Water Storage in an Apartment
We live in an apartment, so space is premium. We were worried about water storage and found a solution. The closet floor is wasted space, so we placed plastic pop carriers upside down on the floor. This provides air circulation, especially since we have carpet in the closet. Then we put water in 2 liter bottles on top of the carriers. Depending on how much space you have between the floor and the clothes will depend upon how high to stack the pop bottles.
We take empty boxes and break them down and place these on top of the carriers. Then we can place a second layer of pop bottles filled with water on top of the first layer. We then place a second layer of empty boxes on top of the second layer of bottles. Then we place our shoes which are normally on the closet floor onto the bottles which makes them easier to get to and you will have water storage, too.
If you do this with each of the closets in your apartment or home you will have at least a start of water storage. We have 2 closets in our 1 bedroom apartment and have 64 two-liter pop bottles of water stored just in the closets. With 2 of us in the apartment that will be enough for 16 days of water. If we had a disaster in our town having 16 days of water saved up would be a difference between life and death in some cases. Also not having to depend on others to help us gives us self-sufficiency.
We also have put an industrial 5 wire shelf in, where we keep extra food and store water on the bottom shelf. There is another 20 two-liter bottles of water along with quite a bit of food. It is located in the bedroom and we have placed sheets covering the shelf which covers up what is on the shelf. The shelf takes up about the space of a large dresser. The shelf was around $100 and gives us much security in knowing that we have food and water enough to sustain us in case of an emergency.
If you do not drink pop or juice in the 2 liter bottles, ask your family, friends or neighbors if they have empty bottles. Usually they will be glad to give them to you. All you have to do is to wash them out with dish soap and water, rinse well and place tap water in them. Tap water from city water supply already has chlorine in it, so no need to put more in. Also, no need to change out the water every 6 months like many people think because it already has chlorine in it. When you get to the point of needing to use it, if you are not sure about the water then you can put bleach into the bottles. No need to make things more difficult than it has to be.