With prepping becoming more and more popular since Y2K, the question of whether or not to prep comes up constantly. After all, newspapers and television news did a lot of features on people who decided to pre-emptively fall off the grid and move into cabins in the woods sleeping on water beds they could later drink. When nothing bad came from Y2K, the obvious follow-up question was “Is prepping a waste of time?”
Prepping is not a waste of time. Taking action to be prepared for any situation is worthwhile – especially if you do it to the appropriate degree. By that I mean it’s best to have a reasonable stock of everyday items you will use regardless of extreme situations. This is especially true of items that don’t expire or perishables that have a long shelf life.
Remember March of 2020
If you don’t believe that, just ask anyone who ran out of toilet paper after the first week of the pandemic in 2020. The average person in the US goes through about 7 to 8 rolls per month. If you had just one extra 24-pack, you could easily get through the initial shortage and restock when limited supplies once again became available (even with rationing). A prepper likely would likely typically buy in bulk and have a 24-pack as their regular purchase as well as several more, purchased over time and stacked in a secondary storage area where temperature did not matter.
Prepping is Not “Panic Buying”
Some people mistakenly think that prepping means to go out and buy up all they can the minute they hear a whisper of potential shortage. That is known as “panic buying” and “hoarding.” It is the opposite of careful prepping, which involves planning gradual purchases of items well in advance of needing them.
Panic buying decreases availability, which creates scarcity. Scarcity drives perceived value and cost. This is how a $0.75 roll of toilet paper becomes worth $3 overnight. Panic buying is also one of the things that leads to the need for rationing of everyday essentials.
Smart Prepping
Smart prepping is like turning your home into a giant piggy bank. But instead of tossing in your loose change, you slowly fill it with items you rely on for everyday living. The things that make this type of prepping smart are as follow:
- You stock up on brands you like and are happy to use.
- Purchases are made slowly so you never put a dent in your wallet. This might be a few extra cans of soup when grocery shopping or fifty extra rounds of ammo when at the range or gun shop.
- When using perishables, you rotate through your stock based on expiration or “best by” dates.
- You can wait for the best deals and take advantage of coupons.
Smarter Prepping
There are also ways to go above and beyond the basics of smart prepping as follow:
- Get a membership to a big box store where bulk purchases are the norm. You can either buy an extra case of an item occasionally or just put a few items from each case in reserve each time you make a purchase. This is the same concept as putting all your change in a large bottle every day and then finding you have enough cash saved to take a vacation when you finally empty it.
- Subdivide and repackage bundles of dry goods. Equipment such as low-cost kitchen leftover vacuum sealers can be used to divide large discount bags of rice, beans, and grains into much smaller usable packs that can last 20 years in your pantry.
- Map your living space into zones for storage. Most shelf-stable food items, such as canned goods, need to be stored in places whose conditions are cool and dark with low humidity. This is usually a pantry in the home or a basement. But you do not want to put these items in exposed areas subject to extreme heat and cold such as garages and attics. Garages and attics however can be the perfect place for long-term storage of paper products and other non-perishables.
Preparing for Comfort
One of the first things people realize after a power outage is that it’s far better to have one comfortable pace to hunker down in the house than a lot of space that is all uncomfortable. That said, it makes sense to designate one part of your home as a comfort zone in times of emergency.
This should be an area that can be easily isolated for heating and cooling as well as have immediate access to a bathroom. Most people with one or two small children might choose their master bedroom if it has an attached bath. It’s easy enough to use a small generator to power the lights and a portable ac unit or space heater for an area of about 500 square feet or less, just by running an approved extension cord.
Upgrade to Comfort and Convenience
Having a generator running outside your bedroom window can be less than relaxing. If you have a bit more cash available, consider investing in a transfer switch or an Interlock Kit with a power inlet box. In short, these are two options to connect a portable small to mid-size generator to your home’s breaker box without risking back feed (or a surge back) to the utility lines.
The big benefit to these types of systems is you can get reliable backup power to any parts of the house you wish without have a whole house backup generator system. I’ll let a professional share the details.
Generator Selection
Finding the right generator to suit your needs can involve a lot of research and time spent determining typical power needs, fuel requirements, noise considerations, motor efficiency, safety features and more. After performing that research for myself I found the following video that compared my top two picks without bias.
This does not mean either unit is the best solution for your needs, but the review and comparison should provide enough general information to help point you in the right direction. Beyond that, your next step should be reading reviews and speaking with a reputable sales rep that has no personal stake in your selection.
Next Steps
We have answered the question “Is prepping a waste of time?” and even how to prep smarter and improve comfort and convenience. Next, let’s consider the best prepper foods to stock up on with a quick post on this very site. In addition to the post is a downloadable spreadsheet detailing the top 100 prepper food items as well as sample brands with nutritional information for each. This will help you plan months of meals to maximize dietary value and enjoy variety of tastes.