When you first decide to start stockpiling food and storing water in case the SHTF, there are 5 items many consider essential and should be in every prepper’s arsenal. These 5 items will help you get a jump start on your preparations with the added benefit of giving you some peace of mind.
Like I always say, this is by no means a complete list or one that cannot be altered and tailored to one’s specific needs. It is a simple starting point for beginners to springboard off. Everyone starts somewhere and oftentimes, all we need is a little guidance to think about things in ways we hadn’t before.
- Backpack
A good quality backpack will be essential! If you want to create a bug out bag, you could definitely use your backpack for that, or you could put together a vehicle kit to keep in your car. You may want both. Prepping is personal and we all will have different needs, but making sure your backpack is not cheaply made is essential for everyone. You don’t want your gear falling out the bottom or the zipper breaking three hours into a SHTF situation. Make sure you can comfortably carry it and that the backpack will hold all of your supplies.
2. First Aid Supplies
Personally, I like to buy premade kits for this. You can grab good ones pretty much anywhere, and pick out what you want and might need for your prepping kits. This will give you all the basics too so you can focus on the things that often do not come in a first aid kit, such as tourniquets, clotting agent, and forceps. Remember to add any medications you take regularly and toss in some antibiotics if you can!
3. Life Straw
Getting enough clean water that won’t make you sick is going to be rough, but a life straw can really come in handy. A life straw is a personal water filtration device designed to remove 99.9999% of waterborne bacteria, and 99.9% of waterborne protozoan parasites without chemicals, iodine or batteries. The LifeStraw hollow fiber membrane water filter removes bacteria and protozoa from lakes, streams to ensure safe, clean drinking water. The water bottle style (left) has become increasingly popular, but the standard life straws will still do the trick. They also last for a long time. The microbiological filter will provide 4,000 liters (1,000 gallons) of clean and safe drinking water with proper use and maintenance.
4. Survival Book
I highly recommend The Prepper’s Blueprint: The Step-By-Step Guide To Help You Through Any Disaster by Tess Pennington. This will outline steps that can be taken to help you along the way on your prepping journey and offer advice for those situations that often slip our minds. You should also consider grabbing a book about edible plants in your area and a first aid survival book. I recommend The Survival Medicine Handbook: THE essential guide for when medical help is NOT on the way
by Joseph Alton MD. Again, this isn’t set in stone, and more books and reference material will be incredibly helpful if we have no power or ways to access the internet.
5. Lighters
You are going to need to be able to light candles and make a fire, so stock up on lighters. Make sure that you are periodically checking them though. The fuel could be leaking or they may not work, and those won’t do you any good.
These are the 5 things that I would consider the essentials to get you started. With prepping becoming more popular, it’s important to go back to the basics and remember our most vital items.
Food grade buckets to catch rain water in and also to store food like rice and sugar in. Cheap Vodka, lots of uses. A good knife, axe, and some garden tools. Guns and Ammo, (not the magazine of the same name)
Remember, ” Two =One and One=Zero, also watch out fur dem hogs.
Mmmmmmm, Gunnnnnzzzzz 😛
If yer in the big shitty, watch out fer dem niggies!
Just bought a Mossberg 590M and x2 20 round mags for it. Sits next to the bed and the mags are in the top dresser drawer (to keep away from curious kiddies).
Chuck
Thanks Charles for letting me know where you keep them. If you’d be so kind as to send me your address and when you go to the store or work and I’ll see if I can’t get over to your place and borrow them.
They’ve made it to Maine and Alaska, g.
LMAO!
Preppers blue print book would make for some good fire tinder. lol
There have been a number of articles here, of late, lamenting the beating that Farmers are taking because of TRUMP TARIFFS and bad weather; as if it spelled the demise once again of the Family Farm.
I have been quick to point out that this propaganda is false. An article on ZERO HEDGE exposes and confirms the lie:
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-08-17/trumps-farm-bailout-flows-city-slickers-dc-lobbyist-and-farms-golf-courses
The only more subsidized businesses (by the America Taxpayer) besides farming are ranching and banking. Time for taxpayers to quit bailing out deadbeat businesses and corporate welfare cheats !!! 🙁
know how to start a fire using at least three different methods. And yes, Bic lighters are the best to get for the buck. Cheers!
Yeast, Yeast nutrient, Sugar (lots of it). And reper is right, you will need fire to make it work. With these items you can barter for about anything lol. You can make cold distilled booze easy. Take yer mash when it’s ready and freeze it. It will be a slush of sorts. Get a screen collander and squeeze the juice out of the slush, this will be mostly alcohol. Filter it with coffee filters and add flavoring or mix with a flavored drink. I did this a few years back and it works, rootbeer extract and some sugar made it drinkable (not too bad). Other than that maybe a shotgun, a rifle and a 4 wheel drive and old moonshiner can survive! 😀
Interesting article.
Just sticking to what you personally carry daily,
My #1 is a Knife. When I was a kid I could not afford a Swiss
army knife, but that would have been my first choice.
Today I wear a Gerber multi tool daily.
#2 I always carried a lighter of some sort, I quit smoking in 1981, but I still have lighters stashed everywhere.
#3 As far back as I remember I had a Backpack of some form or another. Until university I never really had a good one.
Really good camping/hunting ones are great, but a good generic Walmart Eastport traveler back pack is essential,
You can pack just about everything you need to survive for three or more days in one.
As far as a start in generic Prepping, buy books.
I’m lucky in that I had family that taught me “stuff”
Hunting, fishing, basic survival things, water, shelter kinds of things. But I also have books. Foxfire books, US Military survival manuals(FM21-76 USA manual), et al.
One area I disagree is the pre-made first kids are generally useless junk. If you haven’t had Military or Red cross first aid training, get some training and then make your own first aid kit.
My first aid kit has Battle wound bandages to Aspirin. There isn’t much I can’t handle.
It probably cost less than $100 total.
Fishing tackle takes very little room. A pack of hooks, removable split shot sinkers, A spool of line. Catch your own bait or get a couple of lures. Use a can or bottle as a reel by wrapping the line around it. Use treble hooks and 50lb. line to make traps or snares. Cheap, easy, compact. You can also snare 2 legged snoopers with treble hooks and strong line, tie a can of rocks on the end to make noise.
One vacation when I was a kid,
Mom caught more fish with a self draining cooking spoon, some corn from a can of “Green giant corn”, a Treble hook, and some line than all of us guys with all the fancy fishing stuff.
Non-industrial fishing is all about Tactile senses, brains play a part, but if you don’t have the “feel” you won’t catch fish.
Sounds like your Mom was an awesome teacher.
Keep on teaching and prepping.
The lighter…… I quit smoking 30 years ago. Twenty years ago I realized as a prepper, I had lost a source of fire……
Now I always have a BIC lighter. There is several in every car, and every medical kit, in every knapsack. Fire is survival in any cold situation.
We are currently having the warmest summer on record, per global warming Xperts. Truth be told it is really cold at night. Have a source of warmth.
Passed a jeep last week. It had three flat tires, and was on an interstate highway. What could have gone wrong.
This jeep was decked out. It was equipped to go anywhere. With one big spare tire on its back.
Prepper tool, one 12 volt harbor Freight tire compressor about $39 on sale. Add a patch kit, with fifty patches. Include two BIC lighters. Plus a multi tool, to pull nails out of tires. Include forty dollars cash, enough to fill your tank.
I had flat, it was an old tire, a small nail. Without a multi tool the nail could not be removed. After it was removed the patch was so tight I had to wedge the tire between a wall and my foot to force it in. When it comes to tire patches, tight is a good thing.
That Walmart patch held for 15,k miles.
If it’s a big hole just shove in more patch plugs until you can’t push in any more, thus the fifty patch kit.
Some Off road jeeps have self inflating tires, and could have spring a leak in the main line. Can you handle your vehicle full of preps and you get 3 to flat tires during a bug out.
If millions of peeps pile onto the same highway and a jerk dumps a case of 2 inch roofing nails onto the highway, it will turn into one big mass traffic jam with thousands of flat tires.
When bugging out, get far far away from the mass sheep herds of imbecilis.
Have you checked your spare tire pressure lately in all of your vehicles?? Spare tires loose 5 to 10 lbs of pressure per year just sitting there in your trunk. Plan now, inspect your vehicle and get ready. No room for errors in a panic bug out. Include a fresh set of windshield wipers,, tail and brake lights, extra fuses and oil and new filter in your vehicle’s trunk bug out bag or box. Carrying extra tools in your vehicle for a simple car repair are a must. No Brainer!!
thanks,
just ordered a tire repair kit.
thanks
one thing to think about is how damn BIG those modern tire-plugs are. i started seeing those maybe 10 years ago, so when i found the old-style ones in a pack of 100, i bought them. now they are almost gone. those big ones require you to destroy your tire by making the hole way too big. i don’t know where to find them now, but i have to do some digging, because i’m almost out. and yes, our 4×4 club has put as many as 11 plugs in one torn sidewall to get it home. you may have to tie a knot in each, and shove it in there so it doesn’t pop back out. don’t use glue, as it’s too slippery then. viair is a good compressor for around 175 dollars. it will fill a 35inch tire in 5 mins or so.
I’ll drink to that ‘ol boy!
Kotex
Maxi pads
Sanitary napkins
Get a bunch cheap
Stops up a bullet wound and more
Make sure there not used if you can.
Also, save up dryer flint in plastic soda bottles.
You can start of fire in windy freezing rain… light the bottle too. With small wood on top.
Couple a coat hangers and some electrical wire.
Sewing kit
Colored Nail polish to keep Ammo dry
Not too much on primer
It can cause a miss fire
I learned the hard way on that
And don’t trust nobody. When in doubt, whip it out!
Got me a rock n roll band it’s a free for all!
To disagree slightly, make that knapsack include a class III bullet proof panel in the back. Use it as a shield. Use it to extend the 21 foot rule. Use it.
Include lots of bottled water with that life straw. Lots of water in your car and bag.
Have some high calorie snacks. You can go for a month without food, but water is absolutely critical,especially if it’s hot.
Life Straws are the ultimate in simplicity and idea to give to non-preppers/non-hikers/3rd world countries. That said the Sawyer Mini water filter is much more versatile. It can be used to fill pots for cooking and portable water bottles. The Life Straw only supplies water at the source.
1. PhotoID, because homeless people (aka “public campers”, sleeping rough) get shanghaied.
2-3. Written consent and phonenumber of the private property owner.
4. Found items, to set up camp.
5. Minimal dress.
There is a sweet spot, somewhere, between being glad for cheap, simple stuff, as though it was saving your life, and realizing that no help is coming. Nothing and noone will save your life.
When you find this point in your psyche, the city will look like Gilligan’s Island, and the countryside will look like a supermarket.
Interacting with other people, sometimes, even online, would probably keep you sane and worldly (assuming that they are.)
But, cleaning and repairing your body, mind, and premises, from front to back and top to bottom, would definitely improve your chances, during an emergency — also, repellent to vermin of the 8, 6, 4, and 2 legged varieties.
I am healed and have good work to do.
And then there was light!
My first choice in prepping is a flashlight and a lantern.
My first food item is salt.
My first written item is a map.
My first all around is money.
The best prepared person is healthy, fit, lean, and able. If you can’t walk, run, hike, climb, and fight off predators, just how long will you last in a real emergency. Eat right and get enough sleep. Just say no to drugs. If you drink alcohol, do it in moderation. These are my top priorities which supersede all other considerations in this modern world where drugs like fentanyl kill more people than world wars.
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I grew up on a farm and no I don’t farm, but farmers have been going out of business as long as there has been farming. Why, some farmers just have hard luck, crops, weather, piss poor management, the markets, health issues. And then you have the farmer who plays all the angles, government programs, specialized crops for different areas of the world, among other things. And then you have the farmers who cut corners to make ends meet and then you have the farmer who relys on daddy to keep him afloat.
From a man whose town was cut off from electricity and the outside world for over a year in the Serbian conflict. Nothing could go in our out of small town of 35,000. Only water was a steam that ran through the town.
His testimony:
– No matter your preparation, if you are alone or with only one male to protect, you are dead meat.
– All families that prepared (there was sufficient warning) and had four or more men, made it through.
– Guns and ammunitions were priority and the number one barter item. You can’t have enough ammo.
– Top items to have for barter other than guns and ammo.
1. bic lighters
2. powdered gravy (to ad flavor and palatability to rice, pasta, and beans.
3. First aid supplies and OTC meds and helps.
All the above will be useless if you don’t have access to water and have water purifying supplies.