I have a question for all those minimalist uber-organizers. How do you organize your emergency preparedness supplies. You know, if you're Mormon, you're supposed to have a year's supply of food and household supplies on hand at all times. I buy a cow or portion of one, and have it butchered to order, and the several hundred pounds of meat stays in the freezer, for instance. I keep 10 gallons of water (a very minimal 3 day supply) in the basement. How do you decide the food/water/household supplies you should have on hand, and where/how do you store/organize them.
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Posted 1 year ago #
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I'm curious what everyone else keeps. I have one of those 72 hour backpacks in my master bedroom closet and I also keep 5 gallons of water in the bottom of my pantry. That's about it, but I'm single, no wife, no kids.
We had a bad ice storm in 2007 where I live now. The only extra thing I make sure I have now is an extra bottle of propane for the grill and firewood in the winter. Thankfully I had a full bottle then and enough firewood for a few days. It was great to have a way to heat the house, heat water, and cook since all of my appliances are electric. That's also the only time I've ever used the side burner on my grill.
At our office we have several 25 person, shelter in place kits that are contained in 5 gallon buckets. They have basic supplies, food, and water for 24 hours for 25 people. Not the most pleasant thought, but I'm glad my company is looking out for us I guess.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Ah, there's a flash-back. My best friend in elementary school was from a very large Mormon family, and I remember loving to go play in her enormous basement with shelf after shelf of canned goods and supplies. Her mom was incredibly organized, and each shelf was organized and labeled and rotated. We played roller skate tag between the endless aisles. (It was a HUGE basement!)
I'm not so much for the emergency preparedness, though. Other than meds, I don't keep an extra supply of much. A couple of jugs of water for when the power is out, and canned goods stocked up when they go on sale. My car is always stocked in winter for emergencies, but I live in a very snowy area, so getting stuck in a ditch is a real possibility. There's not much for tornadoes or earthquakes where I'm at, though, and snow always melts eventually, so no designated survival kits here.
Posted 1 year ago # -
http://mormonfoodstorage.blogspot.com/ For pantry organization, the Mormons have lots of information available.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I'm not Mormon, but I do keep a well stocked pantry - in my kitchen. In my laundry room, I have some small plastic totes with personal care items labeled. My deep freezer is in the basement, so when the power goes out in the winter, it's fine. I have a small generator for the fan on the central heating, and we heat with propane. We do have "city water", so I have those big bottles of water in the basement. I don't have extra prescription medicine, but I'm thinking about a set. We have gas cans outside for the generator in the winter, but you have to change those out frequently.
Posted 1 year ago # -
@Courtney_Ostaff I live in Utah, know plenty of Mormons (and most of them DON'T have the suggested year's supply on hand) and don't see minimalism as incompatible with emergency preparedness: you have what you need, for values of "need" determined by you and your situation, and not much more.
My house was built by a Greek immigrant family in 1912 and does have a cold storage room, which we use for dry goods. Utah law changed to allow for 1500 gallons' worth of rainwater storage on-site, and we have a cistern built under the back patio and Berkey filters; the municipal water supply is 6 miles away in the mountains and there's a city-maintained artesian well a few blocks away, so I don't think there's too much more I could do on that front.
I don't keep more than about three months' supply on hand because the most likely disaster here is an earthquake, and given local geological conditions the place will be unlivable after the expected Richter 7 quake: we have bug-out bags for ourselves and the cats stashed in the built-in by the front door and an emergency pack in the car. It's one of the reasons I'm looking forward to moving: I've been through several quakes and the ground SHOULD NOT do that!
Posted 1 year ago # -
Most of our emergency preparedness items are actually camping/hiking items. We have medkits, extra warm clothing layers (including hats, gloves and wool socks), Little Hotties warmers, various "camp kitchen" items (including extra propane and stormproof matches) and so on. We keep it all in our large hiking packs, including freeze dried food, though we'll most likely stock up on more of that and keep them in the pantry in the winter.
This way, we know where everything is and, in the very unlikely event that we would need to suddenly evacuate our home, my husband and I can each just grab a pack and go.
Additionally, we rarely eat canned foods, so our pantry is always stocked with canned goods that we rarely need to replace. The one thing we really don't have but should is extra water, though in the camping supplies we also have a water filter. Surrounded by snow? We have the tools to melt, boil and even filter (just in case!) to survive. :)
Posted 1 year ago # -
i live in the wet tropics , where cyclones are an annual possibility... snow, not so much!
electricity gets cut off at the drop of a hat here, so a lot of our emergency plan is around that.
we have a generator, fuel, spare gas tanks, gas stove, firewood and lamps that run on rechargeable batteries on hand always.
we prefer fresh food but i do keep enough canned beans, corn, tomatoes, milk etc
to sustain life for a couple of weeks.
we have an over-abundance of rainwater tanks and we are on a septic system, so no worries there.
four years ago we had a big cyclone and lost electricity for a week and we were completely unprepared for it, but managed ok with what was on hand.
roads get flooded and cut off very easily here too, so it pays to always have a week or two of food on hand anyway... i have seen supermarkets completely stripped bare.
when you live in a remote area you naturally become a little more self-reliant anyway and i guess this self-reliance is what constitutes our emergency plans.Posted 1 year ago # -
I live in earthquake country and we keep a 72 hour back-pack (augmented with supplies like a mylar blanket, personal care items, etc.) in each car and one in the house. In each are a password protected flash drive or CD of documents like insurance documents, etc (and one in the safety deposit box). Yes, I know we may not be able to access a computer immediately, but eventually we would, even if it was a month later.
On top of this we keep five gallons of water per person in the house and an extra gallon in the car. In each car we also have old tennis shoes and socks (I wear heels to work, so they are handy to have in case of impassable roads or even a simple breakdown).
The biggest thing I personally think is to be educated in the use of minimal items for maximum survival effect. You can live off very little for a long time (at least a few days) if you know how to treat water, etc. Survival books are handy for this... I got lucky, I grew up in a very rural area where things like that were taught at home... now in the city it can still be put to use!
Posted 1 year ago # -
i should add that, apart from the canned goods, the other emergency supplies are things we pretty much use all the time anyway....so storing extra stuff just for an emergency isn't a big issue.
the woodstove, the gas tanks, the fuel....all that stuff is in constant use and rotation here anywhere.
you might say that we sort of live like it's an emergency, all the time, lol.Posted 1 year ago # -
@bandicoot: sort of like the primitive camping I do in the northeastern US???
lots of humidity, mosquitoes, rainstorms. Blizzards and icestorms are my least favorite part of the total weather package here. This past winter was awful. At least our apartment has a gas heat and a gas stove. Some folks have all electric by choice; I heard that some were cooking outside on grills when we had a lengthy power outage.Posted 1 year ago # -
I live in earthquake country too and I keep an assortment of dried goods on hand and a supply of water to last a few days. I also keep one of those emergency medical kits that you can get at http://www.hurricanestore.com/ just in case a family member gets hurt. Most people concentrate on food supplies in an emergency but it's pretty important to have a few medical supplies on hand too. I shiver to think what might happen with all of the glass in those office buildings if a major quake does occur.
Posted 1 year ago # -
sunshine....we get the humidity like you wouldn't believe, and the monsoonal rain, but thankfully no mosquitoes.
no mosquitoes at our house, anyway.
i think we got lucky, on a hill in a breeze that is fairly constant from the coast....and the mozzies dislike it.
down on the coast though, i have lived with mosquitoes and sandflies and no-see-ums....enough to drive you crazy.i couldn't wait to move to the country and get off the electric grid as much as possible.
we have a mix of solar, gas, wood, electric....deliberately so.
it wasn't cheap to set up, but it gives a cosy glow when the tropical stprms are howling and you know that regardless of what might be cut off....you can probably manage for a few weeks without it.Posted 1 year ago # -
@bandicoot We're planning on building one of these (can someone point me at a primer for the markup language used here? I've had a look around but no luck): http://www.ruralzed.com//home.php on property near friends in the UK: high enough up the hill that if there's flooding they'll need an Ark to come get us, and with the wood stove option in addition to the solar thermal/PV panels.
Posted 1 year ago # -
@bandicoot: I have been decluttering paper for days now. Of course I'm going to recycle it, but burning it on a bonfire (to drive away the huge mozzies) is tempting. I am green with envy that you do not have mozzies. Can't wait for late September when it begins to cool down here. But then we get January-February-March with ice and blizzards....
Posted 1 year ago # -
sunshiner....i am lost in admiration for you folks who can survive such extreme weather conditions.
show me some ice and i'd just stay inside until summer came.Posted 1 year ago # -
bandicoot: I have spent my whole life in Pennsylvania. Don't want to move any further north. And no, I'm not jealous of monsoon season.... I do know how to canoe solo but that doesn't sound like enough preparation. ;o
Posted 1 year ago # -
@lucy: Use HTML syntax, so if you want a link to the Unclutterer.com blog that looks like this: Unclutterer Blog, type
<a href="http://unclutterer.com/">Unclutterer Blog</a>Have you guys seen the "other" emergency thread, What do you have in your bug out bag? -- I was just reminded to finally scan and save my important documents already ;o)
Posted 1 year ago # -
@trillie Thanks, hon!
@SunshineR Hey, my parents are in Pennsylvania! I do not envy you the humidity right now.
@bandicoot My husband grew up in Minnesota -- waist-high snow is not his idea of a good time, either.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I don't go overboard on Emergency Supplies..it's just me, i live in a safe area in the middle of a small city. In case of emergency i could go to local family or friends. I have enough food and stuff on hand to last me over 3 days. And I just joined the Community Emergency Response Team so in case of emergency i will be out on the road anyway.
I did put together a small emergency kit that I take on my jon boat (rowboat), I started with the small kit that i use for biking added meds, 1st aid, emergency food and water etc.. I stuffed the little ziplocked bags of things into one smallish SealLine See Dry Bag. When rowing season is over, i will just tuck it into the coffee table/storage trunk. If I go on a car trip, i can just toss it into the truck.
I think that's all really one person needs, aside from the other stuff, radio, batteries, flashlight, tools, duct tape etc. For the boat I have a plastic cat litter bucket with tarp, flash light, wire cutters, duct tape, rope, bailer and more. Aside from the bailer all of those items can double for any travel trip.
Posted 1 year ago #
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