One area which does not get mentioned much but is vitally important is inventory control. Administration is pretty mundane and most people don’t like doing it but it is critical to our needs.
It is important for several reasons;
- We need to know exactly what we have
- We need to know how many we have
- We need to know its lifespan and when it was put there
- We need to know where the item is
It is obvious why we need to know what we have. We don’t want to buy items that we already have and waste our scarce funds.
We need to know how many we have for the same reason. We don’t want too many yet we want to ensure that we have enough for our needs.
We also want to know how long it is viable so that we can ensure that we don’t waste anything. Replacing items as the come near to the end of their life and using them is much better than throwing them out because they are out of date. This system can be used to manage the rotation of stock and maximise our use of our stores. This is one reason we should eat what we store. That way we will waste nothing as we will consume all, bar certain items such as medicines, before they reach the end of their life.
Finally, we need to know where our items are. If we need to lay our hands on an item quickly we need to know where it is. We should also put on the outside of bags and containers the contents so we can quickly check what is in there and that during stock checking the contents are complete.
It may be the boring side of prepping but it is important. More important that we realise. Personally, I have generated sphreadsheets for that purpose but they do not do stock rotation at all. Many do not do that on computer but instead perform an inventory check and rotate stock them moving the older stock into the pantry or similar. Others move the new items to the back and pick up items from the front as a matter of habit. Whatever way you use you must ensure that you identify the items coming out of date whilst you have time to use them and not when it is too late.
Stock control is easy, there is a sphreadsheet on the main site. Stock rotation is not. Find something that works for you and use it.
Inventory is one of the biggest pains in the rear known to mankind. I do not have enough storage space so mine is all ajumble in plastic tubs. Although I have taken inventory seems to make no difference.
I am hoping in the future to solve this problem. For one thing digging for what you want is worse than taking inventory. By the time you dig whatever out you could care less about fixing what you were going to make from your stores.
But I do have an idea of what I have and where it is at.
And things in one location are rotated into the kitchen when needed.
And another thing that I fail to do, which is so lame and stupid is when I buy new I fail to add it to the inventory automatically. It would sure save me time and I cannot figure out why I have this quirk in my keeping track of my supplies.
I should try to make my life easier.
It is a pain but we need to do it. It might even be worth writing a program to do it for us. Another thing on the list.