What Preparedness Items Should You Stockpile?
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Preparedness Posted by:
Rob Richardson
A reader emailed me last asking the following question:
I’m new to prepping … How do I start and what gear should I be stockpiling?
If your just getting started, prepping can sometimes seem a little overwhelming. From stockpiling food and water to picking the right survival gear, figuring out where to get started can be a pretty big challenge.
My advice to anyone who feels lost, is to start with the basics and the essentials. There’s no use stockpiling a room full of ammo if your water supply would only last a day. That’s not downplaying the importance of security, it’s just a reminder that you need t keep a balanced approach.
The first things I would do is to make sure I have my essential needs covered. The essentials include water, shelter, food and personal security. At a minimum you are going to want to have at least a weeks worth of food and water. Once you have that covered I would then set a goal to stockpile enough for 3, 6 and then 12 months.
Here are a couple articles that might help you get started:
- Survival Food – 56 long-term survival foods and supplies that you can buy from you local grocery store.
- Survival Food – Feeding your family when the SHTF
- Water – Long-term Water Storage
- Bugout Bags – How to build the perfect Bugout Bag.
After covering the essentials I would move onto stocking up on basic survival supplies, first aid items, and anything else that may be unique to your situation. I often tell people to pretend they’re packing for an extended camping trip, one where you would have no access to grocery stores, power or other modern conveniences. In that situation, what would you need?
A couple of things to consider:
- Do you have a medical condition or something that might require you to stock up on certain supplies that would be unavailable during a crisis situation?
- How would you stay clean? The importance of sanitation during a SHTF situation.
- How would you cook your food?
- How would you communicate or acquire up-to-date information? You might want to think about becoming a HAM Radio operator.
- List of Important Survival Gear and Emergency Preparedness Supplies
- Emergency Preparedness – Are you really prepared to survive?
My final piece of advice for those getting started would be to study, practice and take every opportunity you can get to sharpen your skills. While prepping and stocking up on emergency preparedness supplies is an important part of being prepared, nothing can take the place of knowledge and real world experience.
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Plenty of toilet paper, things get messy out there!!!!!1
Food, water, shelter, medicine, trade goods, defense.
Food = packaged food with long shelf life (MREs) and good seeds
Water = water filtration systems
Medicine = good first aid kits and get training
trade goods = silver, coffee, chocolate, salt, alcohol
defense = everything from pepper spray to firearms, be sure to practice!
Kind of hard to do when your living from unemployment check to unemployment check….can’t really go out and buy much…
Some Girl, there has been an article written about prepping on $5 per week, you can probably Google it. I started by simply rinsing and refilling the plastic sports drink bottles I normally recycled so I would have a water supply. Dried beans at the grocery store costs about $1 a pound. Stash a bag of rice. Grab extra salt/pepper/sugar/ketchup/hotsauce/napkins whenever getting fast food. Combine coupons and sales on things like Dinty Moore and Hormel products. You will find that you can very quickly and cheaply amass 3 days worth of survival foods, then a week, then a month and so on. Pick up candles and blankets and such from yard sales, dollar stores, etc. Working (and succeeding) at prepping on the cheap will do more than give you a better shot at survival than the unprepped, it will give you a sense of mission, of hope, of empowerment, of accomplishment. Use your unemployed time well.
Are hunting, fishing, gardening (in the proper season) or foraging an option for you?
If so, fresh fish or hunted meat can either be used to stretch your week to week shopping, or preserved through freezing, canning, smoking or dehydrating. Freshly picked or foraged foods can be used in the same way, allowing you to be able to stock up a few cans at a time.
yes it can be hard to get started for prepping shoe laces are a good sorce of cordage some states will let you get food stamps on unemployment and you can
buy food seeds with themas for self defence just about anything can be used kitchen knives a good frying pan a small garden shovel and yes save juice bottles they make great water storage or even coffee cans and some electrical tape for sealing them select things in your shopping trips that have more then 1 usethe coffee cans can also be made in to planters to grow food instart going out in to the woods with books on whats safe to eat and whats not for wild herbs the most important thing you can do is learn and comunicate with others
Join a group and swap your time for inclusion in the group. Most preppers are employed and will take in a person willing to work.
While all of the above information is very helpful, my only concern is the use of a HAM radio. I would be worried that my transmissions were being listened to. Please let me know how you feel about this.
Of course they will be monitored, just like they are now. You want the radio to stay in touch which is fine. Just be careful what you say.
@Guy
In a SHTF scenario you would want your transmissions to be listened to be others that have prepped and are searching for survivors. Likewise you should be listening to others transmissions for intel, info, rally points and other useful information that will be broadcast by those who have been preparing for some time now.
What site are you guys using for gear prep. I find that amazon, cheaperthandirt and foxtrotgear.com have the best prices. Any suggestions?
I have been through major power outages after several Hurricanes. The first person to go down my street were thugs with high power handheld lights at night. They were banging on doors. Then daylight the ice cream man came by. Never did I see police.Protection was up to me. I had a variety of weapons: Sling shot, pellet gun, Wasp Spray, the real thing and a small crossbow. People are real afraid of a cross bow and I had $1.00 rubber snakes at my door steps. I made use of small bottles of whisky and cigarettes/cigars. I freeze cigarettes in vacuum bag- but I make use of nitrogen to displace the Oxygen. I buy nitrous oxide at any grocery store. I’m a McGyver guy. Buy the cheapest can of whipped cream- the propellant is nitrous oxide. Do not shake the can-else you will get the cream–you only want the nitrogen. I buy my cans at a dollar store -it costs a dollar and can last a while. I also use Nitrogen to reseal a bottle of wine.