Prepared for a crisis and the unexpected: managing everyday eventualities through food storage practices

ABSTRACT How and why do people store food? What norms, skills and items are involved in practices of stocking up and keeping food in pantries, refrigerators, and freezers? Despite an increasing interest in everyday food practices within food studies, research on domestic food storage practices is limited. In this article I depart from a practice theoretical framework to explore how food storage practices are made meaningful and involve certain competences and materials, with focus on preparedness. I draw on findings from a study on food storage in Sweden using an open-ended questionnaire and popular consumer magazines. The findings show that storing food is a concrete way of managing daily food work, time, social obligations, and potential societal crises. Households’ food storage practices are attempts to manage and control everyday life with its routines and disruptions, and the immediate, distant, or imagined future. However, societal advice for of long-term storage, for example for crises, is challenged by normalized storage spaces, skills, and values attached to food and food storage. I conclude by proposing that a new rationale relating to storage economy may influence the meaning, competences, and materials of food storage practices in favor of household preparedness.


Introduction
In March 2020, when societal restrictions were imposed in Sweden due to the coronavirus, there was a considerable increase in food purchases. Many people suddenly began stockpiling foods such as pasta, grains, canned fish cakes and cabbage in case of a lockdown or illness (ICA and Tellström 2020).
By contrast, when Sweden was an agrarian country, before the industrialization and domestic refrigeration technology, people relied on careful management of food stocks. Replenishment of food was dependent on good yields. Due to the northern climate and short growing season, food stocks had to be planned and used wisely to last until the following year, or longer, which required preservation methods such as salting, smoking, and pickling (Olsson 1958;Amilien 2012). Eating fresh food was regarded as a waste of resources, while well-stocked storehouses signaled social and economic status (Jönsson 2020, 172;Olsson 1958, 132). In the Nordic countries, this is often referred to as the time or rationale of storage economy 1 (see e.g., Notaker in Amilien 2012), implying the value of storage practices and space. The sudden stockpiling in 2020 highlights, following Shove, Pantzar, and Watson (2012), how the meanings, materials, and skills relating to food storage practices have changed since the storage economy.
The aim of this article is to analyze how food storage practices become meaningful in everyday life and involve certain materials and competences. Focus is on preparedness, a term I use broadly, referring to a readiness for different situations in everyday life, not exclusively to crises. Following the proposal that preparedness is interwoven in everyday practices (Heidenstrøm and Kvarnlöf 2018), such as provisioning and storing food, I argue that food storage practices allow households to manage both the present and the future.
A focus on practices, as routinized behavior, pays attention to both the collective coordination and the performance of the practice -that is, the underlying factors through which the practice becomes recognizable and meaningful for the performers (Reckwitz 2002;Warde 2005). This analytical framework highlights recurrent and shared doings and sayings of food storage, and illustrates collective ways of thinking and acting, norms, know-how, and infrastructures that make certain ways of storing, consuming, and living with food more meaningful than others.
Several scholars have explored how refrigeration technology, fridges, and freezers have changed our food consumption, notion of freshness and the ways we cohabit and interact with technology (e.g., Shove and Southerton 2000;Watkins 2008;Freidberg 2009;Rees 2013). However, when moving beyond the storage container, food storage practices have received moderate attention in food studies, with few examples (see, e.g., Evans 2011;Heidenstrøm and Hebrok 2021). Consequently, this article, uses Sweden as the empirical context to explore how and why people store food, and thus investigates how everyday life, with its routines and unpredictability, is managed through food storage practices.
After the Introduction, I will first contextualize the study within the theoretical field of practices and research on food storage and household preparedness. After presenting the methods, I report on how storage practices are interlinked with the management of food work, social relations, and experiences of crises, thus showing how the practices manage the imminent and distant future. Finally, I discuss the possibility and challenges of a contemporary storage economy rationale.

Food storage as practices
The verb store can mean to "furnish, supply, stock (a person, place, etc.) with something" or to "keep in store for future use; to collect and keep in reserve; to form a store, stock or supply of; to accumulate, hoard" (OED 2020). Storing food can therefore imply both a stocking up and a keeping of food in a designated and appropriate storage space for intended future consumption. Applying practice theory to food storing activities also pays attention to the motivators and arrangements behind placing a carton of milk in the refrigerator.
A practice is here defined as "a routinized way in which bodies are moved, objects are handled, subjects are treated, things are described, and the world is understood" (Reckwitz 2002, 250). Further, it implies a shared understanding within a cultural context, in the sense that the practice is recognizable to performers and observers. The practice connects multiple elements, such as doings with sayings, mental and physical activities, emotions, and objects (Reckwitz 2002). To become a routinized behavior, a practice is dependent on the connected elements. Shove, Pantzar, and Watson (2012) condense these elements into materials, meaning, and competence which are interdependent. Consequently, food storage practices presuppose: (1) some form of objects or infrastructure, for example food, storage appliances, an electricity grid, and designated kitchen spaces with power outlets; (2) some collective rationale or idea of why food should be stored in the first place and why it should be stored in certain ways and not in others, for example governed by ideas of freshness and hygiene; and (3) knowledge and skills needed to perform the practice, for example, how to use a freezer or root cellar in the intended way, as well as food preservation techniques and how to avoid food waste.
A practice such as storing food in a refrigerator is performed by many, which places the practice on a social, collective level, rather than within the individual. There may, however, exist different ideas of how the practice ought to be conducted (Warde 2014), for example, about which foods should go in the refrigerator, and which should not. As shown by Hand and Shove (2007), there are many ways to live with a freezer, as with other domestic technologies. The freezer, as they suggest, is part of multiple household systems simultaneously. As the elements and the social context change over time, the practices will be adjusted to maintain their relevance.
Henceforth, I refer to food storage, or storing food, as practices including both the performance, through stockpiling and keeping of food, and the shared elements. I deliberately use storage practices in the plural because different storage spaces depend on different meanings, competences, and materials. Storing food in a refrigerator is different to storing it in a root cellar, a pantry, or a freezer. Following Warde (2014), these units all come with their own sets of manuals and may be used at different times or for different purposes.
By contrast, I do not regard preparedness, a central concept in this article, as a practice on its own. Research on blackouts suggests that while there are certain sets of practices related to household preparedness, preparedness is rather embedded in many daily practices through materials, competences, and meanings associated with the notion of preparedness (Heidenstrøm and Kvarnlöf 2018). Hence, I explore how preparedness is expressed or interwoven in food storage practices.

Cultural perspectives on food storage and household preparedness
Storing food and drinks involves the use of fridges, freezers, pantries, cupboards, root cellars and wine racks, constituting a storage infrastructure. Hitherto, sociocultural studies have primarily focused on refrigerated storage units. On a societal and global level, refrigeration technology is an essential part of the cold chain which has enabled consumption of fresh and frozen food (see e.g., Freidberg 2009). Fridges and freezers have been of interest to understand how the appliances have gradually been integrated, normalized, and sustained in the domestic sphere (Pantzar et al. 1999;Shove and Southerton 2000;Hand and Shove 2007;Watkins 2008), as well as how they have changed consumption markets, food practices and taste preferences on a societal level (Rees 2013;Freidberg 2009;Rinkinen, Shove, and Smits 2019;Finstad 2013).
Focusing on the storage of food therefore also addresses how these societal values and changes have influenced households. For example, the introduction of refrigeration in the domestic sphere has been associated with ideas of restructuring time and housework, and how the appliances are embedded within narratives and perceptions of gender, class, "home," and rationality (Kenneally 2015;Isenstadt 1998;Nickles 2002;Pérez 2012;Scheire 2015). In the Swedish context, food storage appliances have been linked to changed kitchen standards and ideals (Thörn 2018;Sandgren 2018). Thus, food storage reflects cultural change and continuity through our cohabitation with food, which can be noted in several ethnographically inspired studies. These studies investigate storage practices as part of broader food phenomena, such as cooking, shopping, restaurant practices and waste, often in relation to sustainability (to name a few authors: Evans 2011; Gojard and Véron 2018;Heidenstrøm and Hebrok 2021;Carrillo Ocampo et al. 2021). However, few studies focus primarily on storage practices to understand how and why people store food.
Here, I extend the scope of food storage by investigating households' storage practices. Furthermore, I build on research placing preparedness in households' everyday practices, suggesting that preparedness is "socially and culturally performed" in everyday life (Heidenstrøm and Kvarnlöf 2018;Heidenstrøm 2020, 381). Recent studies on household preparedness highlight the need to look beyond the formal knowledge of preparedness, such as family emergency plans and knowledge of governmental information. By studying household practices, we can reveal other aspects of how households prepare for disruptions, thus placing preparedness within practices that at first may seem unrelated (Heidenstrøm 2020, 384;Heidenstrøm and Kvarnlöf 2018). In Sweden, qualitative studies have looked at (rural) households' preparedness, past experiences, and management of long blackouts, storms, and climate change, among other emergency situations (Guldåker 2009;Heidenstrøm and Kvarnlöf 2018;Kolmodin, Lundgren, and Andersson 2019). This research primarily addresses food-related practices as part of the overall experience of preparedness. By contrast, I place the food, and its daily provisioning and storage practices, in focus, exploring how preparedness is part of everyday food practices.

Methods
Food storage has been proposed as a methodological entry point to examine everyday food practices (Joosse and Marshall 2020;Heidenstrøm and Hebrok 2021). Here, I shift my attention to the storage practices by using a qualitative open-ended questionnaire and consulting popular magazines.
Personal experiences of food storage from a larger and geographically dispersed sample can be collected more efficiently by an open-ended questionnaire than through interviews (Hagström and Marander-Eklund 2005). The questionnaire was designed in collaboration with the Institute for Language and Folklore. Questions concerned past and present domestic storage practices including food, kitchen refurbishments, and household crisis preparedness (see Appendix 1). Respondents could write as much or as little as they wished. The questionnaire was distributed through the institute's previously recruited respondents, both digitally and by mail. 2 It was further communicated via Örebro University's webpage, social media, and flyers, and by word of mouth, which allowed further sharing by individuals, external actors, and the media. The digital questionnaire was open from September 2019 to September 2020. Respondents were informed about how the personal data and material would be handled, archived, and used for research, and gave their consent by submitting their replies.
In total, 139 respondents born between 1929 and 1999 (Table 1) submitted long and short accounts primarily through the digital form, but some chose sending handwritten or computer-typed letters. One reply has been excluded in this analysis due to country of residence. Most respondents were women and only a handful were born in other European countries, common tendencies for questionnaires distributed by folklife archives (Hagström and Marander-Eklund 2005). Many, but not all, provided information on their household formation, housing, and profession, reporting a variety of owned and rented housing in rural and urban areas ( Table 2). Households covered students, retirees, singles, and couples with or without children of different ages. The self-reported information has made it difficult to give a definite overview of their socioeconomic background.
To put the respondents' practices in a socio-cultural and historical context and identify change and continuity, popular Swedish weekly and monthly magazines were screened for contents relating to food storage. Magazines do not necessarily depict generalizable domestic practices in society or among their readers. However, articles and advertisements offer insight into contemporary values and ideas about food, living conditions, new technology, predominant actors, and debates (Hand and Shove 2004;Scheire 2015).
The volumes of the two most popular magazines in Sweden, sampled every 5 years from 1934 to 2019, relating to the home, food, and/or consumption in general, were selected. Two magazines were selected to ensure a wider societal distribution. The magazines, period and intervals were defined through available statistical publications 3 Table 1. Gender and age distribution among the respondents. Gender/born 1920s 1939s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s    Student apartment 3 Whereof living in one of the ten largest cities/urban areas (eight of ten cities are represented)

Unstated 13
Whereof reported or identified as living in a rural area/small village 25 138 and the aim was to include different phases of World War II and the cold war. The intervals were presumed to cover significant changes in food consumption and storage, and momentous societal events. The six weekly and monthly magazines covering up until 1994 4 were distributed through subscription or membership. The two magazines in the later time scope were a membership magazine of a food chain (Buffé) and a commercial magazine sent to all homeowners (Vi i Villa). All numbers per volume were screened, in total 1123 magazines for editorial content and advertisements, explicitly or implicitly, referring to or depicting food storage including crisis preparation. This material was documented, depending on its content and relevance, through a brief description, a partial or full transcription, or a copy and included notations of 271 advertisements (several of which appeared more than once) and 334 editorial contents from 410 magazine numbers.
An inductive analysis to identify recurrent themes was initially done of the questionnaire replies and magazines separately. As different ideas of being prepared emerged as a theme beyond societal crises, this led to a more deductive approach which identified management of everyday life through food, domestic hospitality, and crisis preparation as subthemes. All quotes have been translated from Swedish to English by the author.
Additionally, kitchen recommendations, consumer handbooks, early refrigerator advertisements, and information from authorities have been used for contextualizing and supporting the empirical material. Combined, the materials allow different perspectives on food storage and preparedness. Firstly, they highlight practices, including ideals and norms, present in society and communicated by different actors during the time scope of this study. Secondly, they show how food storage practices and ideas of preparedness become meaningful aspects of everyday life. By comparing past and present storage practices, I show how ideas and practices related to storage and preparedness have both changed and to some extent continued.

The emergence of refrigerated storage practices
When the modernization of Swedish homes began in the 1920s and 1930s, the quality of food storage and housing in general was perceived as a problem (Thörn 2018). The modernization project and Swedish kitchen standards, introduced in the mid-1900s and influenced by ideals of rational housework, indicate how societal actors tuned domestic practices little by little. The domestic refrigerator, powered by electricity, gas, or kerosene, was introduced in the 1920s and soon became part of the rational home. However, the refrigerator and freezer were not simply a replacement of storage space. Previous storage practices had to be refigured as the new materials entered the household, with new meanings and required competences.
One early change to kitchen layout, which was common in apartment buildings and provided improvement in storage space, was placing a ventilated pantry adjacent to an external wall (Thörn 2018). The pantry still plays a role in kitchen recommendations from the early 1950s, when a refrigerator of 65 liters was deemed enough for a household of three to five persons, provided there was an adequate pantry, although larger and rural households were recommended at least 85 liters (Berg, Boalt, and Holm 1952). Twenty years later a three-person household was recommended 200-300 liters for cold storage, and 100-150 liters for frozen goods, recommendations that were still valid at the turn of the century (Statens institut för konsumentfrågor 1972; Thiberg 2000). First complementing the ventilated pantry, eventually the refrigerator, freezer, and kitchen cupboards outcompeted the ventilated pantry in new apartment buildings (Thörn 2018).
Whereas the refrigerator became a popular kitchen appliance much faster in urban than rural areas, the freezer, which arrived in the late 1940s, was particularly popular in the countryside (Boalt and Neymark 1983). Yet for many Swedes, it took time before they had access to domestic refrigeration technology, and when they did, it required relearning storage and preservation skills. A woman whose family rented a freezer locker in the village in the late 1950s recalls: I joined my mother for "freezer courses" where you learned how to freeze meat, berries, and vegetables. It was very complicated, I thought, and you had to have special packaging. Mother thought it was great! Now she did not have to preserve everything from plums to pork chops. (Woman born in 1944, DFU 41182:39) Domestic home advisers' freezer courses and freezer handbooks aimed to facilitate the learning process and establish trust in the new technology and frozen food products (see also Pantzar et al. 1999;Finstad 2013). Simultaneously, they mediated norms and skills of correct and rational freezer practices.
Everyday food practices were not instantly revolutionized; some storage and preservation practices remained: When I grew up at home in the countryside, of course everything was made use of. [. . .] And so, there was a freezer cabinet in the hallway of our house. It was revolutionary, mother was spared of a lot of preservation work, and I did not have to assist with the boring preservation. But pears could not be frozen, so those we continued to preserve. Later there came a freezer chest to the cellar as a supplement to the freezer cabinet. This was in the 1950-1960s.
Of course, we had a food cellar in the basement, rows of Höganäs [a Swedish pottery brand (author's note)] jars with lingonberry jam, many tin boxes with various cookies and the soda -which was only allowed to be drunk on Sundays, and my father's Pilsner. (Woman born in 1954, DAGF 2093 A man born in 1946 (DFU 41182:14), who grew up in a one-bedroom apartment in a town together with his parents and older brother, similarly recalls "a pantry and a small refrigerator with a tiny freezer compartment" in the kitchen where food was kept. Each year, his father would buy potatoes and buckling (smoked herring) through advertisements in a trade union magazine. The potatoes were, along with fruit syrup and jam, stored in the food cellar compartment (each apartment had its own compartment). The fish was kept in a small wooden box on the balcony.
Although they had different living conditions, these two respondents described shared and continued practices. Despite access to somewhat new technology, former storage materials and procurement and preservation practices persisted to some extent. Both respondents wrote about a network of designated spaces for food, each space with its own features or purpose.
Refrigerators and freezers entered the home in a time when improved living standards and rationalization of housework were of societal concern (Thörn 2018). The increased urbanization had made people less dependent on their own food production, and more on food stores, which required either daily purchasing or preservation of fresh food. Sufficient cold and dry storage was claimed to reduce grocery shopping to once a week or every second week in accordance with rational household ideals (see, e.g., Berg, Boalt, and Holm 1952, 5;Vi 3/1964). Simultaneously, norms of good housing stated that closeness to a well-assorted food store decreased the need for space for long-term food storage (God Bostad 1954). The new materials of food storage were ascribed meanings of rationality and modernity. It allowed new possibilities for new kitchen layouts and food shopping, but also required new storage competences.

"The pantry saves everyday life"
A sign above the condiments and baby food in a local food store caught my attention: "The pantry saves everyday life" (Figure 1). It suggests that the unpredictability of everyday life can be managed by keeping jars of tabasco sauce and lasagna puree in the pantry. The sign also indicates how past storage practices and spaces continue to exist in the present. In this section, I shift my focus to how food is stored in the homes today. Storage practices, I argue, are ways of managing the present and the future.
What, then, do people store in their pantries?
In the fridge I store everything that needs to be stored chilled. In the freezer I store everything that needs to be stored frozen. In the pantry I store almost all dry foods. (Woman born in 1957, DFU 41182:90) The quote highlights a typical classification of today's storage organization, where the three distinct food groups -chilled, frozen, and dry -reoccur. There seems to be a "holy trinity of storage," an undisputed norm, consisting of refrigerator, freezer, and either a (ventilated) pantry or cupboards in every Swedish household. However, when looking more closely at the respondents' replies, a more diverse network of storage spaces emerges. Dependent on the housing and household, additional storage for food and drinks may include kitchen drawers, the kitchen table, spice-rack, and windowsill, as well as bowls and baskets, food cellars, root cellars, balconies, utility rooms, garages, bookshelves, bar cabinets, wine racks, cleaning cabinets, and even a former sauna. Newer, traditional, and unexpected storage spaces are used in conjunction, and are complementary in meeting different storage needs. Not all respondents listed explicitly what food they stored, but the material indicate some commonalities. The freezers often contain leftovers/extra portions, berries, meat, vegetables, bread, mushrooms, fish, and seafood. The refrigerators store left-overs, fruit and vegetables, dairy products, jam, vegetable preserves and various alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages. Baking products, pasta, spices, preserves, sweets, and other dry or canned food are stored in cupboards and pantries. The annual replenishment characteristic of the storage economy is to a limited extent still practiced today. Around half of the respondents reported that they preserved seasonal products such as berries, mushrooms, fruit and/or vegetables, by deep freezing, drying, or making preserves, most commonly jam.
Households store a considerable amount of food for carefully planned menus as well as impromptu meals. One woman, comparing food practices from her childhood without a fridge or freezer, to today, wrote: "Dinner today? Check the freezer. Fish, meat, ready meal, vegetables? It will be cod with creamed spinach. Quick and easy. How easy it is nowadays." (Woman, year of birth unknown, DAGF 2123). Products used daily intermingle with purchases on special offer and ingredients rarely used or even forgotten.
Today in Sweden, most foods seem to be bought in the grocery store. The distance to the store, and consequently the difference between rural or urban households, impacts both the provisioning and the storage. Many rural households have an extra fridge, freezer, and/or root cellar, which may be used for their own production of meat and vegetables. A long distance to the store encourages bulk buying and having more food at home to minimize shopping trips. By contrast, living close to a store allows the opposite. One woman (born in 1961, DFU 41182:76) noted: "I probably see the grocery store as my food storage. When it's close by, I don't need to have a lot of food at home." However, few households shared this perspective, and it appears that townspeople also want to avoid frequent shopping.
When asked about their experiences of changing or renovating storage facilities, and about preferred functions and qualities of these, having enough or more space was a common preference. This ties in with the perceived need of having sufficient stocks and shopping less frequently. Other recurrent storage preferences included the right/a stable temperature, low electricity consumption, and a self-defrosting function. Other mentioned functions allowed convenient and easy storage, such as giving an overview of the contents and ease of cleaning. These preferences indicate how ideas of convenience and economy are embedded in storage practices.
Over the past century, a clear shift has been seen toward storing more food in refrigerated storage and new kitchen layouts offering certain storage opportunities and restrictions. Managing the fridge and freezer no longer requires "storage courses," it is today a competence that is taken for granted. It is less about having storage that is "good enough," and more about the perception of (not) having enough storage. Stocks are replenished every few weeks, instead of once a year and routinized food preservation has become less meaningful as people rely more on the freezer and the grocery store. The mid-1950s' ideals of rational housework and efficient food procurement are still visible, but less explicitly gendered. These ideals and the changed storage materials have made long-term storage less meaningful.
The meaningfulness of stocking up and replenishing food, to be able to cater for upcoming meals, either carefully planned or impromptu, is consistent over time. Having a reliable refrigerator, enough pantry/dry storage space, and sufficient stocks of food is a tangible way of managing time, housework, meals, and (anticipated) unexpectedness. Everyday routines are easily challenged, and while the pantry may not "save" everyday life per se, it does provide a sense of stability to daily food routines. In the next section, I show how expected disruptions can be managed through food storage.

Unexpected guests and everyday disruptions
For rural households, which are often a long distance from the stores, it is of course a great asset to always have fresh pastries at home in reserve for unexpected guests (Neymark and Östberg 1957, 14).
The above quote is from a freezer study conducted in 1954-1955 investigating how housewives at the time used their freezers. The report indicates social meanings attached to storage practices, such as (gendered) norms and relations. Since coffee, cakes, and other meals have a central role in socializing and maintaining relations in Sweden (see, e.g., Lundgren 1995), the quote suggests that storage practices involve a skillful management of social relations and a constant readiness for hosting duties.
When the refrigerator was still a novelty and was affordable to a few, it was advertised as a social facilitator. Some advertisements from the 1920s and 1930s implied that the guests are a reason to invest in a Frigidaire or Electrolux refrigerator. Examples include being a proud hostess even when receiving unannounced guests, exhibiting the fridge to admiring housewives, ensuring cold grogs and, thus, a successful (male) bridge evening (see Figures 2,3). 5 A few shifts in the norms of entertaining and consumption amongst different social groups are apparent from the magazines' editorial and commercial material. In 1934, a sandwich supper consisting of leftovers found in the pantry is recommended for the new generation of housewives who wish to entertain despite limited time and money (Vårt hem 1/1934). Both expected and unexpected guests were treated to food from the pantry and refrigerator, allowing for more improvisation and less formal eating (Hemmets veckotidning 20 and 47/1949; Vi 43/1949).
Canned and frozen products mark another shift around the 1950s, suggesting durable food like canned fish and deep-frozen wild game products (Vi 23/1959; Ica-kuriren 17 and 50/ 1974), as suitable for both invited and unexpected visitors. Previously hesitant about serving canned food to visitors, a housewife in Vi (23/1959) argues that she has realized it allows more summer leisure time and saved money. The freezer specifically was presented as a time and work management tool, for example on the cover of a deep-freezing handbook: Do you have few mouths to feed during weekdays and many during weekends? Do you often get surprise visitors? [. . .] If so, then food in the freezer can help you manage many difficult situations (Aldén 1976). Similar descriptions of fridges and freezers as necessary appliances for housewives so that they would be prepared for unexpected visitors were circulated in other European countries during the 1950s and 1960s (Scheire 2015;Pantzar et al. 1999). They demonstrate gendered ideas about hospitality and household work attached to the food storage that were widely accepted at the same time. Many advertisements sell the idea of convenience by storing certain products in case of visitors. Some, in text or image, explicitly place these products in the pantry or freezer, such as orange marmalade, freshly baked bread, ice-cream cakes, and ready-made fish croissants. 6 Purchasing and storing these products hints at an expectation of having "unexpected" guests. The preparations allow the hostess to speedily serve refreshments or a meal and fulfill her social obligations. While not explicit in this material, a reciprocity is implied, as the hostess could equally become the unexpected visitor herself. The catering with cakes, bread and lighter refreshments for these social calls can also be understood through the legacy of the storage economy. It has been argued that hosting spontaneous dinners broke the norms of food storage; food had to be carefully managed as large stocks were an advantage (Jönsson 2020, 172). The readiness of food for entertaining therefore indicates that social calls were common. Thus, storing cakes, for example, was part of a meaningful practice requiring skillful and wise management of stocks.
Guests still influence today's food storage. Some respondents wrote about stored cocoa and homemade fruit syrup and jam for their grandchildren, left-over cakes from visits, gluten-free products for relatives, and alcohol for guests and social events. Holidays, seasonal festivities, and parties, when guests are expected, highlight constraints of the food storage facilities as the ordinary storage overflows and additional space is needed. Some households owning extra fridges and freezes mentioned how these were useful during festivities for storing cakes, drinks, and prepared food. One respondent told how they had acquired an extra fridge specifically for a summer wedding.
Storage practices involve the management of social relations and the associated accompanied expectations and obligations, including time management through carefully planned housework. Previous studies have shown that through the hosting of, for example, a dinner party, social positions are performed and managed. This process involves distinguishing between appropriate and inappropriate food and "staging" for the occasion (Mellor, Blake, and Crane 2010;Blichfeldt and Gram 2017). This suggests that social occasions with specific guests are perceived as meaningful, and that storing food in preparation for these events is part of practicing domestic hospitality, which requires certain competences. A skillful host(ess) today, like a skilled housewife during the storage economy or the mid-1950s, is perceived as prepared if this know-how is implemented through appropriate management of time and materials (e.g., food, resources, and storage). Similarly, management of storage is also essential in preparations for worst case scenarios.

(Un)prepared for crises
Now when everyone began hoarding food due to the corona pandemic, I did so too. Plastic boxes with food in a corner upstairs. (Woman born in 1971, DFU 41182:108) In 2018, all Swedish households received the brochure If Crisis or War Comes from the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB). The brochure advocates the need for preparedness for crises or war and included practical advice and food recommendations (also recapitulated in Vi i Villa 8/2019). Less than two years later, due to the coronavirus pandemic, people suddenly began stockpiling staple foods. Authorities stressed that there was no need for this as Sweden's food security was regarded as sufficient (Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation 2020).
A similar course of events occurred in 1939 in the run up to World War II. In Vi, the Swedish Cooperative Union urged authorities and housewives to prepare for a major crisis by storing food. Housewives were encouraged to preserve as much fruit and berries as time and economy allowed (Vi 30, 31 and 37/1939). The Cooperative Union's vision of a governmental crisis package 7 for each household (Vi 17/1939) was never implemented, and days before the outbreak of war the hoarding began. Hoarding was portrayed as "disloyal" and "danger to society," as it was said that stockpiling could lead to fluctuation of prices and problems in the production stage (Vi 40/1939). The discourse shifted from "good" to "bad stockpiling." After the war, household preparedness in relation to food storage almost disappeared from the surveyed magazines, which does not mean that the discourse was absent in society in general. Preparedness was hinted at, for example, in relation to vulnerability during power cuts, and the energy crises in the 1970s (e.g., Ica-kuriren 49/1969;4/1974;and 12, 33 and 49/1979;Vår bostad 3/1969;1/1974). One article in Ica-kuriren (8/1989) stands out as it argues that people living alone need a "reserve pantry" in preparedness for the winter influenza. Empty cupboards and daily food shopping are seen as "metropolitan behavior" and a list of foods with long durability is suggested to avoid "indebtedness" to friends and neighbors.
Household preparedness reemerged as a societal topic in Sweden in the 2010s emphasizing the individual's responsibility in times of crisis. Swedish food consumption nowadays is largely reliant on imports and governmental food reserves were dismantled after the cold war (Eriksson 2018). Authorities recommend storing enough food for a few days in case of power cuts or other situations affecting food distribution (DinSäkerhet.se 2020). It has been proposed that each household ought to cater for themselves for at least a week without support from authorities (Ds 2017:66).
The questionnaire asked explicitly about crisis preparedness, mentioning the MSB brochure, power cuts, and climate change as examples (Appendix 1). Most replies were submitted before the coronavirus pandemic reached Sweden and envisioned power, heating, and water outages. A few reflected on possible problems with imported food supplies and fuel shortages. Experiences of recurrent power cuts caused by weather, sometimes lasting several days, had prompted precautionary action for some people, like for a couple living in a shared countryside house: We always have full food supplies, so we haven't been affected by the MSB's campaign. In the past we often had power cuts, and so even now when it's stormy, we usually fill a container with water. (Woman, born in 1957, DFU 41182:114) Households having some form of food preparedness often relate it to everyday provisioning. As mentioned earlier, especially those living further away from a food store routinely ensure they have enough food at home for everyday needs. This corresponds to research suggesting that preparedness is partly based on previous experience, but also embedded in other everyday practices (Heidenstrøm and Kvarnlöf 2018). Certain storage practices therefore become meaningful as part of being prepared for possible crises.
Others separate crisis food from everyday food, by placing it in special containers stored in the pantry or cupboards, in a bedroom, the garage, or in external buildings.
We have read the MSB's brochure and are following their advice. We have a plastic container in the pantry filled with food reserves, soup powder, instant noodles, tinned food etc. that will give a few days' food security. In another place in the apartment, we're storing two 10 liter containers with drinking water, which is changed at regular intervals. Bread + food for the first few days is kept in the freezer. (Woman, born in 1946), DFU 41182:23) The quote, from a two-person urban household, exemplifies what crisis food can be. Staple goods such as tinned food are often mentioned by the respondents. For one woman, the MSB brochure led to an increase in buying tinned food, which normally she rarely eats. Another woman (born in 1971) estimated her food stocks to last a few weeks but added that this would require cooking other dishes than usual. This suggests a distinction between ordinary, everyday food and envisioned crisis meals as only certain foods are thought of in terms of crisis preparedness.
Not everyone perceived themselves as prepared. A quarter of the respondents, mainly living in urban areas, explicitly considered themselves poorly prepared or not prepared at all. This does not mean that they would not be able to eat in the event of a crisis. Their ordinary supplies would probably last for a while if they could chill and cook food during the crisis. Again, a difference is indicated between what people perceive as crisis food and their ordinary food supplies.
Storing food for potential crises, i.e., external factors that may disrupt ordinary routines, is about managing the (envisioned) future, and societal expectations of household preparedness. To a certain extent these skills and knowledge are influenced by experiences and existing materials (food and storage) and may be tied to ordinary food practices (cf. Heidenstrøm and Kvarnlöf 2018). Despite authorities' recommendation, not everyone has taken precautionary action, which may partly explain the stockpiling in March 2020. A possible reason could be that the absence of recent major societal crises in Sweden has resulted in a general lack of meaning, competences, and material precautions for such occasions, thus affecting the meaningfulness of storing food for crises. This brings us to the article's final section on the prerequisites of a new storage economy.

A new storage economy?
Though societal and cultural contexts have changed, and therefore meanings, competences and materials have likewise changed, past and present practices of storing food share some commonalities. This article began with the presupposition that these practices could be understood through ideas of preparedness, and that stored food materializes ideas of being prepared, for tomorrow's dinner or for a power cut (cf. Heidenstrøm and Kvarnlöf 2018). However, storing food is about more than merely "being prepared" for the (un)expected. Most importantly, past and present food storage practices are attempts to manage and control everyday life with its routines and disruptions; the immediate, distant, or imagined future. Storing groceries is about ensuring food and meals for oneself and the household, by simultaneously managing time, housework, and resources. It is also about handling social obligations, relations, and external forces such as a winter storm or a pandemic. This management includes a preparedness through food storage practices, for example filling the fridge and pantry appropriately. The values and norms connected to this management, could therefore be understood as a rationale, or meaning, connected to certain competences and materials, upholding storage practices (cf. Shove, Pantzar, and Watson 2012).
Other meanings, competences, and materials have changed considerably, including what is perceived as appropriate handling or suitable items for storage. The rationale of storage economy promoted long-term storage, where fresh food was perceived as a luxury and was eaten on special occasions (Jönsson 2020;Olsson 1958). The global cold chain and its infrastructure allows replenishment of fresh and frozen food all year round, and the everyday diet today contains less smoked, salted, and other traditionally preserved foods.
When turning to contemporary crisis food, traces of a storage economy rationale and a taste of necessity are noted, and a somewhat uniform idea of crisis food emerges. The coronavirus pandemic included neither power shortages nor military activity, threats mentioned in the authorities' crisis preparation brochure. Nevertheless, food stockpiled during the initial phase of the pandemic resembled the MSB's advice (2018): food giving sufficient energy, possible to store for a significant period and cooked quickly with little water or with little or no preparation. Although people bought less fresh food, sales of products such as root vegetables, dry bread, grains, tinned vegetables, tinned dishes, milk substitutes and frozen foods increased (ICA and Tellström 2020). Similarly, crisis food mentioned by the questionnaire respondents included tinned food, dry food products, food not part of the usual diet, and food that can be cooked on a portable stove.
The crisis boxes, pandemic stockpiling, and advice on household crisis preparedness, accentuate the differences between the rationale of the storage economy and the ordinary food consumption today centered around fresh, refrigerated, and frozen food. In crisis preparation, and as seen during the coronavirus pandemic, fresh food is secondary to durable foods. Recalling the sign depicting the pantry as the savior, the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent restrictions and precautionary actions, suggest a possible return to, or need for, storing food over longer periods. At the same time, the respondents' replies indicate that available non-refrigerated storage capacity may not be sufficient for products that should or could be stored without electricity. Hence, the limited storage spaces in modern housings may neither make the long-term and bulk storage possible nor meaningful.
The domestic kitchen has been influenced by societal ideas such as rational housework and efficient time management (Shove and Southerton 2000). This has contributed to the norm of electric food storage with at least a combined fridge freezer in practically all Swedish households. None of the questionnaire respondents mentioned or envisioned living without refrigeration appliances. This technology and infrastructure, then, as argued by other scholars, ties the users to certain practices and arrangements influencing living, food shopping, taste preferences, social relations, and electricity dependency (Shove and Southerton 2000;Rinkinen, Shove, and Smits 2019). Is (crisis) preparedness possible, then, without a storage economy rationale governing the way we value and store food? A contemporary storage economy influenced by the rationale from the past does exist. Two major differences are, however, that long-term food storage today only extends to a few weeks, and that freshness has shifted from a special taste to the ordinary. Encouraging altered food storage practices suggests the need for a sense of meaningfulness (cf. Shove, Pantzar, and Watson 2012). For example, through a need in society in general and in households' everyday life, to store larger amounts of food over longer periods, and the need for social acceptability of associated food and flavors. However, without access to appropriate storage infrastructure and competence in using alternative storage and preservation techniques, these practices would be difficult to uphold. Crisis preparation guidelines may certainly remind and assist citizens to be prepared and identify appropriate crisis foods, yet they do not change taste preferences, shopping routines, reliance on refrigeration, or building regulations. Like goals of sustainability and equal opportunities, household (food) preparedness and a storage economy rationale most likely need to be approached from a holistic perspective; to influence policies in connection to housing, energy, and food consumption.

Conclusion
In this article, I have argued, using Sweden as an empirical example, that food storage practices are part of households' management of routines and disruptions in everyday life. More specifically, this means managing and controlling not only the household's food and meals, but also time, housework, social relations, potential disruptions, and crises. While the social context and the materials of the storage have changed over the past century, both past and present food storage practices still relate to this management of the present and the envisioned future. Like the rationale of the storage economy, this management makes the routinized storing and replenishing of food meaningful.
Today, most Swedes rely on supermarkets, electric storage technology and fresh food. Planning seems tantamount to shopping for a week or two, possibly with a winter storm in mind, rarely for a year ahead. If households are supposed to manage on their own for a longer period, long-term storage of considerable amounts of food must become socially meaningful, desirable, and/or a necessary part of everyday life and food preferences. This requires appropriate skills and material means and capacity to do so, which many are lacking today. I have suggested that this may call for a possible return to, or reinforcement of, a storage economy rationale which influences the way we value and store food.
With this article, I hope to have contributed with new perspectives on food storage practices, everyday consumption, and household preparedness. The article touches upon gendered aspects relating to the storage of food and household work, which needs to be explored in more detail. Future research should move into the homes, investigating the food storage from within to come closer to the practices. An ethnographic approach could give more attention to differences between and within the households, considering potential sociocultural differences and power relations. Notes 6. Advertisements for Björnekulla (Hemmets veckotidning 51/1949), Coldmaster (Ica-kuriren 16/1959), GB (Ica-kuriren 51-52/1974), Frödinge (Ica-kuriren 39/1979), Felix (Ica-kuriren 41/1984) and Goda fisken (Ica-kuriren 41/1989;Vår bostad 3/1989). 7. The proposal suggested 25 kg sugar, 10 kg salt, 10 kg coffee, 2 kg chocolate, 1 kg tea, 5 kg canned fish, 10 kg canned meat, 10 kg fat, 5 kg rice, 10 kg wheat flour, 2 kg semolina, 2 kg brown beans, and 2 kg yellow peas per person, in addition to kerosene and candles.

Changed storage spaces
Have you received, rebuilt, or bought new storage spaces? How did you reason about these purchases or reconstructions? What did you do with the old storage, for example the fridge and freezer? Which functions and qualities of storage are important/unimportant to you? Have you ever used a so-called "smart" fridge?

Preparedness and food
In what way is your household prepared for the possibility of societal disruption, like a major power failure or certain effects of climate change? How do you prepare yourself for a potential crisis? Do you have experiences that have affected the way you prepare yourself today? How does your household relate to the recommendations on food that have been suggested in the MSB's brochure If Crisis or War Comes?

Other
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