How do you keep track of your preps

[Frnc]

I only use spreadsheets for things like batteries, puri tabs, first aid stuff, hand wipes, wet wipes, essential oils etc. I do put some food on, but normally I don't bother. I want to start doing it for things that go in the fridge that say "use within 6 weeks" or 3 months that I don't use much and lose track of.
For tins and packets I basically have a shelf for stuff with 2 years on the date, and another for stuff I've opened, or has only a few months. Once every few months I go through it all. I quite like the stickers idea, I think I'll give it a try next time I go through it all. I'll probably use one colour for 2023 and one for 2021, something like that.
Mostly I use spreadsheets for what gear is in which bag and weights. This is how I calculated how much I could carry. Just in case.

[GillyBee]

Come next stock take I will need a new colour for 2025/26 supplies. I think I will oversticker with red for anything that has actually gone out of date and needs using soon and maybe buy another sticker colour for 25/6. By the time I am overstickering any 2023 stock that is still around, I should be safe to recycle the blue stickers that currently mean 2022 for 2027.

[Rusty74]

small white boards on the inside of the cupboard doors,take something in or out and amend the count,newest goes to the back oldest to the front and tbh it was my eldest lad that came up with this idea

[mbbaltic]

I have almost trained my mob to take the oldest item first by arranging things on the shelf so that they “arrive on the right and leave on the left”. It still relies on me putting the stuff on the shelves and shuffling it all up so that the oldest items are at the left hand side of a stash but it means I can send one of them to get something for me from my stores and know they won’t just grab something random.

Alliteration helps a lot with family members who CBA to engage with the way you organise things. Like I have different coloured cloths, pink for food surfaces and blue for floors/dirty jobs. Blue for the loo and pink for the sink. Even bears of very little brain remember that

[Beegood]

A folder with those little separator things labelled with years and split into months as required:

- Use by & bb for things, specially you won't see regularly, on it's own slip of paper like medicines etc
- Current growing set up do I don't forget to mix up what is planted where, seed stores etc
- to do things that are seasonal what have you

And for food new stuff at the back old stuff at the front.

[jansman]

I have almost trained my mob to take the oldest item first by arranging things on the shelf so that they “arrive on the right and leave on the left”. It still relies on me putting the stuff on the shelves and shuffling it all up so that the oldest items are at the left hand side of a stash but it means I can send one of them to get something for me from my stores and know they won’t just grab something random.

Alliteration helps a lot with family members who CBA to engage with the way you organise things. Like I have different coloured cloths, pink for food surfaces and blue for floors/dirty jobs. Blue for the loo and pink for the sink. Even bears of very little brain remember that

That’s how it works for us too. I tend to look after storage, and when The Duchess is shopping, she’ll ask me what is needed.

[WomanOfTheWoods]

I just keep track of all preps in my head,,, Until it comes to growing food.

I treat myself to the most gorgeous journal from TXMaxx Sale.
Then I write down everything, when seeds are planted, germination time, when they get transplanted,,,, the lot.
If I don't do this, I'm always tempted to harvest things before they are ready.
There's something about the progress of growing things that makes me happy.

I'm harvesting from the polytunnels,, but the crops planted outside are a good 5 to 6 weeks behind England.

[Frnc]

Made a discovery today for apple numbers spreadsheet app. Using my bugout gear as an example. I have a row for each item. Columns for location, weight, category. Category is water, sheler, fire etc. Location because I have panniers as well as rucksack.

I knew you could sort rows, so in the past I've sorted for example all the items in the front left pannier, which is most of my camping gear, so they are all grouped together at the top of the list, in descending weight order.

But I didn't know you could add rules so you sort several different categories at the same time. Now I have the list sorted so all the locations are grouped one after the other. At the top is all the items in front left pannier in descending weight as before, but then there is all the items in front right pannier, descending weight, then rear left, rear right, and rucksack. Each item can only be in one place so there is no conflict.

However items also have a category, eg water, shelter, fire. I had a category rule for sorting, at the bottom, doing nothing, unless I resorted. If I do that, it obviously breaks up the locations. So I made a copy of the spreadsheet, moved the Category rule from the bottom, where it was doing nothing, to the top. Now I have each category grouped together. Within that it then groups by location, in descending order.

Each of these goes straight to my phone.

So I can quickly locate any item.

[Vitamin c]

Thin nib sharpy find the date then print on front and top of goods , large enough to see without my specks.

[jansman]

Thin nib sharpy find the date then print on front and top of goods , large enough to see without my specks.