Also, make a plan on how you’ll close off your house and “live” in one or two rooms together as a family. Have sheets or blankets ready to block of other rooms or hallways to keep the heat in the living areas.
2. Food and Food Preparation
What will you eat and how will you prepare it?
I find this to be one of the easiest to remedy.
First, if you have a gas stove top, just have matches available to light it manually.
If you don’t have a gas top stove, you’ll need to get a butane stove burner. You will love having it. They cost about $20 in Walmart or on Amazon. The fuel, butane, comes in cans and sells for around $10/3cans. The stove itself has a built-in igniter, they’re lightweight and small. You can use your regular cookware on them and can be used inside without worry.
Second, food. You can have on hand some granola bars, crackers, fruit cups/applesauce, bread, peanut butter etc. But you’re going to also want hot food. Soup. Skillet Meals. This is where having a small home store will come in very handy. I suggest thinking outside the box a bit and investing in freeze-dried food and learning how to cook with it. Preparedness is not just about owning things…it’s also about knowing how to use them.
Thrive Life foods are the best freeze-dried foods on the market. They have a vast variety of meats, fruits, vegetables, dairy and meal kits. Freeze-dried food also takes less energy and less water to cook.
3. Water
Do you have enough water stored?
How much is enough? Honestly, you can never have enough water.
FEMA recommends a minimum of 1 gallon/person/day for at least two weeks. That’s a bare minimum. My suggestion is to buy gallon water bottles from the grocery store. Most are only $1/each. They even stack on top of either other.
Consider purchasing a water purifier such as the Sawyer Two Bag Water Purifier system. This setup filters up to 1,000,000 gallons and even filters out viruses. It is light and portable and indispensable.
When I was growing up and a storm threatened the area, my mom would have us fill up the bathtubs as a bonus water supply so we could flush our toilets because we were on well water.
4. Light
Light is amazing for morale.
Keep flashlights and extra batteries on hand. Hurricane lamps and fuel are only about $15 at Walmart. I have a few of those.
If you have those solar garden lights out in your yard, use those as indoor lights during the nights. Set them inside a mason jar or something similar and they’ll be a bit more sturdy that way. Then in the morning, put them back outside.
The Luci Light is also wonderful to have on hand. It’s an inflatable solar light.
5. Car
Don’t forget to have your car prepared as well. Jumper cables at a minimum. You’ll need at least one blanket, flashlight, food etc. Think about giving those as gifts this year especially to your teenagers that have their own cars.
6. Entertainment
You’ll be bored without something to do. More importantly, your children will be bored, meaning you’ll need to entertain them.
Have some games/puzzles to play and books to read. Crossword puzzle, word search and sudoku books are nice to have on hand.
You can charge your devices in the car. I bought a few of those wind up cell phone chargers they were on sale one year. They did NOT work for our iPhones at all.
I recommend having a couple of those power banks/batteries that you can charge up and will then charge your phones and devices.
A battery-operated weather radio is also a great item to have.
7. Miscellaneous
Have a few large tarps on hand too in case you have a tree fall on your house. At least you’ll be able to prevent precipitation from coming into the house to make matters worse. Tarps are great for covering your car before a storm, keeping your wood dry. I saw a suggestion to cover a patch of grass with a tarp before snowstorm as a way to have a little patch of dry ground for your animals.
Chainsaws are always nice to have. If you have one, make sure it’s working properly and you have an extra chain or two, oil to maintain it as well as a chain sharpening file and extra spark plug.
Ropes and bungee cords
Shovels and ice-melt
8. Animals
Remember to have extra food for your pets on hand. They need water storage as well. Do you need to have extra kitty litter or cute little coats for your dogs to keep them warm outside? All of these are valid preps.
9. Electricity
If you don’t have electricity but you need it for things like a C-PAP machine or a refrigerator to keep medication cool, you’ll need to think about purchasing a generator or some solar panels that will allow these couple of essentials to work.
Blessings of Preparedness
Being preparedness-minded will become a way of thinking. When you are thoughtful in your efforts to prepare for whatever may come to the best of your ability, you relieve stress and are able to offer others the help that they may need. Your efforts are now blessings for others who may not be able to care for themselves. That is the ultimate goal of self-reliance.
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