What I Store that Isn't Food
Sharon July 15th, 2008
Several people have asked me to write about my non-food storage more than I have (there’s a post here on the subject, which includes links to someone else’s recommended list). This is one of those places where I start looking like a doomer wacko, I realize, but I do think that it is worth talking about.
Right now, every shipping container that crosses the ocean has the equivalent of a 9% tariff on goods coming in from rising oil costs. That doesn’t include the cost of the oil in the products itself – it isn’t just food whose price is rising out of the reach of ordinary people. At the same time as food and gas eat up more of our budgets, it gets harder and harder to buy other stuff.
Now a lot of us have more stuff than we need – but often, it isn’t the right stuff for a low energy world. For example, most of us have winter wardrobes that are not designed to live in a house with minimal or no supplemental heating. And yet, that’s a real possibility in the northern parts of the country this coming year. Think about – most fuel oil companies have a minimum delivery of 100-150 gallons of oil – otherwise, it doesn’t make sense to run the truck. Most small companies can’t afford to grant credit anymore, because of the sheer number of people defaulting on payment – and many smaller companies have gone out of business. Natural gas is expected to spike as well, while utilities will be renegotiating their shutoff policies. Many people won’t be able to afford winter heating bills in the several thousand dollars, particularly advance payments on the order of 5-600 dollars for oil. So they will switch to small electric space heaters – and grid use will spike as well, during the coldest weather. We may see blackouts, because of this, but eventually people’s power will get shut off as well, unless mandates against shut offs are strictly enforced. So many people will be living with minimal or no heat. They need warm stuff for this – and most of them probably don’t have it, since all buildings have been 70 degrees for most of their lives.
Right now we can all go shopping at Goodwill and garage sales for cheap clothes and shoes – but what happens as more and more people need those cheap goods, and other people stop having the money to buy stuff and dispose of it for pennies on the dollar shortly afterwards – the quality of goods at yard sales will fall, and the competition will rise. Or think about books – the sheer quantity of books available are a product of an affluent society that can afford to spend $25 bucks on a hardcover. Sure, a lot of them are junk, but a lot of them aren’t – the library sales are filled with volumes for a quarter. What happens as the library acquisition budgets are slashed (more) and the cheap books stop running over? Or, G-d forbid, when the books are worth more to keep warm than to read (ok, there are some books out there that are already worth more for their burnable value, but you know what I mean 
)
So here’s my list of things I’m storing. Now I have a big old farmhouse, and some disposable income, so this would be different for other people who don’t. I’m not saying you need these things – this is me, and my list, offered for your perusal.
1. Shoes – I have a thing about shoes. You see, I have crappy eyesight, and there is zippo chance I will ever shoot a deer for moccasins. I’ve made felted boots and slippers, and could put old tires on the bottom of them with some work. But I don’t want to. I like good shoes. And with four boys going through three or four sizes a year, I already can barely afford to keep my kids shod . Goodwill is my friend. Yardsales are my friend. Bigger sizes while they are cheap are my friend.
I store extra kids shoes, and also extra boots and shoes for me and the husband.
2. Blankets!!!! It is going to be a cold winter for a lot of people. The thing is, it is perfectly feasible to sleep without supplemental heating – but you need blankets, and lots of them. Down is lovely, as are wool blankets, but almost anything will work if you layer enough of them. These are often cheap at yard sales and goodwill. Since I’m guessing we’re the abode of last resort, I want to have lots of these so that no one is cold.
They are also great to insulate your windows from cold loss, to hang on walls that are drafty, to make rigged “four poster” beds that are kept warm by your body heat and for a host of other reasons. Blankets are important – sleeping bags are especially great and often show up at my Goodwill. Other bedding is good if you are expecting a lot of people to come to you.
3. Yarn – Ok, I don’t need this, but I like it. Hats, mittens, fingerless gloves and wool socks are, I think, the key to happiness in cold weather, and I really like to knit,. So I get happiness and warm stuff – this is not bad. Or maybe this is just an excuse to have yarn .
4. Books – I’m a junkie anyway, so like yarn, this might just be an excuse to buy stuff I like. But in my case, five miles from a rural library which has a great kids section, but for adult material is better than mine only in the category of biographies of first ladies, biographies of first ladies’ dogs and Romance Novels, my feeling is that I *am* the really local library. We have a big house, and most of it has books in it – many thousands. And since I’m a writer, I never know what I’ll want to research next – I’m constantly hauling out random piles of books, looking for some fact or a quote I liked.
We’re also homeschoolers – and we think the best way to get the kids to read a lot is to read to them and have a lot of books around for them to choose from.
Yes, we invest in how-to books, but we’re also looking ahead to days when resources are dearer and our older kids may need homeschooling resources – physics textbooks and art history books are as important as how to books. Novels, of course - the frivolous and the serious. History books galore. We buy a lot of books very cheaply – they are so undervalued right now.
5. OTC medications, soap, basic toiletries – I’ll do a seperate post on my medicine cabinet at some point, so I’ll leave these. Most toiletries we don’t bother with, but we do use a few things. Baking soda can cover a myriad of sins, though.
6. Project materials – you know how you start building something (the bookshelves, the chicken tractor, the fruit press, whatever) or repairing something (the overalls, your bike, the chainsaw) and you suddenly realize you don’t have the parts for it, and you have to go to the store, and put the project aside until you do have the right parts? Well, some of this is unavoidable – things will break, and you won’t have the part. Still, some of this is predictable – buttons come off, things need nails and screws, hooks and chains. There are obvious parts of things that break or frequently need repair, and often these things are cheap. But as gas gets more expensive, the special trip to the notions store, the hardware store, etc… gets less frequent, and that means putting the needed item away longer. So having a reserve of these items is useful, and often not very expensive. Anything that fastens one thing to another, any part that is especially vulnerable, and basic repair kits are high on this list. And if you have the opportunity to scavenge scrapwood or things that might be usefully taken apart and repurposed, this is good (provided you have space to store these things).
7. Clothes in larger – and smaller – sizes. Everything I said about shoes goes here too, particularly since I do not like to sew (because it involves ironing and cutting carefully on lines and measuring, all things I loathe ) and am not good at it (for the reasons listed above), I’m all for storing a few sizes up. I also store a few sizes down, because I have high hopes that peak oil (and self-discipline, if I can stockpile that ) will be good for my weight issues.
8. Intermediate technology tools – think simple things that can run on human power or readily available things. Oil lamps, manual woodworking tools, treadle sewing machine, etc… These often show up at auctions, and are useful even if the world doesn’t end and you just want to cut your energy budget. In some cases the powered replacement is better – powering lights with electricity is less polluting than almost any other form of lighting, except perhaps very local beeswax candles. But in some cases, they really aren’t. I like the treadle sewing machine better than the regular one – it is tough and effective, and my dough mixer or my hands much better than a bread machine. All are worth experimenting with.
9. Extra dishes. In a crisis, we could expect quite a crowd, depending on where people were coming from. I like people to have enough to eat, and a chance to eat it at my house. Dishes are available at every yard sale, often very cheaply. There are some issues if you keep kosher, as I do, but for most people, cheap dishes are a good deal. I like to be able to feed a crowd.
10. Bicycles. People dispose of these frequently, and since I have growing kids, functional, decent bikes are a valuable thing. There are some older brands that are particularly worth buying – I’ll see if I can dig up a list and post it shortly.
11. Some toilet paper. Now I think cloth is probably a better solution to any long-term problem. But toilet paper is one of those niceties, and not everyone I know who might come to my house is cloth-tp ready. Plus, there are times of illness when you’d rather not use a reusable. So this is one item I buy in bulk. I don’t buy a lot of disposable things, but tp we do use.
12. Basic medical care items - again, I’ll do a full list, but in emergencies, hospitals and doctors are often overburdened, and the ability to meet basic medical needs at home – and also to understand when you need a doctor or other professional is, IMHO, important.
Other suggestions?
Sharon
- Classes , Food Storage
- Comments(105)
We “hoard”, as we jokingly refer to it, many of the things you mentioned (upsized kids’ clothes, blankets, yarn, books, building materials, “intermediate technology” tools). One you didn’t mention that we’re heavy on is containers. All sorts of containers. Auctions and yardsales (and dumpsters) are a great source for canning jars, old glass jugs, plastic buckets (keep food safe and not food safe separated), baskets, etc, and if they’re not free, they’re dirt cheap. We like the big tough trashcans for a lot of yardwork and gardening stuff, too. But you have to imagine that the future might involve a lot more hauling of water, temporary storage of edibles, etc., and for that you need containers.
Also, since we have space and my husband is very handy, we have a fair assortment of little junker bits and scrap metal around, and an extensive and growing collection of tools for making and repairing things that people currently think of as the province of large shops and factories.
Garage stuff! I just painted our foundation by mixing two cans of garish color paints to make two gallons of acceptable color — both cans were eight years old.
And for one project this year, we took a pallet, a hand-me-down broken-element hot water heater, leftover insulation, a window, fence boards, two hose bibbs, some black paint, and a garden hose and built a solar hot water pre-heater to cut electric bills.
We gather lumber, cardboard boxes, and lots of other stuff being tossed by townies and make furniture, no-dig garden beds, whatever. My favorite example: short (10″) sections of defunct garden hose make good garden-gate or barn-door handles.
Until recently I was an anti-packrat–I wanted to live lightly and not accumulate a lot of stuff. Recently it dawned on me that a lot of things might soon be less available, or more expensive and definitely (I have noticed) of decreasing quality. So now I no longer throw anything out that might possibly have a use in the future. I have already found that , when something is needed, there is often just the thing somewhere around here that I didn’t throw out.
Thanks for this post! I was glad to see you included books. We dont homeschool, but I envision a future where we might have to, We have a lot of books, across a range of topics, none of which I have been able to de-clutter. Im glad I havent now! I am not a hoarder, my natural inclination is towards minimalism but I can see I will have to get over that.
Our July 4th medical emergencies, including our daughter’s badly broken arm and dear friend’s heart attack (she has no family nearby) energized us to start stocking up on first aid.
Since the 4th, due to caring for daughter’s surgury sites, we are using 8 – 2×2 gauze pads a day and will continue to do so for another 8+ weeks. We will likely use 2+ bottles of hydrogen peroxide. We have used 4 ace bandages in this time – and we wash those and hang to dry.
The point is, if someone gets hurt – maybe doing things they arn’t used to doing – cutting wood, doing more things by hand, working around livestock…. the chances of injuries goes up and an injuries must be kept very clean, with lots of wound care or you’ll have a host of other problems.
Not really a storage item (unless you count your body as storage) but I would supplement Verde’s comment with get your tetanus boosters updated grownups! especially if you’re like me and recently shifted from urban-ish apartment living to gardening with manure, castoff chicken wire and other sharp objects.
other than what you mentioned: mason jars and lids, pens and pencils.
this is such a bummer for me, because I really like the minimalist aesthetic, but I’m coming to view it as a late-20th century luxury we can not longer afford…
My only wacko storage item – inspired by Sharon – I just cannot get rid of my hubby’s old jeans with the holes in crotches. I have two growing boys. There might come a time when we want to harvest the denim from hubby’s old jeans that are too small for him to wear right now.
Otherwise, I am stockpiling kids’ books and a few clothing items. I will probably acquire some more kids’ clothes and shoes, too, thanks to Sharon’s advice. We do have plenty of books but I am actually downsizing in that department.
With my medical issues I am just not going to plan that far ahead. Also we’re in a mild climate here in the Bay Area. Getting a rainwater harvesting setup would probably be more advisable than planning to survive super-cold winters. My hubby is just not there yet…
I plan to get help (some paid – we have the $) to add more permaculture garden to our city lot. The garden feels like support for my health as well as future plan.
seeds, too
Sorry to say that I’ve added whiskey to that list. Although knowing how to make vodka (thanks Club Orlov) made me feel a bit better.
And no, I’m not an alcoholic but I believe that the bartering power of whiskey can’t be beat. And everyone knows it’s good for snakebite
we’re not drinkers here, much, but despite the jokes, alcohol DOES have medicinal uses. i haven’t started to store alcohol, but i think it bears consideration.
in a combination of the first aid and yarn categories
someone on a food storage group where i hang out mentioned knitting/crocheting reusable equivalents of compresses and rolled gauze bandages. since we already use cloth menstrual pads and cloth tp (well, not everyone in the house has adjusted to cloth tp, lol) washable/reusable bandaging supplies wasn’t much of a stretch for me. for the rolled bandages, i’m using the basic idea for the “leprosy bandages” that can be found online. i bought nice brass saftey pins to fasten them. for compresses, i’m crocheting a bunch of 2×2 and 3×3 squares from a basic sugar ‘n’ cream type kitchen cotton yarn. since they’re made from cotton yarn, they can be boiled/bleached for sanitation if necessary.
i store wool (and other spinning fiber), and save the buttons from worn out clothing. i also save any usable fabric from worn out clothing. a goal for this summer has been to spin lots of yarn for socks.
we don’t have a lot of storage space, and most of what we do have, i feel like i should use for food storage, but there are a LOT of things that it occurs to me might be difficult to get or in short supply in the near future.
oh. and seeds.
My comment/question is somewhat off-topic for this post, but I don’t know where else to put it.
I can totally get behind the idea of peak oil, living simply, storage food, etc. However, I can also succumb *very* easily to fear. My parents are, in many ways, quite well prepared for TEOTWAWKI- windmill/cistern, garden, food storage, very can-do attitude. However, I live 350 miles away from them, in a comfortable suburban apartment with my darling but woefully domesticated husband (I don’t mean to mock at all, but he thinks his grandparents lived on a “huge farm”… which I later found out was actually a couple acres with a garden and some livestock).
I sew, I like canning, I can bake my own bread. I even enjoy tent camping. I always, always buy extra food to put back (if for no other reason but that it’s hurricane season and we take that seriously on the Gulf Coast). I am not afraid of home remedies. I can be extremely frugal and reuse EVERYthing. However, we are NOT well prepared for the kind of scenarios you describe, and I find myself lying awake at night picturing the future. I think it’s pretty much a given that we’d end up at my mother-in-law’s (an hour away, but she has some space in a semi-secluded neighborhood and it would be fairly safe, and a simple matter to rip up the backyard for a survival garden, etc.) and try to ride things out, but she is even less physically prepared than we are. And *definitely* not emotionally or psychologically prepared for this kind of cultural shift. I think it likely that we’d also be in close quarters with my husband’s brother and (pregnant, due this winter) girlfriend, as well as my 12yo stepdaughter (but that’s assuming her mother doesn’t have a contingency plan of her own, which is HIGHLY unlikely).
Anyway. These things keep me up at night.
I doubt I’m the only one stuck in the city with much fewer resources than I’d like. Of course I can talk about it with my husband, but I am pretty sure I would scare my MIL out of her gourd if I hinted that she should lay in some supplies! How can I balance prudence with stark terror? Help!
Please remember fun things. Living life isn’t easy. We need enjoyable activities.
Suggestions include researching how other people enjoy themselves and socializing. Writting in Reinventing Collapse, Orlav describes some of the simple interactions that weave relationships together. I’ve started gathering up yard sale games and such. Without laughter and good times, those cold or warm nights will be very long indeed. WOW Trainee
Goodness…saving jeans isn’t wacko. How else are you going to have patches for ripped-out knees, etc.? On a grander, craftier scale, last year my MIL gave everyone their own individualized, super-cute and super-sturdy tote bags made from jeans, with rear-pockets on the sides for use/decoration. She even made the CUTEST one for our daughter and used the teeny coin pockets for the sides. (Gift tagged from Aunt Bernina
).
I’d never seen the knit/crochet wound bandages before….yay, now I have another excuse to knit rectangles!!! (It’s pretty much all I can do.)
And as for alcohol, I DO intend to stock up on cheap, nasty vodka, but with no intention of drinking it. Very valuable for making tinctures and, in a pinch, sanitizing.
MY “wacko” stockpiling thing is that I have almost literal panic attacks sometimes thinking what if I can’t come by all the wonderful children’s literature and things that I want for my daughter and future children. I’ll just be going along and thinking of something else, and then I think like “Oh, man, what if she never has the Redwall books?”, and get short-winded. I mean, yeah, it’s important, but, uh, get a grip, woman? And that stuff is never at yardsales.
grit and calcium for the chickens, shoestrings, extra work boots and gloves, glasses (I read that the military have adjustable readers, very cheap if you buy mega units, let’s find these somewhere) razor blades, sodium hydroxide with which to make soap, thermometers, I save containers too–plastic bottles, spice tins, glass jars, I figure they will serve well for sharing herbs, and bulk storage items, silver dimes, charcoal, silver oxide, oil of oregano, candles, lordy, are we having fun yet?
I didn’t include seeds and alcohol, because they fall under the broad category of “food storage” to me. I should have included games and toys, although I don’t think of them as stockpiled, since we use them all the time. I also should have included musical instruments – I’m not especially talented in this area – I can sing and blow notes on a recorder, or mess around with a guitar, but my husband is a natural musician. He’s really good at it. One of the first things we did was replace his keyboard with a real and serious piano (which we would have done anyway), but we’re adding acoustic instruments for us and future child use as fast as we can.
Sharon
Oh, yeah, WOW…good point. I was going through our stuff for a yard sale recently, and decided to keep every one of the dozen and one decks of cards that the standard household accumulates, because the goodwill they might generate in the future was worth much more to me than the $.25 they probably wouldn’t earn at the yard sale.
Sqqrl, I’ve actually gotten most of our extensive children’s library at yard sales, library sales, etc… What happens is that you find 1 or 2 of a series, but I figured if I started when my first son was born, by the time I had someone ready to read them, I’d have all the books – and lo and behold, I really pretty much do. Not *all* the Redwall books, and I’m short a couple of Oz books, and some I’m gradually replacing in hardcover as I find better copies, but I have almost all of the series (including all the Anne of Green Gables and Louisa May Alcott books, which my husband laughs at because we only have boys, and when I bought them I insisted that maybe sometime the boys would read them – my husband’s reaction was ummm….yeah right.) So it does work, gradually anyway. I figure if the apocalypse comes, I can place an order for those last few books I’m missing (Farmer Boy in Hardcover, a few Redwalls, The NeverEnding Story, the second Wizard of Earthsea book
.
Sharon
ToilingAnt, it sounds like in your case, you have a plan – evacuate to family. So what you’ll want to do is think in terms of planning so that you can get to your family in hard times – maybe store maps of back roads for an evacuation, an extra gas can or two (if you add a stabilizer it will last some months – replace it as often as the stabilizer recommends and refill), some portable foods and blankets in case traffic made the trip longer than expected.
I have to run, but will give you a more complete answer tomorrow – sorry – just looked at the time and I’ve got a call to make.
Sharon
We don’t have a huge amount of space, but I’m definitely stocking up on spare dishes and books, particularly children’s books. Since libraries are cutting funding and I want to be a children’s librarian, I want to have as much of my own children’s library as possible. That, and “Make Way for Ducklings” is an excellent antidote to apocalypse angst.
Fun fact, Sharon — the author of “Farmer Boy” is my great-great-etc uncle. When I go home for holidays, I get to chop things with the giant cleaver from the Moody farm.
He is also closely related to the guy Moody St. in Waltham is named after.
I’ve also been stocking up on spare toothbrushes and floss and such. And Tom’s of Maine toothpaste, because it has flavors that are not mint or baking soda.
Getting a decent supply of good quality gardening tools has been a must for me- enough to indulge myself in the exact right tool when I am working along, giving the possibility of getting three or ten people out working together when the occasion calls for it. Look for solid old tools at second hand sales, but also dont hesistate to get the best quality new tools when the old ones are inadequate.
One point to consider is that with a lot of this stuff you can’t just stash it away and forget about it until years later. It is kind of like storing food- you have to actually *use* it routinely for it to be worth getting, in order to keep it in good condition and to keep yourself conditioned to making use of it. It is still today too easy to accumulate more than you can maintain and end up with a mountain of mouldy books, rusted bikes, and moth eaten clothing…..
Shane in Australia
Oh I forgot to add a suggestion of dental care supplies- toothbrushes and floss. Cheap to buy now, and very easy to store.
Longjohns and thin watch caps are very high on my list to stock up. Why did I not get those earlier? A tent can be a great asset as well. Imagine, bitter cold and no heat. Well, at least the kids might have fun camping in the living room for a few days.
Also lightweight, small towels instead of the luxurious bath sheets. Same with under clothing that will wash and dry quickly.
Fuel alcohol for indoor cooking. Old fashioned board and card games! Candles.
Books on stargazing. A telescope or binoculars. Imagine, no electricity, a star gazer’s heaven! There is something to look forward to.
I’m with toiling ant on some of those things.
The issue of family and preparedness can be very trying. I just recently found out that our 20 year old already has a bug-out bag and spot, and wasn’t planning on “circling the wagons and returning home”, but rather working with his girlfriend and the friends he lives with to survive. I hadn’t thought of THAT possibility.
He and I have already discussed the very real issue of lack of communication in difficult times. We don’t have it figured out yet… although he nixed the carrier pigeon idea ala: Gilligan’s Island.
Sharon… I know you probably have some really good thoughts on this?
I have stored away quilts, wool blankets and sleeping bags found at the thrifts; wooden matches; baskets; wire storage containers; oil lamps (also found thrifts/garage sales); nails; containers for candle molds; books (also a helpless book hoarder and unable to purge any of the 1000s stashed all over the house); crocks from old slow cookers (surprisingly easy to find at thrift stores); hydrogen peroxide; alcohol (wood type for disinfectant); lots of spare cast iron pans; firewood; kerosene and camp stove; tent (would love a tipi); wool sweaters (multiple uses-either wear or turn into quilts); fabric and sewing notions; jars & canning lids (this may fall under ‘food’ too); first aid items like bandages and support apparatus 9I broke my ankle recently and will save the boot they gave me to wear); toothpaste, floss, and brushes; ladder; waterproof boots; flour sack cloth towels; long & regular underwear; cheescloth; wash tubs and a manual washer; a small grill (I was going to sell this at a yard sale and thought twice); knives; tools…
That’s all that comes to mind right now. I know there is a lot more.
Your post, Sharon, and the comments have brought a lot to mind of future items to think about packing away. I actually decluttered quite a load of crap this year, but each item I kept or have obtained has to have some usefulness to me or a family member in a hard future. I reason out my belongings this way and have managed to be more organized with my clutter, LOL!! I feel much lighter and my stuff seems more purposeful. And, Shane makes an excellent point about learning and finding ways to use the stuff in the now for practice and upkeep.
After packing a 24 foot truck on Saturday I was actually regretting just a tad all the prep stuff but it did finally all fit and the things I discarded weren’t that essential.
My non-food stock ups include socks, reading glasses in varying strengths, work gloves, rubber gloves, cheesecloth, duct tape and mouse traps. All of these goods were purchased a dollar stores.
I also have a lot of books and fabric as I do like to sew and would rather sew clothing than try to buy it.
Now I just need to find a new home and get it all sorted and stored. Being homeless, even if I realize it will be short term, gives me the heebee jeebies!
I’ve got a lot of disposable pads/tampons stashed away, figuring if I don’t need them, someone else will. I do have a Keeper (which I haven’t been using because it leaks too much- any advice?) and intend to make some reusable pads out of of old t-shirts, etc., but I think disposables may be very much in demand in the future.
Lots of alcohol-based mouthwash in my storage, too (works not only as a mouthwash, but as a disinfectant as well), and, of course, a lot of pet food.
Sarah, our children now range in age from 22 to 40, but the “Make Way for Ducklings” poster is still on our wall. Good call!
And “One Morning in Maine.”
We have a number of acoustic instruments and oodles of children’s books (and puppets!) because my spouse is a professional storyteller.
Boys do sit still for Alcott or Little House if you get to them young enough.
I once lived in a quasi-Hutterite commune, and we had a tradition of a reader at dinner, something like the Cubans having a reader while working in factories. Everyone, from age four to eighty-three, loved the readings. We did Tolkien (believe it or not) and everyone was practically prostrated with grief when Gandalf fell into the abyss! I was the substitute baker, and the next day, in the bakery, there was a silence and gravitas among my crew that could only be called post-Balrog syndrome… the human imagination, away from television, is an amazing thing.
Yarn is good! I have that and also roving/fleece to spin — they make good insulation on the outer walls in the meantime, before they become other things.
Lot of good suggestions posted here in addition to Sharon’s — I should pick up some vodka as I’ve been thinking about starting to learn to make tinctures this year… I need to increase the amount of some of our medical supplies anyway.
I’ll add extra bicycle inner tubes to the list, because we don’t have a bike shop near us, and they’re a good thing to have when you’re biking anyway. Plus they don’t cost very much, at least right now.
Squrrl, Sharon answered on books, but you can also probably get them pretty cheaply through used book stores — if none local to you, try http://www.alibris.com, or search at http://www.bookfinder.com, both of which have many booksellers large and small who sell through them. Good luck at future tag sales though!
ToilingAnt, since you live on the Gulf Coast, maybe you could ask your MIL if it would be okay for you to store a few buckets of emergency supplies at her home, in case there’s a big hurricane and you have to evacuate? It wouldn’t be a huge supply of course, but it would help some. Just a thought.
Hadn’t thought of shoestrings, I guess in part because if we really needed to we could make them — fingerloop braiding is a useful skill and there are different types of braided laces you can make, including round and flat types.
On games/activities, I’d like to add that some books on games/activities/hobbies are good to have. There are a lot of different games that can be played with cards and/or dice, and if you have scrap wood or cloth and a pen or paint you can make some of the game boards, and use rocks, bits of wood, buttons, or borrow pieces from other games for a new game. We use some of our games more regularly than others. And we have limited space in the apartment itself, so many are in storage for now.
For communication, folks might consider Ham radio. You don’t have to know CW (Morse Code) anymore to get a license. Lyle and I are just getting starting learning about it, and found out from someone we were talking to at the farmers market recently that there’s an experienced guy not too far away from us. We’ll be introducing ourselves to him at some point in the not too distant future. Hams love having folks wanting to learn about amateur radio, and they’ll help you with advice on equipment and stuff. Ham radio operators are quite often the folks who keep emergency operations teams in communication during disasters, when all the modern cell phones and such get disrupted. They help during the wild fires, hurricanes, and most recently the fires in CA and the floods in the Midwest. To find a club near you, go to: http://www.arrl.org
Ooh, just thought of one more thing! For the folks who can store a lot of things, after you’ve safely stored things you don’t need to use right now and organized everything — label them! I’m still working on that because of the seemingly inevitable unlabeled boxes from moving quickly from a house to an apartment, sigh.
Two thoughts
Further to stephanie bears reading post – I remember during a school holiday starting on ‘Watership Down’ aloud to my two (9 and 11) plus one of their friends. When friend returned after lunch he brought two more of his friends, who the following morning brought more friends. We ended up with about 20 kids and utter silence when the bad rabbits were coming to the warren. Even had the odd parent stay after coming to check on their child.
Second thought – emergency blankets. When I had foster kids who were into bed-wetting, I used polar fleece for their blankets. Washed very easily, and dried fast. Best of all super cheap and EXTRA warm. You can purchase from Spotlight (large crafty store in Australia) enough for a generous sized blanket for about $5. I bought a roll. I suspect that polar fleece is not ecologically correct, but it is cheap
Mary in Australia
Sharon,
One of Heinleins great science fiction books is Farnham’s Freehold. A bit wacky, and he envisions a nuclear end-of-the-world instead of an economic end (a.k.a. McHugh’s “China Mountain Zhang”, where communist China buys the defunct US), but the books, SF and how-to, novels and biographies, center profoundly in his vision of re-establishing a stable local culture.
I am shocked – shocked! – that you have any hesitation about stockpiling yarn. Like books, music instruments and lessons, having access to crafts and things you can barter should prove essential. Until the world changes, crafty holiday gifts and home decorations can reduce a *lot* of financial pressures during silly seasons.
Although I chose to pick up pecans for holiday gifts the last couple of years.
The lowly recorder does come in various voices, there is excellent classical and popular music and a wide variety of instruction books available specifically for the inexpensive instruments. I keep one lowly recorder in the car – for red lights and waiting in fast fool lines. (Fast food line – is that an oxymoron or just awfully bad financial and culinary practice?) A hymnal provides many tunes that are easy to learn – just read the alto line. I copied out the melody line of Frederic’s “Three Revolutionary Marches” that I enjoyed – playing Bass Clarinet – in High School, some 30 years ago. Aulos makes a student model, 803S, that is surprisingly easy to play at a modest price. The wood instruments need to be kept seasoned – they are moisture sensitive, and need a bit closer care than plastic recorders. Different recorders may be easier to play, or the tone may lend itself more to classical music or easy listening. I have disco, pop, rock, and religious music – and it doesn’t sound anything at all like a 3rd grader. While substituting at a local elementary school, I shocked the music teacher by demonstrating that good music can come from a recorder.
So I expect a (slow) barter market for music, for copies of music, for recorders and other instruments, and for lessons. In addition to traditional, rural cultures – dance bands and worship accompanist.
I haven’t learned to knit, but I have a crochet book. And some macrame cords and lines. A part spool of 3/4″ cotton rope I picked up at an auction (my old Navy Bluejackets Manual taught me to splice, end splice, and eye splice). Also a tangled spool of nylon ‘parachute cord’.
I have an acetylene torch, but no clue how to refill it once the balloon goes up, and a few hundred pounds of scrap metal, a coal forge I am refurbishing that will work with charcoal, and I have a problem with walking bast ball pein hammers at the flea market. Hopefully I will have tools or skills that let me contribute (and continue eating!).
How about storing a few spare padlocks, with keys, and chains? You might need extras to protect all those food stores/gardens/chickens etc. and they could be hard items to get your hands on in a hurry if the store is a long way away. Always have a spare tarpaulin or two as well – they have a multitude of uses, from patching your roof after a tornado to emergency shelter.
I may have missed this, but I don’t think anyone mentioned sewing needles.
MEA
RE: blankets
I just wanted to share some goodies I’ve learned about the value of extra blankets. Many years ago I used to stay at a cabin in the mountains for a few weeks during the summer. There was a small fireplace, but no heat and no insulation. I would always put a nice heavy blanket on top of the mattress before putting sheets on the bed. It worked well for cold (but above freezing) summer nights.
A few winters ago, the furnace in my condo shut down in January (in Wisconsin) because the air vent on the roof of the building froze over. A nice little safety feature kicked in to keep the exhaust out of the house, but that meant no heat for about a week. Thankfully, I live in a south-facing brick building with good insulation. In fact, it took me a while in sub freezing weather to notice that the heat was out. I was sitting in my chair watching TV and noticed that my hands were feeling very cold and discovered that it was about 50 degrees (down from the 58-62 range I usually let it get down to in winter). It kept dropping (as it was about 4 degrees outside).
A spare comforter, a couple of extra blankets, long johns and a stocking cap let me sleep comfortably (undressing for the shower, on the other hand, was… bracing).
On the flip side of that was when I was renting in England a decade ago and the cheap landlord refused to reheat the furnace, insisting that the broken one could be repaired. We had a stream of plumbers and electricians through, all of whom told him he needed a new furnace, all of whom would get the boiler going for a day or so before it crashed again. Of course, with radiant heat, the fluid in the radiators wouldn’t necessarily warm up by the time the heater broke again. This was happening in February and it was fairly mild (high 20s to low 40s), but there were no spare blankets in the house. My housemates and I each had a duvet cover and that was it. We all slept in our clothes, including gloves, hats scarves and coats. After a few weeks of this, the weather turned warmer during the day, so we opened the windows to let the heat in. We all got sick (sinus infections, etc).
Moral of the story:
Spare blankets are always worth the storage space!
[...] More to think about from Sharon Astyk. 1. Shoes – I have a thing about shoes. You see, I have crappy eyesight, and there is zippo chance I will ever shoot a deer for moccasins. I’ve made felted boots and slippers, and could put old tires on the bottom of them with some work. But I don’t want to. I like good shoes. And with four boys going through three or four sizes a year, I already can barely afford to keep my kids shod
. Goodwill is my friend. Yardsales are my friend. Bigger sizes while they are cheap are my friend. [...]
Wow – great tips! Thanks!
I also store “natural” multivitamin/mineral supplements, Gaia herbal tinctures and Boiron homeopathic remedies.
According to my experience, if one wants to treat viral/bacterial or fungal infections without allopathic or mainstream pharmaceutical medicines or in case prescription drugs were not available, herbal tinctures, homeopathic remedies and colloidal silver are a must. I store colloidal silver in the 500 ppm potency in case my family gets a very serious infection. I also store colloidal silver hydrosol in 10 ppm (Sovereign Silver brand) for less serious infections.
I only use colloidal silver as a last resort in treating infections. I’d rather use rest, good nutrition, herbs, and homeopathic remedies. The last time I used colloidal silver was six years ago for a severe skin infection I got from swimming in the Gulf of Mexico. The staph bacteria was antibiotic resistant and colloidal silver worked like magic in getting rid of the infection.
What is a good cheap source for yarn? I can’t wear wool because of allergies and refuse to wear acrylic or ramie, so that seems to leave silk and cotton.
I have been thinking of storing colloidal silver, but you have to really be careful with that stuff. Just like we can get mercury, lead, and other element poisonings, colloidal silver is toxic in even small doses. Do use it as last resort!!!
We are stockpiling instruments. My husband is a musician and has about 52 flutes (exaggerating a bit) but we also have a violin from my mom’s youth, an adult sized guitar, some recorders, and a piano. We just bought a 3/4 size guitar for the kids for only $99 with case at our local music store (it’s a decent guitar, the whole thing would cost $150 to the normal person but with my husband’s ties to the store we got employee pricing). I’m also hoping to buy a banjo and beginner book for myself, a drum, a mandoline and maybe some other small instruments. I’m thinking we should form our band even before the peak oil crash hits! This is how I want to live, so perhaps to get started and just cancel the cable now would be a good idea, eh?
It sounds like all of us that have commented are going to run quite the “general stores” when TSHTF.
The one thing I’ve been feeling really agitated about stockpiling lately are safety pins. Like, I’m going to be the “safety pin lady” post-peak. I feel like they’ll make a great bartering tool, and be great to hold up those too-big clothes when we all lose weight, put together rudimentary clothing for the less skilled sewers, and all sorts of other things.
Anyone else stockpiling safety pins? I haven’t bought any yet. I went to JoAnn Fabrics and saw that 100 safety pins cost $3.59 so I’m looking for a cheaper source. Maybe, buy the 1000s.
Crazy, I know! Lisa in MN
Skills
Community
can’t be stored but but well worth cultivating
What’s confusing to me, as I plan my preps, is defining exactly what kind of situation I’m preparing for. Do I plan for an intense, life-threatening situation (like a nuclear attack), or do I prep for a long-term changed way of life, with hand tools and all the rest of the items listed above? Or do I just build a six-month stock of food to stay a bit ahead of inflation, and believe that life as we know it won’t change all that much? And what about the roving bands of mutant zombies (Note to self: stay away from Matt’s site for awhile!)? That scenario involves a whole other world of preparation–weapons and such. It really is all very daunting. It’s like you have to pick what you feel is the most probable future outcome and plan accordingly.
Abebooks (www.abebooks.com) for all long lost books. Online, international, searchable, inexpensive (often) = great book source.
Sharon, would you consider a post breaking down topics by skills and tools needed? It would quickly become overwhelming for one person or even a family. But a group could work on this together.
Gardening:
Hoe, rake, shovel, twine, digging fork, pruners, buckets
Clothes:
Sewing machine, patterns, knitting & sewing needles, crochet hooks, spinning wheel, loom, scissors
Butchering:
Knives, saw, stainless steel work surface, buckets
etc
We have lived this way for quite some time, but have become lax in some of our stock piling. I have been haunting estate sales for decent notions. Anymore, with metals being made in China, and other far away places, I’m finding straight pins, bobby pins, safety pins, etc. no longer are made for more than one use. Now that our metals industries have tanked and been jobbed out to other places, the QC is just not there. Being a quilter, I have wool batting, cottons, and any kind of material that I think I will need for making clothes, and I recently found a huge piece of orange fabric that I’m making safety vests for our dogs and us, for when we are wildcrafting. Society is getting a little crazy. On that note, we have been buying bullets also.
Other things we have been stocking up on are things like nails, oil for chainsaw gas, since we may have to build more shelters, and we heat with wood so we think any gas we would stockpile would be best used for firewood cutting. Also toiletries, lye for soapmaking, jeans, shoes, wooden matches, nut and bolts, and just about anything we can think of that we can’t make for ourselves.
On the farm side, I have been stocking up on salt, (good for barter too) minerals and kelp, since shipping is getting terrible on these things, and they keep indefinitely. Also, rope, misc harness hardware, cold shuts, chain, quick links, plumbing and fencing supplies. By no means a complete list but a good starter for us.
I have been accused of living as if I were raised during the Depression. But I don’t stockpile; I try to live the way we’ll be going on, and if something isn’t something I can and do use, I give it to someone who will.
That means I keep buttons & pins & sewing machine needles because we mend things. I pick up free canning jars whenever I see them and then my challenge is to fill them all by the end of fall. I keep extra bike tubes on hand and if someone’s broken down on the road I can lend a tool & give a tube.
We have bikes & bike repair tools, and hand-powered gardening tools, and a stack of 5-gallon buckets, because we use them or are in the middle of a project that needs them. The same with blankets – we keep the house pretty darn cold, so we have all the stuff to keep warm in the cold house. Bikes, bike tools, playing cards – we use this stuff every day. I have dishes for 24, if I break out the good china – and we serve dinner for 12 on a pretty regular basis.
It’s Pat’s Theory of Anyway – do it because it’s right. Don’t use a power tool where a hand tool will do, don’t use a kitchen gizmo when a knife, a pot, a pan, a seive, or a fork will do. Don’t use a car when a bike will do. Then you have not only the tools but the skills when you need them – and you’ve used less energy and stuff all along.
That said, I have been thinking about stocking up on canning lids and clothespins. I really hate whittled clothespins and I wonder if, like seeds, we’ll see shortages in the metal-spring kind in the next few years.
Meadowlark, your son might want to consider getting an amateur radio operator’s license and participating in at least one ARRL Field Day event; it really doesn’t take that much power to get a station up and running (we’re the emergency communications station for our neighborhood).
I remember seeing a list of 100 things it’s good have have on hand in a crisis. (I have a feeling the complier was in Kosovo.) Now I can’t find it again.
Any one else recall it. Did anyone book mark it? Could anyone post a link, or some good terms to google with?
Thanks,
MEA
hot-water bottle
candles
torches
water filters
Ditto to much of what others posted. Also some lamp oil, antibiotic ointment, and polar fleece. I’m a book hound, so that goes without saying. I try to focus on necessities and smaller, easy to store items.
Zipties. These things have a thousand and one uses and don’t take up much space.
Liza Z said: “Colloidal silver is toxic even in small doses.”
Colloidal silver is NOT toxic, especially if prepared properly.
Check out this: http://www.calcompnutrition.com/sovereign-colloidal-silver.html
Please do not listen to AMA and big pharma propaganda whose intent is to push expensive chemical/industrial medicine. According to them, herbs can be toxic as well and so many people distrust and will not use herbal medicine because of misinformation.
@MEA: It was called “100 Things to Disappear First.” This page intermittently contains the list — it shows up for a while and then disappears. It’s there at the moment, so you might want to copy and save iit.