Originally Posted by CDSmith

Some kinds of freeze-dried packeted foods have a shelf life of 20 years or more. And despite the standard "expiry dates", canned goods and other dry goods like corn, rice, oatmeal, etc, can be just fine for far longer than 6 months. 3-5 years or in some cases more, depending on how it's stored and at what temperature.



Some people by crates of bottled water and store them. As long as they're unopened they will last a very long time until needed. Those giant "water cooler" jugs of water are great too. Some have rain barrel collectors and are prepared to pre-boil collected water using various camp stoves or other independant cooking devices.

One guy even put in a large in-ground swimming pool in his backyard and has a device that can filter and purify the pool water back into drinking water. (he won't let his kids swim during the day in order to prevent their sun screen lotions from tainting the water)