Keeping Up with the Little Things

Lately, one of the hardest things for me to keep up with seems to be the Inventory List.  We've been keeping a list for over a year and you'd think I'd have it down pat by now.  Apparently, that's not the case.  For the third time this year, I did an all out count this afternoon of what we have in storage.  I printed the three page list, went down to storage and physically counted every item on the list.  There are 106 line items on the list (excel spreadsheet) and I had to correct the totals on 18 of them.  That's roughly a B- for accuracy ...totally unacceptable to me for something as important as food storage.  Somehow I need to make the list (and the process of keeping it current and accurate) more user-friendly. 

The current format consists of five columns ...a description of the item including the increments of measure for quantity, the goal amount for one year's supply, the amount currently on hand, the amount needed to meet goal, and the date updated.  I'm not sure the 'date updated' matters since once it's entered on the list, it doesn't tell you if the date refers to when you added to storage or removed from storage ...why does it matter?  It seems to me the amount you have versus the amount you need is what's critical.  I also get hung up on quantities because there are so many ways to measure things ...quarts, pints, gallons, pounds, cans (in varying sizes), etc.  Coffee, for instance, doesn't seem to be packaged in even pound cans anymore.  It's always 2 lbs xx ozs or 3 lbs xx ozs.  If you're OCD about accurate numbers like me, you'll make yourself crazy trying to convert all the odd ounces to figure out exactly how much coffee you have on hand. I  am tempted to change the line item label from 'Coffee (pounds)' to 'Coffee (BIG cans)' and leave it at that.  A 'BIG can' of coffee lasts us almost two months so seven 'BIG cans' is definitely a year's worth or better. 

Do those of you who maintain several months to a year's worth of food storage keep an inventory list?  If so, how is your list organized and how hard is it to keep current?  Do you keep it on computer or hard copy or both and do you keep a duplicate copy as a backup? 

I'm looking for a better way and welcome any suggestions.