1. Store only what you can stand to eat long term.
Seems simple enough but cans of Spam and MRE's are going to get old quick.
MRE's are insanely expensive for what they are. In a word, rip off.
There are many companies selling way overpriced survival type meals, don't be a sucker.
Augason Farms is the only company I'd recommend. Love their scrambled eggs.

2. Store only what you have the means to cook. This point is very important.
Check out my Cooking without power link.
Without an oven, storing bread or cake mixes is not very practical.
Check out Fried Bread as an option. Served with cinnamon and sugar makes excellent desert.

3. Avoid all the hype about storing dried beans. Dried beans take tons of heat, water,
and time to prepare. Imagine trying to do dried beans on a Coleman stove or open fire?
Canned beans already have the water just need to heat them.

4. Rice: This goes without saying. Great source of food.
The majority of the world lives on rice daily
Easy to store for long periods and an excellent way to stretch goods you have in storage.
Even Minute Rice is a good option for those who like the taste.
Store lots of Soy Sauce. You can thank me later.
If you have a garden, stir fry veggies and rice, perfect.

5. Avoid storing anything Tomato based. Very acidic and will eat through cans
in a very short time. I store Ragu in their glass bottles. Much safer.

6. Canned Veggies. Cheap if store brand and stores well for long periods.
Canned Fruit is another thing. Some are very acidic and don't store well.
I won't rely on for more than a year.

7. Canned meats are a great storage item but only use well known brands.
An example is Spam. The name brand is pretty good, store brands are terrible.
Spam also has tons of flavor options now. Served with rice, not bad at all.
Any meats such as ham, chicken, or tuna, buy Brand Name and those packed in water.

9. UHT Milk: Not exactly long term storage but something to think about.
UHT milk will last at room temperature for 6 months without refrigeration.
After opened, refrigerate just like normal milk. I lived on this while working in the middle east.
Can be purhased under the brand name "Parmalat" at Walmart for $2.00 qt.

10. Rotate your storage items. Date each can with the date and use the oldest first.

11. Buy only in bulk when you can.
Disaster is not going to strike just because you have more cans of veggies than meat.
Whenever I shop, I take advantage of 2 for 1 deals. But, I only buy what I normally eat.

12. Try and avoid cans that are the easy open type. The tops are very thin and may fail.

13. In closing, here are my top items in storage. Not my total list but a good overview.
Rice, pasta, Ragu, canned beans and chili, canned veggies, a few canned fruit, flour,
Knorr sides, Quaker oats, instant grits, dry gravy mixes, corned beef hash, Compleats meals,
Maruchan ramen, tea, coffee, sugar and Truvia, powdered creamer, canned tuna and chicken,
cooked canned ham, Spam in a few varieties, Campbells Chunky soup. (so many varieties),
"water only" pancake mixes and syrup. In fact, any mixes should be water only.
and of course some Chef Boyardee and Dinty Moore, rotated more often.
Lastly, Crystal Light to mix with water for drinking.

14. See my personal pantry list HERE for some types of food storage prepping ideas.
My current total food count.