Anyway, until we move to a farm and I can get Dadzoo to build me a real root cellar my basement will have to do. Really it does quite well. My basement is only partially finished, there are two rooms, a bedroom and an office, then there is a big open unfinished space and this little room. Dadzoo walled this off very soon after we moved into this house and built some shelves. There have been times that this little room was pretty empty, however the last few years I have been stocking up. About two weeks ago Dadzoo went and bought me some more shelves and so now I feel like I can share what my root cellar is like, things aren’t piled all over the place anymore!
This is the view from one end of the room, facing the shelves Dadzoo built a long time ago, that is where I am keeping all my canning. Underneath I have buckets and boxes (the boxes hold #10 cans) of rice and beans. I don’t have nearly enough rice and bean stored, it is a work in progress.
This is to the left of the door, these shelves are where all my caning supplies and misc jars are stored. In the back corner I have buckets of wheat, each bucket has about 40 pound of wheat. I am still working on stocking up on wheat.
These shelves are directly across from the door. The shelves on the right hold baking items, oatmeal, some boxes of pasta on the top and the bottom shelf will hold bags of flour and sugar, I need to do some more stocking up of those, I have been a bit lazy lately. The buckets in front are for flour and sugar. After I open the bags I pour the contents in the buckets and that is what I use when I bake. The bucket in the middle is full of wheat, I use freshly ground wheat in my baking. The shelf on the left holds fresh produce, vinegar, a bin of candles and other misc items.
In the left corner is my deep freeze.
Here is a shelf that has a box of tomatoes slowly ripening, a basket of apples and the big bushel basket holds onions. Below I have another big box of tomatoes and 150 pounds of potatoes in bags and baskets.
On the far wall is a widow. I love and hate this window. It makes for nice natural light, however that isn’t always a good thing when you are storing produce and you want it to go dormant. I need to cover it. I also keep it opened a crack all the time to let in the cold air. This room stays between 40 and 50 degrees in the winter, perfect for keeping potatoes. 
To the right of the door are my original shelves, they are nice and deep so I can store a lot there.
On the top shelf I keep all my pint jars. From right to left I have: Syrups, Jellies, Jam, Fruit Butters, Green Relish, Chili Sauce, Tomato Sauce, Tomato Soup, Chicken Broth, Apple Sauce and some Salsa.
On the bottle shelf I have my quart jars. From right to left: Stewed Tomatoes, Tomato Juice, Tomato Soup, Potatoes, Apples, Grape juice, and misc canned items (I hope someday to not have to purchase many canned items from the store.)
These shelves change as the year goes on, in the early winter I will can more potatoes and there will be more room because a lot of the tomatoes will have been used.
So there you have it, my root cellar. The biggest thing is to keep the room cool and dry.
Do you have a food storage room?
