PREPPER: 8 Things You Should Do To Convince Loved Ones To Prepare

PREPPER:  8 Things You Should Do To Convince Loved Ones To Prepare

Your family is your survival team. But first, you need to convince them...

 

Out of all the challenges we preppers face, none may be quite so close to home as trying to convince loved ones to prepare. When it comes to the preparedness lifestyle, even a longtime supportive and loving spouse may suddenly be against prepping and against your prepper mindset.

For almost every man and woman who has had a life-changing event that turned them into preppers, there is a story of the spouse or other family members that didn’t understand or refused to accept this new way of life.
I found myself in this situation once. And today I want to tell you how with a bit of patience and persistence, over time, I fixed it.

This post is divided into two parts. First, I will answer that burning question so many of you have raised in forums, conversations, and emails asking: “How do I convince loved ones to prepare?”. Then next, we will cover the next important issue, once you have actually convinced a family member or loved one to hear you out, how you can answer objections that family members may raise.
Let’s get started.

How do I convince my loved ones about prepping?

The moment has arrived. You have been convinced that you must prepare for hard times. This means storing food, learning different survival skills and researching methods on how you can prepare for what might occur in your area. It means changing how you behave financially. It means doing whatever it takes to separate yourself from the herd that will raid food market aisles, and eventually come knocking on your door for help.
You’re ready, but there’s a problem. You need a team that you can work with. Surely your family would be good enough right? They’re the most important people to you and you want to keep them alive. So all you have to do tell your family you are prepping. And not only must you tell your family about yours (and what could be their) new lifestyle, you must convince your loved ones to prepare and that it is the way to live.
Here is how I did it.

1. Prepare A Presentation 

If you get up there and start making things up on the spot you are going to look unorganized and not credible source on prepping. You want your family to know you are serious about prepping and that you are the person to look to when the sh-t hits the fan. If you don’t look organized, you are doing your family and your beliefs a disservice. Make no mistake: you are preaching a life-giving sermon. If you are wrong, there are few if any downsides, but if you are correct, you will be a savior to many lives.

To convince loved ones to prepare, make a detailed and well-informed presentation. I don’t recommend it, but take notes if you need to. Have facts and figures. Know what you believe is the biggest threat and tell them why you believe so. Your feelings are rarely enough to convince people that they must change their way of living, so be ready with facts.
Plan what you’re going to say and stick to the plan, come what may.

2. Speak To Their Fears

Not everyone is scared of the same things you are. My wife is terrified of a home invader even though I am not (that’s because I’ve got four members of the family, we’ve all got guns, and we can all use them. I pity the fool coming in my home uninvited) so in my presentation, I spoke to her fears and how we could prepare for a home invader, as well as take up more elements of a preparedness lifestyle.
I told her that if life got bad enough, lone wolves and mobs would probably come looting, robbing, raping, and killing in local neighborhoods.
This is not manipulative! It’s the truth. I simply revealed to her a possible consequence of not being prepared.
You owe it to your loved ones to share with them the full impact of what may come to pass if things get bad enough. If they’re afraid of being alone, speak to that! If they’re afraid of financial hardship, speak to that!
Show them, in a way they understand, what may happen if no preparation takes place. Speak to their fears.

3. Watch Your Tone

Of all these tips, this one is both the most important and the most difficult to get right.
Remember that you are helping the people you are discussing this issue with. You are not forcing it. You are not forcing them. You are offering to help them. If you approach it in any other way, you will receive hostile feedback. This is simply because people don’t like to be commanded. Not even your spouse, not even your kids, and not even your friends.
If this conversation about prepping is taking place, remember: you are asking them to prepare for a disaster with you. You are willing to do it alone because you think it is right, but you want to do it by their side and with their support.
Be gentle. Be loving. Be kind. Let your tone reflect these things.

How to deal with objections about prepping

So you gave the presentation like a master orator and you were met with silence. Blank stares. Grimaces. They looked at their feet a lot.
And then one lone voice raised an objection, soon echoed by another. Before you know what to do, those you love have revolted against your measly presentation and your desired preparation with quick comebacks. You’re probably going to hear these a lot from friends at work, people online and anyone else that doesn’t see any value in prepping. You have probably heard some of these before, such as: “there is no such thing as a doomsday” or “what happens if nothing ever happens”.
Your loved ones do not like the idea of you prepping and will most likely start quite critical of the presentation you have spent time on. Here’s what to do.

1. Listen

You have done your presentation and what you have planned. So now it is time to stop talking and let your family have their say. So shut up, sit down, and let them speak.

They will never trust you with their lives if they cannot trust you in a conversation.
Take a moment and read that last sentence again. Your loved ones probably love you back. And that means that they trust you to listen to their words. So do it.The listening phase has two goals.

• Gather information
• Use their information as fuel for the next phase

When they discuss why you shouldn’t prep, listen to them. Hear them out. They will probably have valid reasons. Maybe they think your fear is unfounded. Maybe they will say that they don’t want to change what is working financially.
Maybe they just think you’re crazy. But hear them out, learn their objections, and then…

2. Speak To Their Fear Again

If they bring up objections, then you didn’t speak to their fears enough the first time. Do it again after listening. They will probably bring up points that you didn’t expect or weren’t prepared for.
That is okay.
If you have to, tell them that you don’t know how to respond to their objection. Look up some facts and get back to them. There is no shame in not having all of the information on command. Do remember two things: first, you are not speaking to your fear. You are speaking to theirs. Second, use facts and figures. Your emotion is probably not enough to win the day.
Hear their objections, speak to their objections.

3. Be Ready For Feedback

When dealing with their objections, be ready for some stinging remarks. Someone, whether they mean to or not, will undoubtedly say something that hurts your feelings and feels like they are attacking your character. It’s just the name of the game.
Be ready for your loved ones to say hurtful things. Be ready to be hurt by their lack of support. It isn’t that they don’t love you or don’t support you. It is that they think this is a fad at best and ridiculous at worst.
Be prepared for them to say things that you might not like. You owe it to them, to yourself, and to your beliefs to not give up.

4. Be Gentle

Remember that you aren’t commanding them. You are asking their permission to prep with them. Show your love for them by listening to them, by not interrupting, and by taking on an air of humility. You don’t know everything, you don’t have all the answers, and you can’t make all the problems go away.
They will appreciate you in the long run if you don’t act like you can do any of those things.

5. Be Patient

Rome wasn’t built in a day. If you walk away from the conversation and they still aren’t on the same wavelength, that’s okay. You did your best. Nothing more can be expected of you. Be patient. At this point, it’s best to begin to show instead of tell.
Here’s an example I found true one time: my family wasn’t unsupportive, but they definitely weren’t really feeling the preparedness thing. They were kindly skeptical about it. One time on a road trip, we had been on the road for hours and I insisted that we were not stopping until we got to our destination. Pee in bottles, starve, I don’t care. We’re making it.
After a few hours, my family was pretty hungry but we were so close (kinda) and I didn’t want to stop. Then my oldest boy remembered something: “Hey Dad, don’t you keep food around here somewhere?”. I told him where to find my bug out bag that I keep in my car. It’s stashed with emergency foods such as granola, some canned foods, and other items that are useful in bugging out. You know the kind.
After my two boys, wife, and I had all gotten something, my wife put her hand on my leg, turned towards me, and said: “Well, I guess being prepared does come in handy.” No one ever gave me another moment of grief about prepping.
If you have experienced any difficulties talking to your family members, loved ones, or friends, about prepping, let us know in the comment section below how you went about dealing with it. This is a problem many preppers face and often turns what should be a fun activity into a lonely hobby.

Survival Kits: Designed to do WHAT, exactly?

urvival kits, like all tools, are designed to accomplish some task. With survival kits, that task is largely an anticipated fluke, not the daily routine. We build our kits based on what we anticipate needing if we find ourselves in extraordinary circumstances. (No snowshoes in a desert-dweller’s kit, etc.) So, when a friend gave me a set of Air Force Survival Modules, I was intrigued to see what the Air Force thought their aircrew would need, and why.

The USAF kit actually comes in two modules: #6545-01-534-0925, the medical module, and #6545-01-534-0935, the survival module. Both come vacuum sealed in waterproof plastic packs, each with a grommet so the airman can clip it to himself. After all, if he’s in a bail-out situation, his hands will be occupied with his parachute.  Within each pack is a zip-lock bag (no longer water-tight. Each has little holes)

Here’s what is in each:

Medical Module — 0925

1 - Combat QuikClot bandage: 3” x 4 yards

4 - 2” (pad size) adhesive bandages

4 - 1” wide adhesive bandages

1 - Compressed Gauze. Un-vacuum-sealed: 4.5” x 4.1 yards

1 - 2”-wide camo wrap tape

2 - Bacitracin ointment packs (1 g. each)

4 - Antiseptic towelettes 

1 - Electrolyte pack (mix with 7 oz. water) to prevent dehydration from diarrhea.

1 - BugX30, insect repellant towelette. Good for 7 hours

1 - SunX SPF30+ sunscreen, 1/4 oz.

4 - Large safety pins

1 - Cyalume IR glow stick (in hard plastic case, w/lanyard)

Survival Module — 0935

1 - Leatherman Squirt multitool

1 - CamoVat Cravat: 37 x 37 x 52” triangle (digital camo)

10 - Aquarmira water purification tablets (each tablet to treat 1 liter)

1 - Waterproof match case, which contains:

    10 stormproof matches with striker strips

    1 Spark-lite flint wheel

    1 Button compass

    Cap has a small mirror. Bottom of case has very small ferro-rod

2 - WetFire tinder packs

1 - Finger flashlight with red LED (3 button cell batteries)

1 - Finger flashlight with IR LED

1 - JetScream whistle

1 - StarFlash signal mirror

1 - Handcuff key

As Jack of Black Scout Survival pointed out in his YouTube review of the USAF kit, the two important things NOT in the kits are cordage and shelter.  He reminds everyone that an airman who bailed out will have his parachute — a huge tarp and all the paracord he could want.

Impressions on Design: Medical Module

The medical module is geared toward treating small wounds and stopping the bleeding. The bandages are small: the antiseptic quite limited. The Air Force anticipates that their downed airman maybe be hurt but will be mobile. Their goal, as we’ll see in the Survival Module, is to extract the downed crewman. They are expecting mobility. The Air Force is not equipping each airman with a major trauma, field surgery kit. 

The sundries also speak more to temporarily adapting to ground conditions — sunblock, insect repellant, anti-diarrheal electrolytes. 

Impressions on Design: Survival Module

The usual go-to first item in peoples’ survival kits — a weapon — is assumed to be on the airman already.  Some of the items speak to anticipating some evasion and escape, such as the camo cravat, red flashlight (map reading: assuming night travel), compass and the handcuff key.

Some items fall into the customary survival tools categories of fire and water. The multitool is pretty neat, given its size. The match case has ten matches and the spark-lite wheel. There is also a very small ferro-rod glued to the bottom. It won’t make very many sparks, but it can make a few.  They give each crewman water treatment tablets to treat ten liters: several days worth of water but not enough to cross the Gobi Desert. There is no water container. The Air Force assumes each man will bail with a canteen, or they expect him to scrounge up a container wherever he is.

The rest of the items are designed for rescue: the signal mirror, the whistle, the IR flashlight and IR glow stick. Obviously, the Air Force anticipates that if they have a man down in hostile territory, there will be a sizable group of men and machines searching for him, hoping to rescue and extract him. Much of the Survival Module seems designed around getting the man to an extraction point and signaling that he’s there.

There are no food items of any kind. No snares, no fishing kit, no break-out arrowheads for hunting small game. The airman is assumed to be always mobile and headed toward some extraction point, not hunkered down or foraging for food.

Compare and Contrast

When I look at the “survival kit” I’ve made up for myself, there are many similarities. I have the fire kit, the water kit and since I don’t have the parachute, I have cordage and some tarps. I have a basic medical kit too. Like the Air Force, it is not a field surgeon's kit loaded out to treat multiple gunshot wounds. It covers minor to medium injuries.

For contrast, I do not anticipate there being a platoon of friendlies looking to rescue me. Almost all of my travel (commutes, business trips, etc.) are fairly near civilization. If I’ve gone missing (crashed in the woods), I won’t be miles from traveled routes. I anticipate having to survive a few days in the bush but do expect that someone will come looking for me fairly soon. I’ll stay near the vehicle.

On the other hand, part of my kit (the Get Home Bag) as an assumption that if things get bad enough that I need to “Get Home” from work, I might need to conceal myself rather than be easy to spot. That is why I’ve chosen camo-pattern tarps and an olive green Tact Bivy rather than the bright orange one. There won’t be a Blackhawk and crew trying to rescue me. I expect to be on my own.

Summary

We all recognize that our own Survival Kits or Get Home Bags are compromises. They cannot contain every item we might possibly need. If we did, we’d all have 100 lb. bags and not get very far. Instead, we make choices of what can go and what must stay. Those decisions are built around what we anticipate our needs will be.

What assumptions did YOU make when you assembled your survival kit? We can see what the Air Force assumes. (I know the comments feature of this blog is kind of lame. My apologies. I’m working on finding a better platform.)

4 Things Your Family MUST Know Before SHTF

Statistically speaking, prepping families only make up one to two percent of our population. But if we break it down by individuals, we’ll probably find that the numbers are even lower. That’s because the average prepping family isn’t full of people who are gung-ho about prepping.
There’s often one person who is really the prepper, one or two others who go along for the ride and the rest just roll their eyes and wonder what other weird thing they’re going to have to put up with.
This may seem like a mere inconvenience now, but it could become a major problem, whenever a disaster chooses to strike. Survival is a full-time gig and anyone in your family who is not on-board is going to end up being a liability, not an asset.
Here’s where this really gets sticky: you might think that you can take care of your family by yourself, but you can’t. At least, you can’t do it without their help. One person by themselves, trying to take care of a family of four or five people who don’t have a clue about how to survive is too much for anyone to take on.
While I’m sure that you would try to, just like I would, I’m also sure that the mere work of survival will make that all but impossible to do.
What this means is that when that survival situation comes, you’re going to have to have family members who are actually helping out, not just sitting their complaining because their smartphone isn’t working or because the Wi-Fi is out.
They’ll need to become active parts of your survival team; preferably active parts who actually know how to do something.

It’s About Attitude

Survival is more about attitude than anything else. If you look at any military manual on survival, it’s going to start out with a chapter or two talking about attitude. Think about that for a moment. The US military, which can spend whatever they need to in developing survival manuals, starts out by talking about attitude.
Why is that? Because they recognize the importance of attitude in survival.
We see this in elite military forces as well, such as the Navy Seals. While Seals are superbly trained and honed to a fine edge, their biggest asset is that they don’t know how to quit. The Seal motto of, “The only easy day was yesterday” enshrines this attitude.
They know that they go into the hard situations, because it takes a team with their dedication to get the job done.
Granted, you can’t make your family have the attitude you want to. That’s just not possible. Their attitude comes from their innermost being, and you can’t control that. But you can influence it; and you should. You should do whatever you can to impress the importance of survival and being ready to survive on them, without going so far overboard that you shove them away.

Start with a Family Meeting

A good place to start is with a family meeting, where you lay your cards on the table. This is where you want to make sure that they understand why you are a prepper. They may not like it; they may not want to be part of it; but they need to understand why.
Avoid getting overly dramatic in this meeting. Talking about simple disasters, like hurricanes, is much more effective than talking about your favorite TEOTWAWKI event. While that event may very well come to pass, your goal at this point isn’t to convince them of that, it’s to get them on-board with the idea of being ready when any disaster strikes.

I’ve had this conversation with my family, as well as having it with both of my son-in-laws. Even though I haven’t convinced either of them to start prepping themselves, I have managed to get them to see the value of it, as well as understanding that in the case of a disaster, the family home is their refuge as well, and that I expect them to bring their family to my home in such a case.
Since those meetings, I’ve been able to talk more about survival and prepping with my whole family, including my son-in-laws. They are seeing the value of it, more and more, committing to the idea of taking care of their families, when the time comes.

Get ‘em Trained

You may never be able to convince your entire family to make the financial commitment necessary to start prepping. I seriously doubt that there are many teens in America today, who would rather receive a survival kit or bug out bag for Christmas, than their favorite video game.
You might get them excited about a new gun or even a hunting bow, but I doubt you’ll get them excited about a month’s worth of freeze-dried food.
But that’s not anywhere near as important as getting them interested in learning the necessary skills for survival. The right skills trump a huge stockpile any day, even though that stockpile can be very useful. In the long term, survival is more about knowing what to do, than having the stuff to do it with.
I’m sure you’ve seen some of these survival reality shows, where the survival expert is sent off into a wilderness environment with nothing but the clothes on their back and a camera crew to follow them around, recording what they do.
Those people always seem to manage to survive, even though they don’t have everything that we’d like to have, if we were in their shoes. Why? They have the knowledge.
Many survival skills are actually fun and interesting to learn. Hunting, fishing, camping – those are all things that people enjoy doing. We’ve got some relatives coming in from England to visit us in a couple of months.
The one thing they’ve said that they want to do, is shoot every gun I own while they are here. So, I’m going to teach them to shoot. That’s teaching them valuable survival skills. Whether or not they use them is up to them, but at least they’ll have the skills.
The thing is, if they were going to be with me in a survival situation, I’d want them to be able to shoot. So, spending the time and money to help them learn, doing something that they think is fun, simply makes sense.
So what if a have to spend a few bucks on ammunition, it’s worth it.

Get Them the Gear

A moment ago, I said that your family might not be as excited about you giving them survival gear and supplies as a gift. I’m not going back on that. But there’s nothing that says you can’t give them the survival gear and something that they’ll like as well.
I’ve given all my (adult) kids emergency kits to keep in the trunks of their cars. I’ve also given them various small pieces of survival gear as stocking stuffers every year. In doing so, I’m getting them a little closer to being prepared. But I also give them other things, that I know they want, so that it’s not just about giving them what I think they should have.
Of course, there’s been a bit of that too. When one of my daughters got married, my wife and I gave them matching SigSauer 9mm pistols as their wedding gift. We knew that they would like that gift and we like the idea that they have something to defend themselves with.
My other daughter and her husband like the great outdoors, so we’ve been giving them things for camping and enjoying as a family. It just so happens that those gifts also have a survival use, so if something happens and they need to survive, they’ll have something to use.
I’ve already told them that I need to borrow their daughter’s backpack, before she starts school, so that I can install a ballistic panel into it.

Get Them Involved

I said something earlier about avoiding the drama. I’ve always tried to do that. Yes, prepping is a big deal and if we are ever faced with another disaster we have to survive, that will be a big deal too. But that doesn’t mean I have to make it a big deal before the fact. All that will do is alienate people who I need to get on-board.
My softer approach has gotten everyone in my family involved in prepping. Not just my kids and their spouses, but my mother, my sister and my wife’s sister’s family. We’re all in this together. It has taken time, but bit by bit, I’ve gotten them involved.
There are many interesting things in prepping; things that can even interest the non-prepper. When I started building my own solar panels, that attracted interest. Then when I decided to build a wind turbine, that caught the eye of both of my sons-in-law. I built a well drill and my son jumped in to help me; not only building the drill, but drilling the well too.
Gradually, they’ve all been bitten by the prepping bug. It has taken time, but thank the Lord, we’ve had that time. Now, I don’t have to just depend on what I’ve got here in my home, to take care of my family, they’re starting to get with the program too.
This is actually easier with younger children, than it is with older ones. My grandchildren are already interested in my garden, the chicken coop, the bee hive and a host of other things I’m doing as part of prepping.
They think it’s great to get to check for eggs in the morning and give the chickens more feed to eat. They enjoy harvesting vegetables from the garden, and getting their hands all dirty while they’re at it. They’ve become involved.
To kids, whatever you do is normal. If your family is a family of preppers, then that’s normal to them. They will naturally think that everyone else is too; to the point of being surprised when they find out that they are not.
But you don’t have to tell those kids that you’re prepping. In fact, you don’t want to. Just let them believe that this is the way you live. That’s enough. What they don’t know, they can’t tell anyone else. so they won’t end up becoming a problem for your OPSEC.

When Will Your Family Be Ready?

Let me wrap this up by saying something you may not like. That is, your family is never going to be fully ready for a disaster. There’s really no such thing as being totally ready. Part of that is because none of us know what disasters we’re going to face.
All you can do is work on getting ready and getting your family ready, hoping that when the time comes, you will be ready enough.
Real life isn’t like an adventure story. You can be sure that when the time comes, you’ll find that there are key items you didn’t stockpile. But with enough training, you’ll be able to overcome that lack and still find a way to do everything you need to do.
So don’t worry; just do the best you can. That goes for your family as well. Don’t worry about how ready they are or how much on-board they are. Just do whatever you can to get them ready. The rest will happen, when it need to happen, whenever that might be.

 

Food Storage: the Best Canned Foods

Which canned foods are best for their nutritional value? Should you stored canned goods at all?
The main staples of my stored food is rice, pasta, wheat flour, and vegetable oil. But canned goods add food options not easily obtained any other way: fruits and vegetables year-round; heat and serve beef stew; ready-to-eat chicken, salmon, or tuna; beans that don’t need to be soaked all night and cooked all day; sauces and gravys; etc.
You can grow some fruits and veggies in your garden, but canned goods are so easy. Both are good options. And there is only so much room in the frig and freezer. Canned fruits and vegetables keep for a long time. Dried beans are useful, but they take a long time to prepare. So despite the disadvantage of weight and space, canned goods are a necessary component of any food storage plan for preppers.
I would divide canned goods into different categories of food, so that you have options for each meal, plus all of the nutritional components (protein, fat, and carbohydrates, and vitamins/minerals).
Fruits
I would plan to use about three servings of fruits (of one kind or another) every week. You might think you would eat canned fruit every day, but in reality, any food gets tiring on a daily basis. So for a 6-month food storage plan, 26 weeks x 3 is 78 servings. Of course, you can find common canned fruits at any grocery store. But consider looking in different stores, to collect a wider range of canned fruits. Also, the very large cans are tempting to buy, since they are cheaper per ounce of fruit. But once the can is opened, you have to use it within a week. So take that into account. Whatever size can provides you and yours with a week’s worth of fruit, that is the size to get.
Vegetables
But what you eat. But also, try to expand your usual diet to as wide a range of foods as possible. As any SHTF scenario continues to unfold, grocery stores will run out of food, so will your frig and freezer. And a garden only provides so much volume of food. You may be eating more canned food that you would like.
Beans. I don’t like the dry variety. They take too long to cook, and then, after all that effort, they are not so great. Maybe you have a favorite soup or chili recipe, so that’s good for you. But I’d rather open a can of baked beans, heat and serve. Three bean salad is great for improving a rice or pasta dish. And then you can use a can of plain pre-cooked beans for soups and chili without all the waiting.
What else? Corn, peas, carrots, etc. I would get these as individual vegetables, not in a can with mixed veggies. The reason is that taste is better, and the recipes are more versatile. I like roasted red peppers, pepperoncini, and other vegetables used as condiments. They improve an otherwise bland meal based on grains and legumes.
Meat, Poultry, Fish
The FDA says you should eat no more than 2 servings of canned tuna per week because of the mercury content. But canned salmon is much lower in mercury — lower than almost any other fish. So plan for one can of tuna per week, and one or two cans of salmon. Actually, those newer foil packs of tuna and salmon keep well and are more compact for storage.
Then consider storing some canned chicken. Use the chicken in chicken noodle soup, and it tastes great — much better than canned chicken noodle soup by itself. You can also mix the canned chicken with mayo for a chicken salad sandwich.
Spam is much ridiculed, but actually tastes fine in a sandwich. Buy a can and try it, before stocking up. To each his own. As for other red meats, beef stew is perhaps your best option. Find a variety you like. Heat and then pour over a huge plate of rice. Or doctor the stew with chopped fresh veggies from the garden, and enjoy from a bowl.
Stored meat, poultry, and fish is not as good as fresh. But it’s better than becoming an unwilling vegetarian, because the commercial food system has collapsed and you didn’t plan well. It’s also hard to get enough protein from a diet based on grains and legumes, so stored meat is an important nutritional consideration.
Soups store well. You can add pasta or rice and turn it into a meal. And the many varieties of soups make a diet based on grains more palatable.
Tomato paste is a good storage item. Look on the label of any pasta sauce, and the main ingredients are: water and tomato paste. You can make your own pasta sauce with tomato paste, a little vegetable oil, spices, and some chopped peppers and onions. Tomato paste is also good for homemade pizza. Thin it with oil, not water, and spread on the pizza dough.
What other foods store well in cans? Condensed milk for baking. Sesame tahini for homemade hummus. Boston brown bread. Cheese-like sauces. You may not have thought of those options. (Or you might not think much of those options.)
Storage location
The downside of canned foods is the weight and space. The location needs to be cool and dry. Canned goods will rust. High temperatures will cause canned goods to spoil much faster. Ideally, you should commandeer some cabinet space in your temperature controlled home. The basement is OK, as long as you can find a dry place. A garage that is hot in summer is not as good; the same for attics.
Keep an eye on the expiration dates, since canned goods don’t keep forever. A food rotation schedule would be ideal, but is perhaps too hard to implement in a busy household.

13 Things NOT To Do When Disaster Strikes

Plenty of attention is given to the things you should do when disaster strikes. However, knowing what not to do can be just as important for your survival. In this list, you’ll find 13 things that you should avoid doing at all costs when disaster strikes.

1. Panic

Few things are more likely to cost you your life when the chips are down than panicking. While fear serves an evolutionary purpose in that it makes you aware of the danger, panic is fear’s ugly cousin, dulling your senses and your survival instincts. If disaster strikes, take a deep breath, stick to your plan, and do your best to stay calm.

2. Stare at the TV

With every news station in the country broadcasting updates about the disaster 24/7, it’s easy to fall into a state of shell-shock where you sit and stare at the TV, hanging on the news anchor’s every word. However, time spent staring at the TV is time not being spent preparing for your survival. Once you have a solid grasp of what has taken place, shut off the TV and get to work.

3. Decline Government Aid

Many preppers have a lone wolf attitude, convinced that they can survive whatever the world throws at them all on their own. When you combine this attitude with a general distrust of the government, it leads some people to actually turn down government aid such as food and water after a disaster. However, smart survivalists know that you should take advantage of every resource you have available – government aid included.

4. Bug Out Into the Woods

Bugging out is something that takes planning and preparation. You need to have a bug out bag prepared as well as a specific destination in mind. If all you are doing is running haphazardly into the woods with little to no supplies in-tow, you can’t expect your odds of surviving to be very high.

5. Act Like Rambo Resurrected

The aftermath of a disaster is no time to strap on your combat gear and start parading around the street with a gun in hand like a modern-day Rambo. Doing this will only draw unwanted attention from other civilians as well as any cops or military personnel that might be in the area. While it’s good to have firepower and combat gear in case situations take a turn for the worse, keep these things on the down-low and do your best to blend in and not stand out.

6. Blame Yourself

The blame game is a game with no winners, especially when you blame yourself. When a disaster strikes, you’ll probably think of all sorts of things you should have done to make yourself more prepared. Even experienced preppers will probably be kicking themselves over a few things, but doing this is a waste of time. It will only slow you down when you should be focused on your survival plan.

7. Blame Everybody Else

Maybe you won’t blame yourself for anything. Maybe instead you’ll blame the president, or congress, or the deep state, or another country. And maybe they deserve the blame, but there will be plenty of time to think about that later. Getting angry and blaming the people responsible is a waste of time and energy you should be using toward putting your survival plan into action.

8. Resort to Lawlessness

Major disasters have a way of turning law-abiding citizens into shameless criminals in little time at all. However, when it comes to resorting to thievery and other acts of lawlessness after a disaster strikes, the risks far outweigh the rewards. Not even taking into account the moral implications of this behavior, attempting to steal supplies following a disaster is likely to get you shot. It’s far better to have your own supplies than to find yourself on the wrong end of a gun while trying to steal someone else’s.

9. Run to the Store

The moment disaster strikes, food, water, and other supplies suddenly become invaluable. With this being the case, it may be tempting to run to the store in order to stock up on cheap supplies as soon as you learn about the disaster. However, the time to stock up on supplies is before a disaster strikes, not after.
The problem with booking it to the nearest store in the heat of a disaster is that everyone else is going to have the same idea. Not only will you be unlikely to secure any supplies before they’re gone, you’ll also be entering a dangerous area full of desperate people willing to do whatever it takes to ensure they’re the ones who walk out with that last bottle of water.

10. Ignore Your Basic Needs

Basic needs such as food, sleep, and hygiene don’t go out the window when disaster hits. Following a disaster, make sure you continue to take care of yourself and provide your body with the things it needs in order to be in optimum condition. As much as possible, try to eat balanced meals, take your meds, get plenty of sleep, keep yourself clean, and so forth. This will keep you strong both physically and psychologically.

11. Take Care of Everyone Who Shows up on Your Doorstep

One of the hardest things about being prepared when others are not is having to turn away people who are looking for help. As gut-wrenching as this might be, though, there comes a point where it is a necessity. It goes without saying that your number one goal is to keep yourself and your family alive, and you can’t do that if you give supplies to every stranger that shows up on your doorstep. (BTW, if you turn people away, you’ll need some great home security measures to make sure they can’t get in.)

12. Despair

A major disaster can turn your world upside down, leaving you feeling hopeless. It’s important to remember, though, that no matter how desperate the situation is all hope is not lost. So long as you are still breathing, planning, and doing what it takes to stay alive, you still have a chance. No matter how hopeless your situation might seem, don’t despair.

13. Keep Your Family in the Dark

Wanting to spare your family the trauma of finding out that a horrible disaster has taken place is a noble cause, but it’s also a dangerous one. In order for all of you to survive what comes next, you all need to be on the same page, fully understanding what it is that you are up against. Sit your family down and explain to them in a calm, level tone what has happened and what the next step is rather than keeping them in the dark.

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