplies. We really need your help.

You can use the material from your wedding dress to make a ring pillow for your daughters wedding and save the buttons that could be put on grandchildren’s christening gowns or sewn into grandkids wedding gowns. Family heirloom.

What a wonderful transformation. Your family's reaction was brilliant. :) I am not sure if you get pantry moths in your climate, but if you do, those Animal Cracker containers that you put your pasta and rice into could have a few fresh bay leaves put in the top to deter the moths. The leaves won't transfer their flavour to your stored products. Thanks again for sharing this monumental effort to clean out and organise your storage area. I enjoyed this video immensely, as I do all of your videos. Greetings from Australia. :)

Oh my gosh!! What a huge job, but girl it looks so amazing! You have inspired me to go into my "dungon" food storage room and organzie and clean it out. Mine is a freaking train wreck and I've been neglecting it for long enough!🥰

Hi Christine. Good job on organizing the grocery store. That was real nice of Dave to tell you good job.

frozen foods can be placed into dehydrator and then stored in mason jars. 5 pounds of frozen corn will fit into a 1/2 gallon jar. shelf stable and so simple!!