Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.
Question for my favorite crazy-survivalist-type
, what kind of gear/supplies would you suggest that your average Joe Citizen should have in every room in his house?
I’m thinking things like flashlights, self-defense, food, water, blanket, etc – I mean, you can keep all that stuff in one room, but what if, when the time comes, you can’t get to that room?
I’m trying to mentally catalog what I need to find room for in every room in my new place.
Depends on what youre planning for. If you want something for the usual hurricane, power failure, blizzard, etc. you can fit all that in a couple of those black-n-grey ‘ActionPacker’ Rubbermaid containers. (Which I recommend.)
Simplest way to to it, in my opinion, is to stand naked in your living room in the dark in the middle of the night with the heat off and ask yourself “Okay, what do I need at this moment?” I’d go with a change of clothes, lighting, heating, cooking, water, food, communication, defense, portability and a few other things. Specifically:
Change of clothes inc. shoes…seasonably appropriate. You’ll probably be able to get some clothes out of your closet and dresser, but if you have to leave home for any reason in a hurry you’ll at least have one change of clothes with you. Comfortable clothes and shoes, please.
At least two quality flashlights and spare batteries. A good LED flashlight will save you on batteries and can be used alot more freely than a non-LED light. Whatever you get, make sure both take the same size batteries…MagLites are kind of the standard for flashlights. Candles and oil lamps are okay but obviously come with their own hazards.
Heating may or may not be an issue for you. A small propane heater works well indoors but you might just wanna go with a sleeping bag or blanket.
Some type of food that doesnt require much in the way of cooking is nice. If you have a gas stove you’ll probably still be able to use it. An electric stove is obviously another story. If you decide to get a small camp stove, be sure to use it in a well-ventilated area. Coleman makes propane stoves, lanterns and space heaters that run off the small 1# propane bottles that you normally use on torches. Theyre very handy, store well and give good service.
If you know theres going to be a possibility of an outage or other disruption, fill your bathtub. You can drink the water if you have to but its nice to use for washing up and flushing toilets. Save the bottled water for actual drinking. I keep a couple five gallon jugs but also a couple cases of 1-liter bottles. A case of bottled water is less than ten bucks at CostCo.
A good battery radio is a must. Preferably running on the same size batteries as your other battery-powered gear (flashlights, etc). Baygen, Grundig and a few other outfits make wind-up radios that dont use batteries at all. (They make flashlights like that too) and I highly recommend them. If you think you need them, the Motorola FRS walkie-talkies are pretty nice. Usual caveat about batteries.
Your Glock should serve you just fine…have at least a hundred rounds for it and a couple extra mags. A short shotgun would be nice.
Ideally, you want all this stuff in a ‘man-portable’ container so that you can, on a moments notice, grab it and throw it in the back of the vehicle and go, go, go. (If you have a garage where you keep your vehicle, I highly recommend a couple five-gallon cans of gas. Or, always make sure to never let your vehicle go below 1/2 tank.)
Keep some cash on hand. ATM’s will be out and no one is gonna want to take a check. Small denominations. Nothing bigger than $20.
All of this stuff should fit into a footlocker-size footprint. Or a couple of those ActionPackers. I cant say for sure, but I’d guess you could put together the FEMA/DHS suggested ‘72-hour’ kit for less than a couple hundred bucks.
Obviously, for a more….ugly….situation you would need more extensive preps. If you need really, really more specific details on things let me know…
