by Lindsey J. from Pa
Will you be ready in a moments notice? I have asked myself this question on a daily basis. I just wanted to send along some things that I do, to make sure that if I would have to leave now, I would have less to worry about.
I work part-time, so whenever I take my son to his grandparents for half the day, I always make sure that he has not only his regular clothes on, which would be socks, sneakers, undershirt, jeans, long sleeve shirt, and coat. He also always has a sweatshirt, gloves and hat. No matter where I am going these are always a must! I wear dress clothes to work, so I always have a spare set of clothes, and shoes in my car.
Now, I am sure that many of you already do this, just view this as a quick reminder.
This is a list of some simple things in my day-to-day life that I make sure are always done.
First off would be dishes. I despise doing them, until I got to thinking. What if the power went out tomorrow, and never came back on? Then doing dishes would be even worse. I would have to go get the water. Boil it to make sure it was sanitized, wash my dishes in one bucket, and then dip it in my rinse bucket after it was washed.
It is much easier to just fill up one side of the sink, wash the dishes and then turn on the spicket and rinse. Now don’t get me wrong this doesn’t make me like doing them any more, but I now do them immediately! You never know when your power may be gone whether it’s from a storm, or teotwawki.
This realization got me thinking about all the other tasks around the house that would become more difficult. These are just a few others that we as preppers, male or female should keep up with. Since, you never know when that task may become for difficult.
What about your laundry. There are six people in my household and at a minimum I do one load of laundry a day. So lets say I decide to skip a day or two and then the powers out. Now I have to wash them all by hand…just because I couldn’t stop for two seconds to throw a load of laundry into the washer. Let’s also not forget how fast our clothes currently dry in the drier. Now I will have to hang them outside and wait for what could be quite awhile, depending on the day. Does everyone have a scrubbing board?
Now cleaning bathrooms and mopping the floors is much easier with running water. But I have to admit that I don’t look at those tasks as needing to be done every day, since we as a family will not be bugging in. But, every couple of days, absolutely.
Think of it this way, the cleaner and more organized your household is the more prepared you will be. If I am not organized and there is some warning that we need to bug out I will have an easier time getting the things that I want, along with any extras.
However, if I am not well-organized then the situation will easily become more stressful than it already will be. I think of it this way, because say we have some warning a bank run or you name it, my son and I have a bug out location.
If there is warning, my family has calculated that we will have about an hour to get everything in our vehicle and go. Our plan from there is to get to my parents house, and from there we should have approximately a 3 to 4 hour window from their location. That being said, there is a lot that can be done in that time period. Extra food, clothes, blankets, equipment. You name it, so having everything in your household well-organized is key.
For our household, I keep everything in labeled boxes such as batteries, toothpaste, toothbrushes, soup,…you name it. When I have completely filled boxes, then the next time we are going to our bug out location it goes with us and is placed in the appropriate location, where everyone knows it is.
Then I start on my next box. Stacked nicely in the same closet with our bug out bags for quick access. I always have extra boxes and plastic bins on hand, so if we have time, all our boxes and bags are a quick load, and we can then move on to the rest of the food in the house, some extra clothes and bedding. I keep our drawers as organized as possible, with a bag right next to them, so I could potentially just dump, zip and go. I have a set of clothes in different sizes for my son at our bug out location.
This was hard for me to decide how to do. He is currently a size 2T and I have up to size 5T stored for him. This would include about 6 different long and short sleeve shirts, 3 pairs of jeans, and 3 pairs of shorts and 2 sweatshirts. A pack of socks and underwear in each size, and at least one pair of sneakers and boots in each. Along with any winter gear that may be needed. For myself there is 3 of each, shorts, shirts, pants. Along with boots and shoes.
Keep a list for everyone, that in the event of bugging out, they can follow who grabs what, if there’s time what extras would you want your kids or spouse to throw in the car? Knowing these things before hand is what matters! It’s about being well-organized down to that last moment of whose shutting out the lights and locking the doors.
Hopefully we all keep our vehicles gas tank at at least half full, and keep any extra gas cans full. But what about the rest of your vehicles maintenance? Do you make sure that you get your oil changed when it needs it. Do you make sure your tires have good tread and are pumped up? Are all of your fluids full…windshield wiper fluid, antifreeze…you name it make sure that these simple to do things are always taken care of.