5-Liter KeepCold Picnic Icebox Blue/White 27x20x19cm Cosmoplast

OverviewIf you know how to use an ice box or cooler for food storage, and a few tricks for making your ice last longer, you can have great meals when you are boating or camping. Dave and I have done many extended trips where we only had a cooler for storing food. Four times, we’ve gone without a refrigerator for two months or more. And I’ve lost track of how many shorter trips. We eat well on these trips, not just a bunch of dehydrated meals. Here’s how I use a cold box for food storage. f you don’t have a refrigerator, using an ice box — a built-in box to keep food on ice — or a cooler set up specifically for food storage instead of drinks gives you a lot more options for food storage. The question is how to do it so the food doesn’t end up soggy from the melting ice. In short, rather than placing food directly on the ice in the cooler — which will melt and you’ll end up with your food sitting in water — it’s far better to get some racks or grates and put your food in bins on the racks. Before heading to the store, measure the length and width of your icebox or cooler. If it’s not a rectangle, sketch the space and write down the measurements. Depending on the size space and your “handy-ness” you can either use several plastic-covered wire “organizers” as shown in the picture, or you can cut wire shelves or grates to size and mount 1×1 strips for the shelves to rest on (you need to be able to easily remove the shelves to replace ice and clean the box, so don’t mount them permanently). If you use racks like I did, they don’t have to 100% fill the inside of the ice box. They just have to sufficiently fill the space to form a solid base for the bins. Two things are important, however: you want all the tops to be level, without protrusions that will interfere with your bins, and you want the racks 5″ to 6″ off the bottom of the ice box so that sufficient ice can fit under them If you want a heavier-duty shelf, wire closet shelves are available in most home improvement stores and they can be cut to whatever size you need. They are much sturdier if you’re trying to span a larger distance.