Prepping can seem an impossibly difficult task. The ultimate goal, after all, would be able to deal with anything life sends your way. It’s like trying to eat a whole elephant! So how do you start?
Anything is better than nothing.
One bite at a time. First, you realize that while no one is ever completely prepped, everything you do leaves you better off than you were before it. So begin!
You eat an elephant one bite at a time. Eventually the elephant gets eaten. If it’s a bite of dark chocolate elephant,, double win!
Here’s a podcast episode that is a companion to this article:
Decide on priorities.
Where to start? There are two main considerations:.
1) How likely is the prep to be needed? The more likely it is, the higher it goes on the priority list, all other factors being equal. It often happens that a reason comes up why it’s inconvenient or impossible for me to drive home as planned; so a car kit for overnighting was a high priority. Extra minimal preparation food in the house is good for everything from ‘don’t want to shop tonight’ to ‘EMP trashes planet’, so it gets a high probability rating.
2) How much would you need the preps if the event happened? Solar flashlights are Way useful when the power’s out. The over-the-fire popcorn popper is a nice addition to the cabin on a fall evening, not something that really deserves the label of ‘prep’.
While you’re in this step, please don’t let yourself be pushed around by the ‘availability bias’. That’s the natural human tendency to put more weight in factors that come easily to mind. Whatever’s in the news today is immediate, but it might or might not really be important to you. As I write this, there was a terror attack in one of our big cities today. Do I need to prep for those? Not directly. I doubt anyone from that half of the world has even heard of my little town in rural Missouri. It’s top of mind but not top of risk.
Set a budget.
Creating massive financial or family stress and trouble in order to reduce stress and potential later trouble sounds like a bad bargain. Figure out what you can do. The flip side is; if it’s in the budget that money is set aside and less likely to evaporate on momentary concerns. It is important to keep making progress.
Store appropriately.
If you’re collecting a lot of preps, this starts to be a big deal. Preps you might need in a hurry need to be where you can get at them in a hurry (without digging through a pile of longer term preps, for example). Other things can be packed more out of the way. Since you’re collecting significant ‘hard assets’, you have to protect their quality too. You don’t want one burst pipe on the first floor to ruin significant preps in the basement below them; nor do you want a family of mice or excessive heat in a garage to spoil a lot of your food supply. Get things stashed safely as you collect. Also keep an eye on your homeowner’s insurance. If you’re getting a lot of valuable physical assets, you’ll want them protected in the case of more mundane emergencies.
Store as you collect. This Cansolidator makes it easy to keep a lot of canned food and rotate to keep everything reasonably fresh.
Don’t forget the skills.
It’s really not all about buying stuff. Knowing how to do things is critical. In a bad situation, you won’t necessarily be able to ask Siri or watch a YouTube video. During a bug-out is a really bad time to discover you’re really not good enough at reading a paper map.
Get decent quality
We got a free wind-up radio/flashlight with some prep we bought. I tried to use it for the first time last week when the power went out. It broke. That makes it worse than useless; taking up space and offering a false sense of security. Stuff doesn’t have to be fancy, but it has to be reliable.
Enjoy life as you go, and let yourself enjoy the peace of mind from preps already compared.
We only get to live today once. Remember to enjoy it. At least, that’s my wish for you.
I wonder if there is such a thing as elephant bacon?