One of the most anxiety-inducing parts about being a prepper is trying to make sure you are truly ready. I mean to say holistically ready to face whatever comes your way. When it comes to personal preparedness, you get the test first and then you get the lesson assuming you survive.
Accordingly, most preppers I know who are serious spend tons of time reviewing and rehearsing their plans, procedures, and lists of equipment and supplies- over and over and over again- until everything is accounted for.
No matter how skilled you are, no matter how much gear and supplies you have on hand, chances are pretty good you’ve missed an element or two. This giant checklist will help you reassess and reevaluate your own readiness by category. Sharpen your pencil and let’s get going.
Water is absolutely critical for life. You know that, I know that, everybody knows that. But it’s easy to forget that you won’t just need water for drinking. You’ll need it for washing, cleaning, laundry and hygiene too.
You’ve got to eat no matter what’s going on, and though everyone likes to think they can go for weeks without any food the lack of energy will degrade you severely both mentally and physically. Don’t risk it; keep plenty of food on hand and know how to get more.
It is exposure, not dehydration, that is the single most common and most lethal killer in survival situations of all kinds.
Especially when the weather turns cold, if you can’t stay warm you won’t have to worry about staying warm ever again if you take my drift. You must be prepared to provide or create shelter no matter the conditions and situation.
A big part of prepping is just having enough on hand. And by enough I mean enough of whatever you need. Aside from food and water, it’s going to be clothing, tools, fasteners, consumables, medicine, spare parts, and anything else you can think of.
Keeping in touch is always paramount in a survival scenario. Whether it is maintaining radio communications with your friends and family, signaling to rescuers, or discreetly warning your scouts that something nasty is waiting as they come back, communication skills and gear are a must-have.
Many preppers fail to plan that sometimes the first and indeed most difficult part of a survival situation could just be getting home or all of your preps and loved ones are. This can be a survival situation and challenge unto itself, one that you should prepare for.
Lots of peppers dream of grabbing their pack and bugging out when the sky turns dark, but invariably a much better and safer option if you’re able to just bug in. Stay put, batten down the hatches, and make use of all this carefully stashed gear we are talking about here.
Like I said just above, sometimes you don’t get any choice of whether or not you can stay put. Whether you need to move to a pre-selected fallback point or just get the hell out of Dodge having the right bug-out gear and bug-out skills might be the only thing that keeps you alive.
More ink has been spilled on bug-out bags than any other topic in prepperdom. There’s a good reason for it, because a BOB is the equivalent to a parachute when things really go wrong.
If you are fortunate, clever, or just very good it is possible to bug out using your vehicle. This is a great way to increase speed, safety, and security but it is a skill set and sector for preparation unto itself.
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As hard as it is to contemplate, the world might not go back to normal for a very, very long time if it ever does. But, life must go on, and it will go on in a way that is a lot simpler and more like things used to be. This means you might be living on a modern homestead.
So many of the emergencies that accost us are barely newsworthy as far as the rest of the world is concerned, though they can change our lives and not for the better. Be ready for these micro disasters by carrying a few smart tools to make sure you get to go home at the end of the day.
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