10 Things To Consider While Starting Out With Preparedness
Lets say you’re just getting started with preparedness. It may seem overwhelming. Where to begin? What to focus on? You may feel that you’re very far behind (because you’re just starting). You may have the urge to hurry up (mistakes happen when you’re in a hurry).
The following ten considerations may help you get started with all that:
In no particular order, except to have them in a list:
10 Ways To Get Started With Preparedness
1. Pace yourself.
Once you get started you might get so excited that you’ll concentrate too much and spend too much time (and money) on just one category of preparedness. This category may simply be whatever it is that you enjoy the most, or are most familiar with. Maybe you’ve been looking for an excuse to dump some time / money into a particular prep – and now that you’re officially getting started you might be tempted to go too far, so to speak ;) Just keep that in mind and try to diversify your time and energies into a broader set of things that you can do for general preparedness.
2. Start with the basics.
Wait to invest time and money into fringe areas until you have a good start with the basics of general preparedness. You probably instinctively know what some of these basics are. And there certainly are many opinions regarding ‘the basics’, although some of them include:
3. Food Storage.
Begin with a solid 3-week supply of ordinary foods that you normally eat (or would eat) – preferably those which do not require refrigeration or freezer. Then build it to 3-months. There are a bazillion articles on this site about food storage:
>> MSB articles on the Survival Kitchen
4. Drinking Water Filtration.
There are all sorts of reasons why you may suddenly need a good drinking water filter to avoid water contamination and/or to procure water for safe drinking from a non-conventional source. Decide on a good water filter and get one. It’s a good idea to have a good one for home use and another portable water filter for ‘on-the-go’.
>> The Best Countertop Water Filters
5. A simple Emergency Kit in your vehicle.
Without being overly elaborate, build yourself a general purpose e-kit to keep in your car. In a backpack (in case you have to walk out), this might include calorie-dense food-bars, maybe some MREs, water (water bottles), portable water filter, flashlight, Toilet Paper (you never know…), knife, cordage, compass, regional map, along with several other suggestions which are listed in some of the following various articles here on Modern Survival Blog:
6. Prepare for power outage.
I bring this up because this is a fairly common thing that you will encounter (and no doubt you already have encountered)! Instead of making it through several hours or half-a-day without the grid (which really doesn’t require any prep), imagine a longer term blackout grid-down scenario which lasts for many days, a week, or even two. Now think of all the things you’ll need to do or have in order to ‘survive’ in reasonable comfort when it happens.
>> Alternative Energy articles on MSB
7. Lists.
Write it down. Makes lists. Think of high-level categories (the 30-thousand foot view) of the areas that you want to address. Then begin to list what you would like to do beneath each category. By organizing your thoughts on paper you will be able to track your progress or edit what you’re doing. Plus it helps you to remember everything ;) Believe me, it’s easy to forget things especially when you’re overwhelmed with so many things that you would like to do…
8. Think “self-reliance”.
Preparedness at its core really comes down to aspects of self-reliance. Taking care of one’s-self. It’s one thing to rely on a deep pantry of food storage, but one day it may run out. Then what? Think about all aspects of your life whereby you are relying on other systems to provide or sustain you. And then think of ways to offset that. For example, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of growing your own garden. Secondly, learn how to preserve your harvest (e.g. canning). Even when determining the basics of general preparedness, it most always surrounds the notion of self-reliance. You rely on yourself and the things that you can do for yourself to survive under varying circumstances. Discover for yourself what those things should be and then work on them…
>> Self Reliance & Self Sufficiency — What’s the Difference?
9. Your home and personal security.
Examine your security vulnerabilities and determine what you may need to shore it up. While we live in a relatively peaceful society, it could flip to societal chaos very quickly when the masses get hungry and/or lose their creature comforts…
>> Personal and Home Security articles on MSB
10. Keep quiet about it.
When you’re getting started in the realm of preparedness it is very tempting to blurt it out to all your friends and family (because you are naturally excited about it). Unfortunately (and remarkably) the notion of preparedness, self-reliance, and independence is ‘alarming’ to many people – particularly those who may be very dependent upon .gov or those who have been indoctrinated into the far social-left (or further). If things ever ‘get bad’ (and I believe that they will), you don’t want everyone to know that you’re somewhat ‘prepared’ – because others may look upon ‘your stuff’ as justly belonging to them (as though you unfairly hoarded it – even though you acquired your preps before the collapse). I could go on with many pages about this, but just remember the old saying, “Loose lips sink ships”.
Zip it…
Conclusion:
There as SO MANY things that I could say regarding suggestions for those who may be just getting started with preparedness. The categories are limitless and endless. Hopefully the tips above have provided a bit of insight into what you might do while getting started. Just keep reading this site for more (and search it for the many existing articles).
…and read the comments!
Speaking of comments, lets hear from you. What might you add for those who may be just getting started? What are some of the basics for general preparedness that you might suggest?