If you’ve been preparing for a while, you may look at your preps and think, “I’ve come a long way.” You may also wonder, “What have I forgotten? What else do I need to do?”
This article is designed to help answer those questions and identify gaps in your preps to find areas that could use a bit more attention.
Duration
One way to measure your preparedness level is to determine how many days you could survive if a disaster hit tonight. So for the sake of argument, let’s assume you wake up tomorrow not to the sound of your alarm, but to the sunlight peeking through the shades. You glance at your alarm clock, wondering if you overslept, but it is off. Then you realize all the little LEDs and the nightlight in your bathroom are also dark. You fumble for your phone. It works, but you have no connection to the internet. Cell service also seems to be out. You wonder, how long can I/we survive without electricity and connectivity?
Food
How many days of food do you have on hand? Consider the everyday items in your refrigerator and cupboards, as well as your preps. Do you have a way in which to cook your food? Do you have alternative power for your refrigerator? If so, how long will it last? A week, a month? Three months?
If you have pets, how many days of pet food do you have on hand?
Water
If the faucets are not working, how much stored water do you have? How many days will it last? Do you have a plan for obtaining water once it is gone? Do you have a plan to provide for hygiene and waste disposal without running water?
Shelter
If it is winter, how long before your home gets cold, and do you have a plan to heat it? If so, how many days can you heat your house? If not, do you know how to turn off the water and drain your pipes so they do not freeze? Do you have a plan to keep warm?
If it is summer, do you have a plan to help cool your house? (Even pulling the blinds can help, as can opening the windows if it gets cooler at night.)
If you live in a location where heating and/or cooling are not an issue, you should think about security. Are you safe in this location? What external threats might you face if no one can call 911, and are you prepared to combat them?
Do you have a good enough relationship with your neighbors such you can support each other or share information?
Medication & Health
If you rely on regular prescription meds, how many days’ worth do you have on hand? How long can you last without a refill? If you use a CPAP or other medical device that requires power, do you have a fallback plan to power it, and if so, for how long? If you require regular medical treatment outside the home, how long can you go without it? For example, skipping the chiropractor might be an inconvenience, but skipping an infusion or dialysis might be a death sentence.
Communications
With the cell network and the Internet down, do you have a way to get information? Do you have a battery-powered or hand-crank AM/FM radio? Do you have any radio transmitter with which you can talk to the outside world? If you wanted to reach out to someone to request help, could you?
Quantity
Besides days of supplies, we can also measure our preps by quantity. For example, if you have 100 rounds of 9mm ammo, you can’t determine how many days those bullets will last. It could be days or months, depending on what happens. It is better to count these items than to estimate how long they will last. In the same scenario outlined above, consider the available quantities of the following items.
Cash
How much cash do you have? Include both your emergency cash and any money in your wallet. For example, if you need to run out to the corner store and pick up something, do you have sufficient cash on hand? If you want to buy bottled water and peanut butter, how will you pay for it without electronic payment methods? If you need gasoline for your generator, can you pay cash?
Guns and Ammo
We’re not planning to get into a firefight, but in some scenarios, you may be required to defend yourself. If so, do you have enough guns and ammo? Do you have spare magazines? Do you have a holster for that handgun in your bedside table, or will you just have to shove it into your pants and hope for the best?
Water Purification
If you are relying on water filters, how many gallons will it treat? I have portable filters that are good for only 125 liters, or 33 gallons. On the other extreme, I have gravity filters that will treat thousands of gallons.
If you rely on water treatment additives, such as Portable Aqua tablets or similar treatments, bleach, or even pool chemicals, how may many gallons of water can you treat? My bottle of 50 Portable Aqua tablets treats 25 quarts. That’s not a lot.
Lighting, Batteries and Power
How many spare batteries do you have? I’m talking AA, AAA, C, D, 9-volt, or whatever size you need to power your flashlights, headlamps and lanterns. If you have rechargeable batteries, do you have a way to recharge them? Do you have enough headlamps for everyone in your household to have one?
If you have a solar generator, how many solar panels do you have for it and, more importantly, how many watts do they produce? How many hours of sunlight do you need to charge your solar generator? it it sufficient to power your fridge and any other critical needs?
If you are relying on candles or kerosene lamps for light, how many candles do you have? Do you have extra kerosene? Do you have spare wicks or mantles for your lantern?
Location
Where you are when the SHTF is also an issue, as is the decision to bug out or bug in. Let’s take them in that order.
Getting Home
Let’s change our scenario a bit. Instead of waking up to a grid-down scenario, let’s say that the outage strikes at 11 a.m. on a Tuesday. No one in your household is at home. If you have kids, they are at school or daycare. You and any other adults are at work or out running errands.
Can you get home? Do you have transportation? If you rely on mass transit, will it be running if the grid is down? Who will pick up the kids if you can’t communicate? Do you have a rally point where you meet?
What happens if you have no vehicle or it is rendered useless? Can you walk home? Do you have supplies in your vehicle or in an EDC pack to support you while walk home?
Bugging Out
If you decide to bug out, do you have a plan? Do you know where you are going and how you are getting there? Is your bugout bag packed? Does everyone in the household have a bugout bag? What will you do with the pets? Do you have a plan B or C? Do you have alternate routes, or are you prepared to get there by foot?
What’s Next
If you are satisfied with your answers and comfortable with where your preps and plans are, congratulations! It is a good feeling to have met your prepping objectives. Now you must decide if you will maintain that level of preps or take further steps.
Maintenance
If your goal is to be prepped for three months and you have at least three months of food, water, and other preps, then the primary thing you have to worry about is maintaining your level of preparedness. That requires rotating and refreshing your preps.
For example, the other day, I went through preps in my truck and replaced three packets of oatmeal that were inside the mess kit stored in the contractor box. I would have eaten them in an emergency and been glad for them, but they were getting a bit old. I had recently purchased a box of oatmeal packets, so I fed the old ones to my chickens and put three new ones in the truck. We also try to rotate through our canned food.
If you use rechargeable batteries, you should top off the charge once or twice a year. I do it in late August or early September because I want them to be full strength if we get a hurricane, and that is when the season worsens. You should also check items with alkaline batteries inside to make sure the batteries haven’t corroded.
Many people also rotate their water. If you are planning to use your stored water to flush your toilets, that’s not so important, but if you plan to drink it, then it is. Consider consuming your stored water and buying new, or pouring it out and refilling the containers annually.
You should also run your generator on a regular schedule to ensure it works and to prevent the carburetor from either drying out or gumming up. While you are at it, check the oil.
Practice
Have you ever pulled something out of a drawer after months or years and thought, “How do I use this again?” Well, if not, it will happen when you get older and have more stuff. For example, I own two progressive reloading presses, but I haven’t unpacked them since we moved here five years ago. If I have to reload some ammo, I’m going to need some practice.
If you have specific skills, practice will help maintain them. That can include a wide range of abilities, such as shooting, CPR, martial arts, or baking bread. They will all benefit from occasional practice.
Upgrades and Expansion
If you are satisfied with the duration and quantity of your preps, you can also consider upgrading their quality. For example, if you have a grain mill, you could get a better model, like the Country Living Grain Mill. If you have a pump shotgun, you might add a semi-auto to your arsenal, or you could get shells with shot in different sizes. If you have textured vegetable protein (TVP) in your long-term pantry, you can upgrade by buying #10 cans of freeze-dried meat. You could take is a step farther and buy your own freeze dryer to make your own freeze dried food.
You could also expand your preps. For example, if you are prepping for a natural disaster, you could start prepping for a financial collapse. Thinking longer term, if you are bugging out to someone else’s house, you could save up and buy your own bugout place.
Whether you decide to prep for the end of the world or for a week-long power outage is up to you. The options are wide open, but the key is to have a good idea of where you stand today so you will know what you need to do to reach your prepping goals.
