How to Stock A Homestead Pantry

Here’s how to stock a homestead pantry in a practical way that will set you up for success in everyday life, a natural disaster, and in emergency (think 2020) situations. Having pantry staples on hand is a great way to keep from having to run to the local grocery store on a regular basis. A little planning gives you the best chance to making sure you have the food items on your pantry shelves for a stocked homestead pantry.

A Real-Person Pantry

There is just something so satisfying about watching all those clips of women organizing their pantry in those clear plastic containers. Let’s be honest though. Most of them are filling their pantries full of snack foods that just aren’t good for our health. For those of us that want practical, healthy pantries, this is the post we want to read. You want to learn how to stock a homestead pantry so you will have food that is real and amazing. Here is a picture of my pantry. Nothing pretty about it, but it works for us. The best thing about it is my kitchen staples keep my shopping list at a minimum.

As a result, this will save you time and money. For a free checklist on what to store in your pantry, click here.

Things like, brown sugar, tomato sauce, tomato paste, olive oil, coconut oil, peanut butter, white sugar, kidney beans, maple syrup, and garlic powder are bulk foods in my own pantry for our food supply. If you have pets, you will want to think about pet food as well.

Have a fully stocked pantry is a wonderful homemaking skill to have. Back in the pioneer days, a woman had to think about how to feed her family all winter long. Thankfully, we have the luxury of not having to stress about that. If for some reason our pantry isn’t full for the winter, we can always go to the store.

A Fully Stocked Pantry

If you think about it, you have probably already started stocking up on your pantry. There are some standard items that are always in your home. For instance, it could be something like salt, oats, or maybe flour.

The thing is, when you get close to running out, you know that thing needs to be restocked. That’s our final goal here. To have what we need to make the recipes we love, without having to go to the grocery store all the time. Year-round food security is another good reason to have a fully stocked homestead kitchen.

Reverse Engineering

I am a huge goal setter and goal planner. To plan goals, it is best to start with the end in mind and work backwards.

In order to do this, you might need to do some work. Take a look at all your favorite recipes. Are there any shelf stable items that are common? Those things are going to be your main focus first.

For instance, if you bake a lot, you are going to want to stock up your pantry with things like baking powder and flour.

If you cook from scratch, your items are going to be real ingredients. However, if you choose prepackaged foods, your items are going to look different. You will be choosing prepared boxes and mixes. It is important to be honest with yourself here and look at reality. Don’t waste your time, space, and money buying brown rice and dried beans if you don’t ever use them.

On A Budget

Not everyone can go out and buy all the things to stock their pantry. Most of us will need to take this slow as we are on a budget. When I was learning how to stock a homestead pantry, I chose to buy one item every few weeks. That way my grocery budget wasn’t all destroyed on trying to stock foods. Watching for different specials is a great thing to do as well to make sure you get plenty of food without over spending.

After that, I had a made a little bit of cushion and I could start saving for buying larger quantities of things. These are the types of things I like to order from Azure Standard. I buy all of my grains, oils, chocolate chips, popcorn, and so much more from Azure these days.

Another way to save money is to start growing your own food or reaching out to local farmers. The best time of year to stock up on fresh vegetables is when they are in season. You can store things in a root plan out your garden for a year’s worth of food, check out this post I wrote. This will ensure you have enough food for an entire year and give you peace of mind. Learning how to preserve your own food can really cut down costs. Pressure canning is a great skill that you should learn if you don’t already know how to do it.

Where To Put It All?

For years, I was so stuck on looking at everybody else’s pretty pantries. I was so discouraged that mine never looked like the pretty ones on Pinterest. You know why? Because I don’t have a walk in pantry! My pantry is a normal small sized closet! My storage space is basically none.

That’s okay! It’s time to think outside of the box. This is your house. How many people are actually going to come over and judge you for keeping a tote full of flour under your bed? But, if they do, kick them out of your life.

We have an extra storage closet upstairs in our old farmhouse. That is where I like to keep our excess flow. Now, if you don’t have an extra storage closet, you actually might have to store some things in a tote under your bed.

I will be honest with you, it is kind of a pain having to walk upstairs to refill things. Every time I do this, I tell myself that I am getting more steps in and it’s good for my heart health.

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Buying a vacuum sealer is also a good idea as it will possibly the best way to store some of the small things like brown sugar if you will be keeping them for any extended period of time.

For food storage of a bigger item like grains, I like to store in 5 gallon food safe buckets with gamma seal lids. In the past year, these have gone up tremendously in price, so before you go to amazon and buy them, check a local store to see if they have any from the bakery or something that they might be otherwise throwing away.

How To Stock A Homestead Pantry

Let’s go over again how to stock a homestead pantry.

Figure out what foods to stock your pantry with.
Buy those foods or preserve them yourself.
Find a home for your new stockpile.

This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure here.

Now What?

That’s it! You have successfully stocked your pantry. I know this seems to simple now just looking at the list, but that is how you do it.

You could take it one step further and organize it all into pretty bins. Personally, I find all the pretty clear plastic containers way too overpriced. Mason jars are the way to go. Especially if you live on a homestead anyway because mice won’t be getting into your glass jars. Plus, they are more pretty to look at.

After that, enjoy your fully stocked pantry and start using it up! When you see foods running low, restock. Other items could start be to stocked as well. As we saw last year, toilet paper and feminine items would be a good thing to keep on hand.

Next year, hopefully you will have a pantry foods that you can use for future use without going grocery shopping every week. Keep a food pantry list and on a daily basis, fill out what you have used. There are different ways that you can do this, but most people today just use a spreadsheet. The important thing is that you are making homemade food from the pantry items you have.