Home Front: prep storage shed

When we moved house at the beginning of 2023 it became apparent that my multitude of preps and camping gear outpaced the available storage inside the new house (even with a detached garage and garden-shed. Even after drastic culls of stockpiled salvage, my collected packs, tents, mats, hammocks and what-have-you exceeded what I could sensibly store. 

My parents came to the rescue in the form of a flat-packed shed which we built over the course of a couple of weekends. it was a good bonding time and we got to together with very little fuss, even with some from-factory misalignments that required some on the spot modifications and fabrications.  We put down treated pine sleepers, bracketed them at the corners, bolted them to star-picket anchors and then mounted the shed to the sleepers. I'd say its a far cry from hurricane proof, but our yearly Melbourne rager storms haven't given it any trouble. 

Due to conditions of our lease, we couldn't put down a concrete slab for it, so we picked a flat sheltered spot against the fenceline and raised it up. 

The spacious ABSCO shed is 3 m x 3m (9'10" square)  and 2m (6'6") tall at its peak. Initially we just loaded things in onto the grass, but later on i put down the box frame from an old mattress we retired, as well as a set of duck-boards to cover almost 3/4 of the available floorspace. A big table covering the back wall makes for an excellent storage space and an old dresser-cabinet we curb-side salvaged years ago fit nicely too. It was good that we put the duck-boards and bedframe down too, as it turned out we had placed the shed in the lowest part of the yard and rains tended to soak that spot. 

I loaded that table up with, tents, sleeping mats, filled gear-crates and a whole swag of filled Tactical crates. (More on these later). The whole process was good for consolidating and rationalising my collection.  

Whilst in the process, I decided to move some of my food-preps out to the shed, I noticed that even in the heat of the day the centre mass of stored things remained cool. Following periods of heavy rain I would leave one the double doors open to facilitate evaporation which seemed to work well, though the grass has long since died.  

One problem I had was  inaccessibility to my food preps and this cost me. Mice had found their way in and ate their way through a considerable  amount of my preps! My box of Mainstay food bricks and an entire crate full of MRE's (apart from the bread and metallic tubes of spreads.)My boxes of Mac-n-Cheese also suffered similar fates ( except tins of cheese sauce). Rookie mistake. After cleaning up what I could salvage, I re-crated the canned goods and have set up a metal shelving system and stacked my crates one deep rather than two as they had been on the table to facilitate better access and reduced pest-access. I will be storing re-stocked dry-goods in sealed containers, either pails with lids or lidded tubs. I also took the time to tabulate my canned goods, for better reference.

I also found, amongst other gems, my FireCones for summer bbq starting needs!

Prepping shed

As the final part of our move from the original home of Apocalypse Equipped Actual, we installed a garden shed in order to store my copious accumulated camping and prepping gear. No room in the new house or garage. My parents were kind enough to gift us this flat-pack, DIY ABSCO 3x3 shed. We built it over a couple of weekends, in a quiet corner beside the house, which was a nice project for me and my good-father. The shed consits of a frame to which pannels are afixed. Assembly is made easier with the help of pre-drilled holes and Absco’s patented SNAPTiTE technology that allows panels to lock into channels without the need for screws. (note, it came with screws and is screwed together, but self-tappers all the way.)

We found there was some manufacturing variance on the pre-drilled holes that needed occasional modification to set things secure and square. The shed is designed to be bolted onto a pre-poured concrete slab, but rental property constraints meant that we instead used a treated pine sleeper frame we anchor-plated together and bolted down to star-picket anchors we pounded into the soft ground. The bare grass we built over was covered in places by salvaged pallets or timber sleepers to set things upon. I put a long table in, along the back wall and a couple of ‘duckboards’ to avoid any seepage that might occur. 

I loaded my collected camping gear ( tents, sleeping systems, cookware and other needfuls, into some old ikea shelves on the table, and many, many stacked Tactical Milk Crates full of my other preps (canned goods, MRE's, and the like) that i'd collected before and during the Covid years. I also have spare tools, crockery and other super-numerate supplies. I also had a number as as-yet unpacked boxes of stuff from the previous house. Initially I just tetras-packed it all in, floor to ceiling in order to get it all in so I could free up other spaces and make them functional. This didn't lead to a very accessible and orderly storage system. 

A process of consolidation and rediscovery over a couple of sunny weekends enabled me to make a little more sense out of my collection, both for ease of access but also to make room to store more stuff and even use the space for additional supplies and furniture, like this cupboard unit, which makes for good assorted pack and kit storage (I have sleeping bags, hydration systems and some tools). 

I also managed to collect all our only occasionally used cold weather snow gear, as well as my various cammo outfits. Under the big table, I've been able to stack my foldable tactical crates. which makes good use of that space whilst having these easily available in the event of a bug-out or camping trip.

 The placement of the shed puts it in the shadow of our side fence and beside some trees and the back corner of our house. It's in the full daylight ark, but has some wind shelter. We placed it on a flat spot but the area is in a slight depression so the duckboards and pallets  keep all the stuff off damp ground. (I open the doors of windy/ sunny days to ensure it doesn't get too humid in there).

I'd noticed condensation on the roof and walls, so I made sure to space my stacks so there was some clearance on all sides (which also improves ventilation)and even though I have  a mix  of storage containers ( crates, chests and bags) I've managed to make an orderly store for my preps, in a safeish, dryish, dark place. I haven't yet put a thermometer in there. but I expect it gets pretty warm in there  (which will obviously affect shelf life of my food preps) but that's a next stage concern. 

How do you store and organise your preps?