Storage: Where Am I Going To Put All This Stuff?
After the WTC experience, I realized there was no way I could predict the type of disaster. I never in my wildest imagination (wild at times) could have dreamed that one up.
Suicidal maniacs hijacking airplanes and flying them into office buildings? With me inside? No way!
As a result, I decided to try to prepare for generalized disasters, starting with short term disasters and then pushing out the timeframe to handle longer term stuff with not much thought to the type of disaster. Realizing I had a really big group, most of whom have no money, pushing out the time I was prepared for has been, and will be, an expensive long term project.
One issue was easy
This area is wet. Water generally comes from reservoirs built in the 1800s and the resulting systems are driven by gravity. I’ve been told that gravity will still work after an EMP! The problem with water that you may have in other parts of the country, will be significantly less in this area. Just don’t buy a house on the top of a hill. 😊 and you thought the most urbanized state in the country was a poor choice!
Here in the suburbs you might have a large enough home to store a lot of stuff, e.g. food, but you aren’t going to grow much on a suburban lot. In addition, the northern part of New Jersey was at the bottom edge of the glacier pack during the last ice age. In other words, as the glaciers moved rocks along and dropped them at the edge, where the glaciers melted, New Jersey became a large pile of rocks.
The “Garden State” starts about 20 miles south of here. The only garden around here would be a rock garden. A half-acre, or less, suburban lot composed entirely of rocks, isn’t going to be a place to raise chickens or tomatoes. On the other hand, even if this was a good farming area, one would still need to get through the first year or so, before a crop would come in. This set of circumstances caused me to focus on stored food to last the first year.
Consumption examined
If a person consumes 2 five gallon buckets per month of food (one beans, one rice) then you need 24 buckets for one person for a year. (Okay beans and rice will be boring if that’s the only thing you eat, but you gotta start somewhere.) With 20 people that means 480 buckets need to go somewhere. If each bucket is about 2 cubic feet, then I need 960 cubic feet of temperature controlled storage. (and that is just beans and rice!)
Aisle space? What’s that? So my special circumstance of 20 people just turned into a huge storage problem. Then there is the cost. If beans and rice for one person is going to cost $1,000 for one year, then for 20 people I need $20,000. Double it for a nice varied diet. Hmmm. Obviously the 20 people were going to be a challenge and were going to compound issues like cost or storage. (Does paranoia alleviate this problem? No.)
I will have the combined problems of storage, or cost, . . . or storage and cost, at every turn. Also in NJ there are no barns. A little garden shed at the back of the lot to store the lawn mower perhaps, but a barn? No.
Attics and basements
Fortunately, houses in NJ generally come with attics and basements. My attic wasn’t floored and stepping between the joists was a problem, so I floored the attic. This added about 500 sq. ft. of storage and I began to rearrange what was where so that temperature controlled stuff went to temp controlled storage, and stuff that could live in a hot attic went there, like toilet paper. 100 degrees in the summer won’t destroy toilet paper. BTW, a year’s worth of toilet paper for 20 people, . . . is a lot. 😊
For a storage problem, consider BOBs. We have BOBs in the immediate family’s cars, but what about all the folks who show up who didn’t put together a BOB, or lost it on the way here? Or left it in their house and came straight here from wherever they were when disaster struck? Or just put dumb stuff in the BOB instead of what they really needed? I need spare BOBs and a place to put them. That empty shelf in the basement is now dedicated to BOBs. Storage problem momentarily solved.
Cost issues
For a recent example of my cost problem, I decided I needed a good multi-tool for my BOB. I don’t know what I need a multi-tool for. I work behind a desk with a computer. A typical day goes by without me ever needing a pair of needle nose pliers or a two inch saw tool, but hey I am a prepper and preppers need multi-tools in their BOBs!
So, I went out and bought a nice Leatherman, black, very tactical! $100. The paranoid in me was feeling good. As I was sitting there opening and closing every one of the 4 gazillion tools on my new Leatherman, it occurred to me that I now needed 20 of these to outfit my whole team of children and grandchildren, who are mostly broke, and have no more use for a multi-tool than I do, . . . that’s $2,000 worth of multi-tools ☹
I decided to check out multi-tools that are less of a dent on the wallet. I found a nice looking multi-tool from some Chinese company on Amazon for $9.98. I’ll try out one of those next. If the pliers will pull the cotter pin out of an AR bolt carrier group, they’re good enough. After all we need to clean our ARs, even in NJ! (More on that in future columns.)
Preppers find solutions
Preppers, even paranoid preppers, always find solutions. My niece, who is in my group, but doesn’t know it, (OPSEC: you can’t tell 20 people you’re a prepper because the whole world will know. Therefore, you can’t tell the people in the Mutual Assistance Group (MAG) that they are in the MAG!) decided to hook up with a very nice young man who works in a trucking company (he gets in the group with my niece) and is responsible for a yard full of semis, so when I need storage, I’ll just ask him to bring over a semi. I’m sure the neighbors won’t notice it parked on the street in front of my suburban NJ house. 😊
From this whole train of thought I have concluded that I am going to prep for 20 people for a year, but not more. I’ll run out of money and storage if I go further. Actually, I’ll be lucky to live long enough to achieve that, so no problem. That is my goal. I’m not prepping for the rest of my life, or TEOTWAWKI, but for any disaster up to a year in duration. It would be nice to be prepped for longer, or for more people, but that goal will be left for my children and grandchildren. My goal is to prep for a year for 20 people, and instill a culture of “paranoid prepping” in my progeny, without actually telling them that is what I am doing.
Do you think my two year old granddaughter is old enough to take a watch? She can start at 6am. 😊 I better get her a multi-tool.
I know it will be hard to say exactly, but what percentage of the people you expect to “show up” will have preps with them? I worry about my neighbors who are good friends, there are 4 in the family, I can’t imagine just letting them starve but they are helpless, they are out of food the next day if there is an outage or disruption from a storm. What am I going to do, let them starve?
Do they have any skills that would help you survive? Even if is added hands to do all the manual work that will come up, that would be worth a meal. My neighbors live week to week. They are also the first ones here if I need help. The wife is a retired nurse who’s training would be invaluable in a disaster situation. I have bought all the needed medical supplies, but she would be the one to take care of the medical emergency. Both the husband and son hunt and fish. they may not have a pot to pee in or a window to throw it out of, but the extra hands and skills would offset my giving them food. Look at the whole picture. the children would also be useful weeding gardens and hand pumping water. I have other neighbors who raise chicken, goats, pigs and own horses. Think barter. One person alone will not survive any kind of SHTF for the long term.
Part of the beauty of my form of MAG creation is they don’t have to have “value”. I am trying to give more than I get, not the other way around. I have limits to what I can achieve, and that’s where I draw the line. As a result, my infant and toddler grandchildren are in.
In my case, how many show up will depend on the length and type of disaster. The people are all family or close, e.g. the niece’s SO mentioned above. Short disasters possibly none. I would guess that as things continue and situations become more dire, they’ll come to Uncle Paranoid. Eventually, all will show up having exhausted supplies in place, then gravitating to me. The family tend to have clues without knowing details. The next door neighbor knows I have a generator. I’ll let him recharge his phone. 🙂
What kind of disaster/SHTF event do you think most likely where you live? I live in twister alley, so for me it’s tornado & ice storms, localized but severe.
The mostly likely disasters around here would be short term problems like hurricanes. I’ve experienced several while living here. For these my MAG would largely stay at home, though they are welcome to come enjoy the generator. Unfortunately, we are within commuting distance of New York City, which is obviously a place of some fascination to jihadis. As a result, I am more concerned about a regional event, limited only by the imagination of these whackos. Beyond that I’d say we are no more or less likely to experience any particular type of disaster here than elsewhere. BTW: you are smart to consider your neighbor now. If you aren’t going to be able to turn them away, then you can try to persuade them to change their ways, or just add to your own prepping plans accordingly. A lot of the macho men on the prepper forums claim they are just going to shoo off anyone relying on them with a shotgun. Some of them may actually do it, but I feel many are being unrealistic. You’re going to turn away your sister and her family? Your mother? Your kids? Really? Once you admit to yourself you aren’t actually going to do that, it is pretty easy to see the problem is bigger than most are planning for. You also no longer have the problem of organizing a MAG. 🙂