This Is Your Wake-Up Call: How to Start Prepping

(Psst: The FTC wants me to remind you that this website contains affiliate links. That means if you make a purchase from a link you click on, I might receive a small commission. This does not increase the price you'll pay for that item nor does it decrease the awesomeness of the item. ~ Daisy)

By Daisy Luther

Out of all the years that I’ve been writing about prepping, this has been the year of the wake-up call. If one good thing has come from all the disasters, it’s the fact that many people have seen the light and learned a hard, firsthand lessons and want to start prepping.

  • Hurricane Harvey taught people that places which didn’t normally flood were still not exempt from Mother Nature and that the aftermath was rife with danger.
  • The wildfires in California taught people that they needed a rapid evacuation plan for themselves and their pets.
  • Hurricane Maria taught us that life could completely and utterly change for millions of people whose homes were destroyed and who may not have the grid back anytime in the near future.
  • Hurricane Irma was one of the strongest hurricanes to hit the state in many years. Millions of people were warned to evacuate. Residents faced destruction and lengthy interruptions in power and the availability of supplies.
  • Throughout all these disasters, we got confirmation that all hell DOES indeed break loose and that we won’t be able to rely on 911, no matter how stringently the “everything is okay” myth is reinforced by the media.

Now there’s an epic storm in the Northeastern US that was sudden and brutal. A friend called me yesterday and told me she and her family could be without power for more than a week. She wasn’t ready for it. “This really drove home what you do,” she said.

All of these horrible things have one silver lining…more people than ever realize that the government won’t be rushing to save them anytime soon and that they must be prepared to be completely on their own.

So if this is you, welcome to the prepped side. I have put together a little primer for you. It isn’t over the top. You don’t need a bunker and an AK47 for each family member. You just need food, water, shelter, and an evacuation plan. No tinfoil required.

There are links in each section where you can go to learn more about that topic. At the end is a resource list with some shortcuts and some useful books.  You don’t have to do every single thing RIGHT NOW.  This is just a preparedness overview and if you have recently been through an emergency, you will probably recognize what your priorities should be.

Water preparedness


If you never buy a single canned good or bag of pasta for long-term food storage, please store water. Every time there’s a pending emergency, the shelves at stores are completely cleared of water within a matter of hours (if not sooner.)

If you went out and bought it, a full month’s supply of drinking water for a family of 4 would cost approximately $150, depending on the prices in your area. I recommend the refillable 5-gallon water jugs for this. This is a small investment to make for your family’s security and well-being in the event of an emergency.

As well, fill empty containers with tap water. Every container that comes into your house can be used for these purposes. When you empty a jar or bottle, wash it, fill it up, and stash it somewhere. Even if these containers aren’t food safe, you can use them for flushing, cleaning, and hygiene.

Once you have water stored, consider adding filtration devices, secondary water sources, and water harvesting to your preparedness endeavors. You can learn more about water preparedness in my book on the topic, and  HERE, HERE, and HERE.

Build a pantry


Lots of preppers like to keep a year’s supply of food on hand. If you’re just getting started out, that can bein incredibly overwhelming. Start out smaller than that – focus first on an extra two weeks, then on a month’s supply. You can always build from there.

Keep in mind when building your emergency food supply that you might not have electricity during some disasters. In that case, you’ll want to have food that doesn’t require lengthy (or any) cooking times. Look for just-add-water dehydrated foods, or better yet, foods that don’t need to be cooked at all. Search for an off-grid cooking method that will work for your home.

Do not make the mistake of loading your pantry with nutritionless processed foods. In a crisis event, you want your body to work optimally, and junk in means junk out. Focus on nutrient-dense foods for good health and energy no matter what’s going on in the world around you.

  • Learn how to build a pantry HERE.
  • Learn to build a food supply fast with emergency buckets HERE.
  • Find a list of foods that don’t require cooking HERE.
  • Shop for emergency food HERE.
  • Get an emergency stove that can be used indoors HERE.

Power outage survival


A great starting point for someone who is just getting started on a preparedness journey is prepping specifically for a two-week power outage.  If you can comfortably survive for two weeks without electricity, you will be in a far better position than most of the people in North America.

Lighting is absolutely vital, especially if there are children in the house.  Nothing is more frightening than being completely in the dark during a stressful situation. Fortunately, it’s one of the easiest things to plan for, as well as one of the least expensive.

Some lighting solutions are:

Learn about prepping for a two-week power outage in more detail HERE.

Have a plan for sanitation preparedness


A common cause of illness, and even death, during a down-grid situation is lack of sanitation.  We’ve discussed the importance of clean drinking water, but you won’t want to use your drinking water to keep things clean or to flush the toilet.

For cleaning, reduce your need to wash things.

  • Stock up on paper plates, paper towels, and disposable cups and flatware.
  • Keep some disinfecting cleaning wipes and sprays (I don’t recommend using antibacterial products on a regular basis, however, in the event of an emergency they can help to keep you healthy.)
  • Use hand sanitizer after using the bathroom and before handling food or beverages – there may be a lot more germs afoot in a disaster.

Look at your options for sanitation.  Does your toilet still flush when the electricity is out?  Many people discovered the hard way that the toilets didn’t work when the sewage backed up in the highrises in New York City in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.  At our cabin, the toilet won’t flush without power because the pump is electric.

If you are on a septic system, with no risk of the toilet backing up into the house, simply store some water for flushing in the bathroom.  (At the first sign of a storm, we always filled the bathtub for this purpose when we had a home on septic.)  Add the water to the tank so that you can flush.

If this is not an option, another solution is to stock up on extremely heavy duty garbage bags (like the kind that contractors use at construction sites) and kitty litter.  Place a bag either in your drained toilet or in a bucket.  Sprinkle some kitty litter in the bottom of the bag.  Each time someone uses the bathroom, add another handful of litter. Be very careful that the bag doesn’t get too heavy for you to handle it.  Tie it up very securely and store it outside until services are restored. Learn how to make a kitty litter toilet in more detail HERE.

Heat (depending on your climate)


If your power outage takes place in the winter and you live in a colder climate, heat is another necessity.  During the first 24 hours after a power outage, you can stay fairly warm if you block off one room of the house for everyone to group together in.  Keep the door closed and keep a towel or blanket folded along the bottom of the door to conserve warmth.  You can safely burn a couple of candles also, and in the enclosed space, your body heat will keep it relatively warm.  As well, dress in layers and keep everything covered – wear a hat, gloves (fingerless ones allow you to still function), and a scarf.

  • Click HERE to learn how to stay warm with less heat.
  • Click HERE for some cozy options to get your home ready for winter.

However, after about 48 hours, that’s not going to be enough in very cold weather. You will require backup heat at this point in certain climates.  If you are lucky enough to have a source of heat like a fireplace or woodstove, you’ll be just fine as long as you have a supply of wood.

Consider a portable propane heater (and propane) or an oil heater.  You have to be very careful what type of backup heat you plan on using, as many of them can cause carbon monoxide poisoning if used in a poorly ventilated area. Also, invest in a  Carbon Monoxide alarm that is not grid-dependent.

Learn more about off-grid heat options HERE.

First Aid kit


It’s important to have a basic first aid kit on hand at all times, but particularly in the event of an emergency.  Your kit should include basic wound care items like bandages, antibiotic ointments, and sprays.  As well, if you use them, keep on hand a supply of basic over-the-counter medications, like pain relief capsules, cold medicine, cough syrup, anti-nausea pills, and allergy medication.

If you want to put together a more advanced medical kit, you can find a list HERE.

Special needs


This is something that will be unique to every family. Consider the things that are needed on a daily basis in your household. It might be prescription medications, diapers, or special foods.  If you have pets, you’ll need supplies for them too.  The best way to figure out what you need is to jot things down as you use them over the course of a week or so.

Plan ahead for home defense


It’s an unfortunate fact that disaster situations bring out the worst in many people. Because of this, even if you stay safely at home, you could be called upon to defend your property or family.  Some people loot for the sheer “fun” of it, others consider chaos a free pass to commit crimes, and still others are frightened and desperate.  You can have a 10 year supply of food, water, and medicine, but if you can’t defend it, you don’t own it. The article The Anatomy of a Breakdown explains the predictable patterns of social unrest.

The best way to win a fight is to avoid getting into that fight in the first place. Secure your home and lay low, but be prepared if trouble comes to visit.

Here are some tips to make your home less of a target:

  • Keep all the doors and windows locked.  Secure sliding doors with a metal bar.  Consider installing decorative grid-work over a door with a large window so that it becomes difficult for someone to smash the glass and reach in to unlock the door.
  • Keep the curtains closed. There’s no need for people walking past to be able to see what you have or to do reconnaissance on how many people are present.
  • Don’t answer the door.  Many home invasions start with an innocent-seeming knock at the door to gain access to your house.
  • Keep pets indoors. Sometimes criminals use an animal in distress to get a homeowner to open the door for them. Sometimes people are just mean and hurt animals for “fun”.  Either way, it’s safer for your furry friends to be inside with you.

If, despite your best efforts, your property draws the attention of people with ill intent, you must be ready to defend your family and your home.  If the odds are against you, devise a way to get your family to safety.  Your property is not worth your life.

It’s very important to make a defense plan well before you need one.  This book can also help. You want to act, no react.

Have an evacuation plan

Not every emergency can be weathered at home. Sometimes there is no option but to evacuate. Some examples of this are the pending collapse of a dam, a volcano, a massive storm, flooding, wildfire, or a chemical spill. In some cases, you’ll have an hour or two to get ready before you have to leave. In other situations, there may barely be enough time to put on your shoes.

Have things set up ahead of time so your evacuation can be quick. Even if you have more time, getting on the road before everyone else gives you the advantage of being less likely to be stuck in a traffic jam while disaster bears down on you. Keep important documents in the cloud so you can access them if your home is destroyed.

Don’t wait for the evacuation order. When officials are trying to cover mismanagement or when an event occurs suddenly, you may not be warned in time.

Survival Supply Checklist


Here is a general list of supplies to have on hand. Remember that sometimes power supplies are lost during a variety of situations, so keep the potential for a down-grid situation in mind when preparing.  You don’t have to get everything all at once.  Just get started and build your supplies as you can. After a quick inventory and re-organization, you may be pleasantly surprised at how many supplies you actually have on hand.

  • Water: 1 gallon per person per day (We use 5-gallon jugs and a gravity water dispenser
  • Water filter (We have a Big Berkey)
  • Necessary prescription medications
  • well-stocked pantry – you need at least a one-month supply of food for the entire family, including pets
  • This is a one-month food supply for one person – it’s not the highest quality food in the world, but it is one way to jumpstart your food storage
  • An off-grid cooking method (We use this one for inside and this one for outside, plus our barbecue)
  • Or food that requires no cooking
  • First aid supplies: This one is good for basics and this one is good for traumatic injuries
  • Lighting in the event of a power outage
  • Sanitation supplies (in the event that the municipal water system is unusable, this would include cleaning supplies and toilet supplies)
  • A way to stay warm in harsh winter weather (This Little Buddy propane heater with a supply of propane is our choice)
  • Over-the-counter medications and/or herbal remedies to treat illnesses at home
  • A diverse survival guide and first aid manual (hard copies in case the internet and power grid are down)
  • Alternative communications devices (such as a hand crank radio) so that you can get updates about the outside world
  • Off-grid entertainment:  arts and craft supplies, puzzles, games, books, crossword or word search puzzles, needlework, journals (Find more ideas HERE and HERE)

Books to Help You on Your Journey

Welcome to the preparedness community!

I’m always so happy to welcome people who are new to preparedness.  Read books, go to websites, and join forums an Facebook groups. While there ARE some curmudgeonly folks out there, most are delighted to answer questions and help you on your way.

Please, don’t let the thought of all of the preps that you do not yet have bring you down.

It’s a process.  Once you know the possibilities, accept them, and begin to prepare, you are already far ahead of most of the neighborhood. Don’t be discouraged by how much you have left to do, instead, be encouraged by how far ahead you are compared to your former unawareness.   Just making the decision to get started is the biggest step towards preparedness you’ll ever take.

For those of you who have been doing this for a while, please welcome our new friends. And tell us in the comments, what is your best advice for getting started?

 

 

Picture of Daisy Luther

Daisy Luther

Daisy Luther is a coffee-swigging, globe-trotting blogger. She is the founder and publisher of three websites.  1) The Organic Prepper, which is about current events, preparedness, self-reliance, and the pursuit of liberty on her website, 2)  The Frugalite, a website with thrifty tips and solutions to help people get a handle on their personal finances without feeling deprived, and 3) PreppersDailyNews.com, an aggregate site where you can find links to all the most important news for those who wish to be prepared. She is widely republished across alternative media and  Daisy is the best-selling author of 5 traditionally published books and runs a small digital publishing company with PDF guides, printables, and courses. You can find her on FacebookPinterest, Gab, MeWe, Parler, Instagram, and Twitter.

Leave a Reply

  • I just want to add about water storage, milk jugs will not stay viable. They will spring a leak so to speak. I also had water bought from the store that leaked. What a disappointment to lose the money invested and the water. Get heavy plastic containers for water storage. Thankfully, the water was not near anything it could damage. Make sure you designate which water is for drinking and cooking and which is for bathing and flushing. Repurpose your dish water for flushing to cut down on consumption.

  • Having lived in the Northeast I learned that if the power will be out during a winter storm you can save some of the food in your freezer by putting it outside in a picnic cooler . The cooler usually protected the food from critters, putting it near the house helped. And it was cold enough to keep everything frozen.

  • A great article on starting to prepare. But don’t discount tin foil! (Or aluminium foil). Tin foil can be used for a multitude of things.

    Conducting electricity. If you have AAA batteries but need AA batteries, you can use a little scrunched up tin foil to complete the electrical circuit.

    Starting a fire. If you have a 9V battery, put some tin foil across the top of it, then place the metal and battery into a pile of kindling. The electrical current can spark and cause fire. Be careful with this, as you don’t want to hurt yourself or accidentally start a fire.

    Also, for home defence, consider a semi-automatic pistol or a pump-action shotgun. Loading a round into the chamber lets home invaders know that you’re armed and dangerous, and with the right ammunition, both can have a reduced risk of going through walls and damaging your property and/or loved ones.

    Once again thank you for the great article. And hey! this is the 100th article of yours that I’ve read. Thank you for your years of service and for the articles that you have produced ????

  • I never intentionally started, just read some fear porn articles and bought extra cans of food.
    Later bags of rice.
    Reading more about it I bought 5 gallon buckets with lids…

    It grew, it spread..
    It took over a room, it just is.

  • Great Article!

    I would recommend sharing this with others. In person…social media..whatever medium you interact in.

    Start non threatening conversations about news events and ask family and friends what they would do. Plant some seeds of thought.

    Use the time and opportunities we have now to help in the future.

    Thanks Daisy..
    Cmommy

  • Just a couple of things not addressed in an otherwise superb article:

    1. The Bobcat stove appears to be a good outdoor and indoor solution for reasonably short term power outages. Here’s the problem: in a prolonged power outage lasting some months, when that proprietary fuel supply runs out, there may be no way of ordering replenishment supplies. A worst case example might be Puerto Rico.

    Compare that with a camping stoves (like the Volcano, the Solo Stove (or cheap Chinese knockoffs, etc)) which can work with a variety of readily available fuels — from dead tree twigs, pine cones, alcohol, charcoal, Esbit solid fuel chunks, etc. And alcohol (which stores “forever”) works fine indoors as well. Combine such a multi-fuel stove system with almost any kind of solar cooker which will be usable roughly 2/3rd of the days in any year. That combination will help the multi-fuel stove system’s fuel supply go vastly farther. And there are plenty of both fast and slow cooking solar cooker designs to consider, depending on your cooking needs, preferences, work schedule, number of mouths to feed, mobility, etc.

    (Now there is a good chance that some of those other fuel types can also be used in the Bobcat — which the manufacturer, being in the business of selling proprietary fuels, won’t mention.)

    A little historical note: After Prohibition was lifted in late 1933 and alcohol became legally available again, it was very common for workmen to bring a little alcohol-burning stove with them to their jobsite to heat up coffee and lunch. This was in the depths of that Great Depression.

    2. I certainly agree with storing lots of water in 5-gallon containers. However, lots of people can’t carry such a container very far. Consider the case of needing to walk a few miles to the nearest lake or river to bring back filterable water. You’re not going to get very far on the return trip with a full container … unless… Consider that while the market for old style 2-wheel airline luggage trailers has probably slowed way down since so much new luggage these days comes with two or four wheels built in. But those airline luggage trailers can make a perfect heavy load carrier for somebody on foot who needs to transport a filled 5-gallon water container — or almost anything else that’s too much weight to carry or backpack. If you get such a carrier with larger wheels, you can easily walk a load over rough ground just as hunters do when they bring fresh game back to their vehicle. Also, there’s no over-weight airline fee penalty involved.

    And such trailers have the advantage of not making you look like a grocery store shopping cart thief or a homeless bum. And they typically fold up or telescope down so they’ll fit into minimum space. There are even DIY designs that let you switch between use as a hiking trailer or a bicycle trailer. There’s a great video on YouTube about a guy who used a retail hiking trailer from the Netherlands to hike some 1,500 kilometers. That’s way farther than most readers here will ever consider for a long distance bugout.

    –Lewis

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