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Sure, shoveling a couple of tin cans and ready-to-eat packs inside a pantry or emergency household kit may be a no-brainer, but what happens when a real emergency blows your way and you’ll need to eat those stuff to stay alive? More than that, are you really sure that everything stays fresh until the time for unboxing comes? There are a lot of things to consider when creating a long-term food stockpile: shelf life, type of food, the very environment where you choose to store the food, and, the containers themselves.

As you know, emergency food should be stored in a cool and dark environment to keep them from getting rotten. Still, that leaves you to deal with other unforeseen dangers such as rodents clawing your way into your food stash, insects, and, of course, indirect environmental factors that can make long-term storage food stored in metal cans go bad. Last but not least, moisture can severely affect your food, even if it’s neatly wrapped in packages.

What I like to do in this case is to take the original pack and place it inside individual zip-lock bags before placing them inside airtight plastic containers.

You can even throw in a couple of desiccant silica gel packs to remove any moisture remaining inside. For a while, I thought long and hard about finding a more permanent solution to the excess moisture issue inside the pantry I use to store my food and I eventually ended up buying a dehumidifier. It works very well, and mine takes triple-A batteries (you can switch them with rechargeable power cells).

Now, regarding today’s topic, some foods are more endearing than others. For instance, lentils can be stored for at least 5 years. On the other hand, rice, if deposited in a proper environment, can last for 30 years if not more. This is why I’ve always pushed for smart stockpiling, aka buying only those stuff with a very long shelf life that could, theoretically, last forever.

This is not something new under the sun. In fact, if you remember your history lessons when Carter and Lord Carnarvon popped open Tut’s tomb, they found perfectly edible food stored inside wax-sealed angoras. And it’s not the only example – the Chinese and even the Mayans. So, what are these wonder foods that can be kept for decades at an end in the pantry before going rotten? Stick around to find out.

  1. Carrots

Packs with flavonoids and tons of other nutrients, carrots are excellent for stews, broths, and even by themselves. What most people don’t know is that those bright-orange wonders can be stored for decades. Dehydrated carrots have a shelf life of 25 years or even more. The trick is to place them in air-tight containers right after removing all the water to minimize contact with the air. I recently found out that it’s way easier to remove the water if you chop them into small pieces.

To whip up a quick batch of dried carrots:

  • Peel them off.
  • Wash and rinse.
  • Blanch them in a pot.
  • Put them on a tray.
  • Preheat the over to 125.
  • Place the carrots inside and allow them to dry. It takes about 4 to 5 hours depending on your oven.

Don’t forget to still every hour. Take them out of the oven and allow them to dry before tossing them inside a zip-lock bag.

2. Pasta

Mamma mia! Who doesn’t adore a plateful of pasta with meatballs? I, for one, am very much in love with pasta. It’s the type of food that can be cooked in every way imaginable. Even better, pasta, especially the deep-frozen variety, has a very long shelf life (at least 20 years).

Still, if you store them in a moist-free environment, you can take them out and whip up a quick pasta dinner even after 40 or 50 years. I read somewhere that pasta products can even last for a century and even more if placed in special storage containers like aluminum-lined mylar bags.

3. Salt

No meal’s complete with a sprinkle and tinkle of salt. This awesome condiment, which has been around since the dawn of time, does not ever go rotten if stored in the proper conditions. You need not worry about bacteria getting inside, because salt has a way of dealing with them.

Still, the only thing you should concern yourself with is moisture. If the container isn’t properly sealed (been there, done that), then it’s bye-bye salt and hello mush. I usually keep my salt in a heavy-duty plastic container in which I throw a pack or two of desiccant silica gel wrapped in plastic just to be sure.

4. Baking soda

There’s nothing baking soda can’t do or fix – you can use it to bake delicious cookies, cakes, and clean stuff around the house. Before I went to the doctor to get my molar fixed, I used to gargle baking soda in the morning before brushing my teeth (great for morning breath as well).

If you’re a computer buff, just like myself, you can use a light baking soda mixture to remove persistent stains from plastic computer cases (also works wonders on those yellow spots!). As you’ve guessed it, baking soda has no expiration date, provided that you store it in proper conditions – no moisture and sunlight.

5. Soy Sauce

Care for some Chinese? Well, if you’re a fan of Asian cuisine then you must know that no dish must be without soy sauce. The salty, smokey, flavor gives that sea-foody taste to each meal. Are you ready for the good news? Soy sauce never goes bad. Ever!

Since it’s packed with sodium, that stuff will never spoil due to bacteria. Watch out for moisture and exposure to sunlight though. To protect that black gold, pour the contents of a bottle into a sealable and air-tight glass jar. You can line up the jar’s mouth with aluminum foil and plastic wrap for extra protection.

6. Powdered milk

I know that nothing beats the taste of real cow’s milk, but the bacteria inside it make it impossible to store it over long periods. On the other hand, powdered milk is not pretentious and very handy to have around the house for dishes and drinks. If stored in a moisture-free environment, powdered milk can last forever. I usually store powdered milk in a large plastic container with a couple of moisture-absorbent packs inside.

7. Instant drinks (coffee, cocoa powder, and tea)

No emergency stockpile should go without easy and quick-to-prepare drinks. I cannot and will not imagine a world without coffee or tea. Since they’re dehydrated, all instant drinks can last up to 10 years if you remember to store them in a moisture-free room.

 

8. Honey

Yes, dear? No, I was talking about bee honey, the one you use to make cookies or sweeten your drinks. The high sugar contents inhibit bacteria from developing. And, if stored properly (lid screwed on tight, no sunlight and moisture), a jar of honey can last for 100 years or even more!

 

9. Stock and bouillon

These are great during those cold winter days when you want to whip up a bowl of soup or your favorite comfort food. Everything boiled and set to cool down before being placed in bottles or something can last for ten years or more. A funny thing happened to me the first time my wife and I prepare bouillon for our stockpile.

So, the pantry which I used to store my food had a slight design issue – heat seeped through one of the holes in the wall. After the bottles cooled down, we placed them inside and forgot about them for a couple of weeks. One night, I heard this long bang coming from the pantry. Half-asleep and almost naked, I ran up to see what the Hell was happening.

When I opened the door to peek inside it was like stumbling upon a crime scene – two of the bottles exploded and there was tomato sauce everywhere. After a while, I realized that the heat made the bouillon bottles blow up. So, make sure your pantry is insulated. Otherwise, someone might think you’ve killed someone and hid his body inside the room.

10. Sugar

Spice and everything nice – these are the ingredients to create the perfect prepper. Very much like baking soda and honey, sugar can be stored indefinitely. The only problem is that it tends to harden over time. No problem. Just place it inside a large container and use a spatula or a spoon to break down those big chunks.

 

11. Beans

Delicious, nutritious, and easy to prepare, beans are at the very top of the food pyramid. Although you’ll probably end up passing more gas than usual after a bean-based dish, it’s nevertheless a versatile food. More than that, if you’re careful enough to store them in proper condition, a single bag of beans can last up to 30 years. There’s one catch about beans – you will need to reseal the bag from time to time. This is why I switched to aluminum-lined mylar bags instead of plastic, airtight containers.

 

12. White vinegar

What happens when the wine goes bad? You get up from the table and argue with the waiter, of course. Kidding – wine has this outstanding quality of transforming into vinegar, which is one of the most useful items found in your pantry, apart from salt and baking soda.

Vinegar can be used in salad dressings and other dishes, but it’s also a great helper around the house (my wife uses it to remove cat hair from the carpet and I use it in very small amounts to remove pigeon droppings from the car’s hood). White vinegar never goes rotten, so you can store as much as you want without a problem.

 

13. Maple Syrup

Fancy some pancakes with maple syrup for breakfast? My kids go absolutely bonkers over this dish. Can’t say that it’s really good for their teeth but, hey, try arguing with a hungry and screaming toddler. Just like honey, maple syrup has high sugar contents, which means that it can be stored for long periods of time (50 to 80 years, by some accounts).

However, you should know that there’s a huge difference between maple syrup stored in plastic and the one stored in glass bottles. The first, even unopened, has a shelf life of 5 to 18 months, while the later can last as much as half a century.

 

14. Ghee

I don’t know if most of you are familiar with this ingredient. Ghee is a type of base which is prepared from boiled butter. Basically, you get ghee by removing all the water from the butter. Great for Indian dishes and preparing low-calorie foods. If you store it in an airtight container, ghee will never go bad on you.

 

15. Corn starch

Momma always used to say that if the food looks too watery, add some cornstarch to make the spoon stand up on its own. Corn starch is very useful around the house – you can cook with it, clean up stuff, and even use it in combination with water to soothe sunburns. Stock up on cornstarch now because this stuff will never go bad.

Okay! To wrap this up in a neat and elegant manner, check out this small list of all the foods and their shelf-lives. Hope you’ve learned by now that smart stockpiling is all about knowing your food and not shoveling them in a pantry and throwing away the key.

Food Shelf Life (years)
Carrots (dehydrated) 25+
Pasta 20+
Salt Forever
Baking Soda Forever
Soy Sauce Forever
Powdered milk Forever
Instant drinks 10+
Honey 100+
Stock & Bouillon 10+
Sugar Forever
Beans 30+
White Vinegar Forever
Maple Syrup 50~80
Ghee Forever
Corn Starch Forever

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Sure, shoveling a couple of tin cans and ready-to-eat packs inside a pantry or emergency household kit may be a no-brainer, but what happens when a real emergency blows your

If you look at old black-and-white photographs from the early 20th century, you’ll often see people wearing suits to baseball games and fishing trips. Have you ever wondered why that is? Why people living a hundred years ago would wear fine clothing for everyday activities?

One reason is that clothes are significantly cheaper nowadays, and the average person has more disposable income. For previous generations, that meant that they could only afford a few sets of clothing, so they needed to look very good and be built to last. But these days most people can afford to buy a large and diverse wardrobe consisting of cheap, casual clothes.

And as a result, we don’t really take very good care of our garments. You don’t have to when clothing is so cheap. Clothes rarely last as long as they’re capable of lasting, because we treat them like they’re cheap and disposable, which is often what they are. But if you don’t like to waste money buying new outfits every few months, there are a few things you can do to make your favorite clothes last for many years.

Don’t Over-Wash Denim

Most people treat jeans the same way they treat t-shirts, socks, and underwear. They think that jeans need to be washed after every use. That’s simply not true. Unless they’re visibly dirty, your jeans can be worn five to ten times in a row before they need to be washed. And washing, of course, causes a lot of wear and tear. So spare your jeans and keep them out of the wash until they really need it.

Avoid Dry Cleaning

Unless the tag on your clothes recommends dry cleaning, you should avoid it. The chemicals involved in dry cleaning can be pretty harsh on fabric, especially wool. Plus, the kinds of clothes that often need to be dry cleaned like suits, usually don’t need that treatment very often. Not unless you wear the same suit every day, and even then you probably don’t need to dry clean your suit every week. For most of us who rarely wear suits, they only need to be dry cleaned once a year.

Air Dry Your Clothes

Most of us don’t give much thought to the lint that we scoop out of the dryer after every load of laundry. But it’s important to remember that those wads of lint represent severe wear and tear on your clothes. Every time your garment goes through the dryer, its fibers are being stripped away. If possible, you should air-dry your fabrics on a clothesline.

Zip It Up

And it’s not just the dryer that wears out clothes. If you want to protect your clothes from the rigors of the washing machine, there are a few precautions you should take. First, consider turning your clothes inside out before washing them. This will protect the color and texture of the outside layer for longer. Second, zip up and button your clothes, which will keep buttons and zipper from snagging on other garments. And finally, don’t try to cram too many articles of clothing into a washing machine. That creates a lot of friction that will wear your clothes down faster.

Protect Your Buttons With Nail Polish

When shirt and jacket buttons begin to fray and fall off, you have two options. you can either replace the garment or sew the buttons back on. The latter of those options isn’t much better than the former. It’s often the case that a resewn button won’t stay as long as the original. The fabric underneath the button just isn’t as tight as it used to be. Fortunately there’s another way. You can apply nail polish to the threads, which will help keep them from fraying for a while.

Treat Your Leather Right

Jackets and boots made out of leather are often the most expensive clothes we wear, so it’s wise to take good care of them. That includes wiping them down with a damp cloth from time to time and applying waterproofing products at least once a year. If these clothes do get soaked, it’s best to let them air dry, and not store them in direct sunlight.

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If you look at old black-and-white photographs from the early 20th century, you’ll often see people wearing suits to baseball games and fishing trips. Have you ever wondered why that

Why does everyone talk about storing wheat?

I recognize that there is a significant number of people in the world that do not tolerate wheat well, or at all. My father-in-law has celiac disease, and one of my sons cannot have any whole grains. However, even these individuals should consider storing wheat in some measure, and I’ll be discussing the reasons why at the end of this article. Of course, those that will benefit most from this article are those who can eat wheat.

Wheat is the staple grain of the North American diet. It’s what we grow here all across the Great Plains. It’s what we’re accustomed to eating. We have the recipes for breads and other baked goods. (You do have recipes, right? Hard copies, right?) Amaranth, quinoa, spelt and such are great, but most people don’t store or use them. They don’t know how to work with them. TEOTWAWKI won’t be the time to learn. And exotic grains are expensive. At least for now, wheat is very cheap.

Because wheat is what we grow here, it’s what will be available post-TEOTWAWKI, if anything is. Even if you can’t eat wheat, consider storing it for those who can, especially those in your family or those who may be coming to you. That way you have cheaper food for them and you can keep your costlier non-wheat preps for yourself.

Nothing smells better, or tastes better, than freshly baked bread. Really good food improves morale in a crisis. And unfortunately, bread is one of those items that cannot be stored. It has to be made fresh every week. Furthermore, most people can’t make bread. It is definitely one of those skills that takes practice and should be mastered while we can still feed the loaves that flop to the chickens without feeling wasteful.

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Non-GMO Hard Red Spring Wheat

Wheat is nutritious.

Wheat combined with milk (in the same meal) will provide all the essential amino acids for building protein. Wheat is a primary source of B vitamins. Because B vitamins are water-soluble, they can’t be stored by the body. We need a constant supply of vitamin B to maintain good health. In addition, sprouted wheat berries (more on that later) are an excellent source of vitamin C and also provide some vitamins A and D.

While being able to bake bread is probably the main reason for most of us to store wheat, there is still plenty that can be done with wheat berries until you are able to obtain a grain grinder and while you learn to bake your bread. The whole grain can be boiled for cereal. Any leftover boiled berries can be mixed in with ground beef to extend it (meat loaf, meat balls, hamburger patties, etc.) without too much notice by the rest of the family. The whole berries can be used to make blender pancakes or blender waffles (full recipes and tutorials at storethisnotthat.com). The berries can be popped and eaten like popcorn.

But wait, there’s more!

WheatBerry_Salad

Wheat Berry Salad with fresh tomatoes from the garden.

Wheat can be sprouted for even greater nutritional benefits. In a nutshell, wheat berries are soaked in cool water for about twelve hours. Drain the berries and rinse and drain again. Rinse the wheat well three to four times per day. (For the specific how-to’s of sprouting wheat, click here.) The two to three-day old sprouts can be added to soups or salads. At this point they are already much higher in calcium and vitamin C and several other minerals. Or let the sprouts continue to grow and green up a little for adding to sandwiches, like alfalfa sprouts. Or dehydrate the sprouted berries and grind them into flour for sourdough baking. Or toss them into soil for growing wheat grass for juicing.

Furthermore, wheat berries can also be used to grow fodder for our animals. Basically, the wheat berries are soaked and sprouted as described above, but instead of sprouting in a jar they are spread in a plastic tray with drainage holes. The rinsing is the same—three to four times per day, and the wheat berries are allowed to grow into wheat grass. The roots develop into a thick mat, and the grass and mat are fed as fodder to livestock about ten days from the initial soaking. So even people who can’t eat wheat benefit from storing it as the fodder is fed to chickens, rabbits, goats, and sheep who turn the fodder into eggs, meat, milk, and sometimes even fiber.

While it does take a little time and effort—but just a little—to grow fodder, bear in mind all the benefits. One pound of wheat berries becomes seven pounds of highly nutritious natural fodder. Wheat has a much, much longer shelf life than commercial feeds, it is much cheaper, and takes much less space. Fodder is a great way to provide greens in winter when grasses and weeds aren’t growing.

WheatSprouts

Wheat can be sprouted for even greater nutritional benefits. In a nutshell, wheat berries are soaked in cool water for about twelve hours. Drain the berries and rinse and drain again.

What is the best type of wheat to stock up on?

As you start researching the possibilities of adding wheat to your storage program, you find that there are actually a lot of different kinds of wheat. So now what? What kind to purchase? After all, you don’t want to make any mistakes here.

Durum wheat is what is used to make pasta, and soft white wheat is used for baked goods that do not use yeast—biscuits, cookies, cakes, etc. Soft white wheat also has less protein (gluten) than hard white. Most people do not store these two grains, at least not in significant quantities.

Hard white spring wheat sprouts best, but some research shows that it doesn’t store quite as well as the hard red and hard white winter wheat’s.

Hard red wheat has very slightly more protein than hard white. However, because hard white lacks the bitterness of hard red, less sweetener is needed in baked goods. For all of its advantages—milder taste, superior baking qualities, and ease of sprouting, hard white winter wheat is what we store.

And just how does wheat need to be stored? Regardless of the variety you choose, if stored properly wheat can remain viable and edible for hundreds of years. There are a variety of storage options, each with their pros and cons. Mylar bags are easy and very portable, but rats and mice can chew through them. Grain stored in #10 cans is pest-proof, but the cans are subject to rust, especially in humid areas. And storing enough wheat in cans gets a little pricey, at least for us. Some choose to store their wheat in large plastic or metal barrels. I just don’t like them because they aren’t very portable. Our family has moved (with our food storage!) eight times in the past 25 years. I can’t imagine what a nightmare moving large barrels would have been.

StoringFoodLongTerm

You can find free food-grade buckets at local stores around town.

Storing Wheat in your home or retreat

We choose to store our grains in plastic buckets that we get free from bakeries and donut shops. They’re free, they’re food grade, they’re portable. Yes, mice or rats could eventually chew through the buckets. Admittedly, we have had some seasons with an overabundance of mice and rats (isn’t even a single critter an overabundance?), but we’ve never had any critter chew on the buckets. The cons are that the five-gallon buckets can be difficult for some people to carry. And those lids can be nearly impossible to remove. Make sure you have a few bucket wrenches for them. They’re a lifesaver.

Store your wheat in a cool, dry place—50-60 degrees is ideal. Wheat that has been stored at higher temperatures for even a short time will not sprout as well or at all and will not make good yeast bread. It will also have lost some nutritional value.

Exactly how much wheat should you store? Well, that’s going to vary from one person to the next. The LDS Church advises 400 pounds of grains per person per year as part of their food storage recommendations for a 2200 calorie per day diet. That’s what I use for my family, with about 300 pounds of wheat per person. However, in addition to that we also store 50 pounds per chicken or rabbit to grow into fodder. When it comes to wheat, I think the day will come when it will be worth its weight in gold. With all its uses, the ease of storing it, and its low-cost, you just can’t ever have too much.

 

 

Other self-sufficiency and preparedness solutions recommended for you:

The vital self-sufficiency lessons our great grand-fathers left us
Knowledge to survive any medical crisis situation
Liberal’s hidden agenda: more than just your guns
Build yourself the only unlimited water source you’ll ever need
4 Important Forgotten Skills used by our Ancestors that can help you in any crisis
Secure your privacy in just 10 simple steps

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Why does everyone talk about storing wheat? I recognize that there is a significant number of people in the world that do not tolerate wheat well, or at all. My father-in-law

Those of us who are part of the prepping and survival community tend to look down our noses at the government’s emergency response agency, FEMA. Granted, there’s plenty of reason for this, as FEMA doesn’t exactly have an exemplary record for the quick response and cutting through government red tape. In fact, they seem to carry the red tape with them wherever they go. But one thing we forget is that we owe our own movement, at least in part, to FEMA. While there are some of us who have been living the survival and preparedness lifestyle for years, most have not. It really wasn’t until FEMA developed the ready.gov website and started promoting the idea of being prepared for a disaster that the idea began to get a widespread promotion. They’re also the ones who made the idea of a bug-out bag popular, as attested to by the fact that most people talk about having a three-day supply in your bug-out bag, an idea that originated in the offices of FEMA.

So, while they aren’t perfect, FEMA has been a help to us. They still are, as they are one of the most widely recognized sources of information about disaster preparedness and strategies for survival. While you can quickly go through all their information and want more, they do provide a good starting point for people just getting into the prepping movement.

One of the things that the ready.gov website has is a list of basic disaster supplies that we should all be sure to have. Some of those are even things that those of us in the prepping movement don’t regularly talk about. So it’s a good idea to review what they are saying and the way they are saying it.

On their Basic Disaster Supplies Kit list:

  • Battery-powered or hand crank radio and an NOAA Weather Radio with tone alert – The most common disasters to strike the United States are weather-related ones, especially hurricanes, tornadoes, and snowstorms. Good information is critical to surviving these, as well as knowing when it is safe to come out of a bunker or other shelter. The advantage of the hand crank type is that you never have to worry about having dead batteries.
  • Whistle – There are countless situations where you could end up awaiting rescue, from an earthquake destroying your home to getting lost in the woods. Three blasts on a whistle is a universal call for help, which can be heard much farther than your voice. Not only that, it’s a whole lot easier on your throat and energy level than yelling all the time.
  • Dust mask – Whether you’re talking about dust storms or pandemics, a good dust mask will help protect you and your lungs. Spraying that dust mask with a small amount of disinfectant will go a long way toward protecting you from airborne pathogens. Just be careful not to spray too much.
  • Plastic sheeting & duct tape – As with the dust mask, this will help protect you if you have to shelter in place from an epidemic or even a chemical spill. While it is difficult and even unrealistic to create a totally sealed environment, the more you can seal off, especially around doors and windows, the better. These simple materials can save your life in such a situation.
  • Manual can opener – We all stockpile food, but do we stockpile can openers? More specifically, do you have a good quality can opener in your stockpile? I’ve gone through many a cheap can opener through the years, proving to me that the money for a top-quality one is money well spent. In a long-term survival situation, I would get awful tired of using the P-38 on my key ring.
  • Local maps – We tend to keep maps in our bug-out bags, but what about sheltering in place? A good topographical map will show you lots of useful information, such as where to find water and where to go to find high ground to escape flooding.

On their Additional Emergency Supplies list:

  • Prescription medicines – If anyone in your family needs prescription medications, especially maintenance doses for a chronic condition, you’ve got to have these medicines on hand. They may not be available in an emergency situation.
  • Glasses and contact lens solution – For those of us who need some help to see, this is essential. A spare pair of glasses is a good idea, as they can easily get lost or broken.
  • Pet food – Don’t forget your four-footed friends, or you’ll end up feeding them food that you need for yourself. Pets can be a great comfort in the midst of a crisis, especially for children.
  • Cash – Few of us bother keeping much cash on hand, even those who prepare. We’re more likely to keep silver around for bartering. But cash is important too. Even in the worst of TEOTWAWKI events, cash will be useful for some time, until people realize that it is worthless.
  • Important family documents – If you are forced to bug out, having documents to prove home and car ownership, as well as insurance policies and bank account information, may be essential for recovering financially and getting your life back on track. Medical and school records are important as well. It is best to save these electronically for ease of carrying, but hard copies are better in the case of an EMP.
  • Sturdy shoes – The shoes that most of us wear on a day-to-day basis are impractical for walking long distances. If you are forced to bug out on foot and have to walk 100 miles to get to shelter, you’re going to want some sturdy but comfortable hiking or work boots.
  • Fire extinguisher – Probably one of the most basic pieces of emergency equipment, but one that you never see talked about in the prepping community. Get a commercial one, as it will be larger and rechargeable.
  • Feminine supplies & personal hygiene items – It will be bad enough having to bug out and live in a survival shelter, without forgetting the most basic items to keep yourself clean. This is important for maintaining your health, as well, as the infection spreads much more easily in a dirty environment.
  • Paper plates, cups, towels, and plastic utensils – We use these all the time but don’t think of them as survival supplies. But if water is limited, having something that you can use and throw away saves that limited water for more important things than just washing dishes.
  • Paper and pencil – Something else that should be considered a basic survival item, but is often overlooked. I have a basic rule, “If it isn’t written down, it doesn’t exist.” That’s because I don’t trust my memory to remember things like names, dates, addresses, and phone numbers. Better to write it down, especially if it is something critical to your survival.

 

One Final Note:

The same page on FEMA’s ready.gov website which lists their recommended emergency kit items, also mentions where you should keep your kit or kits. According to them, that is home, work, and your vehicle. That pretty much covers it. Basically what they are saying is to always make sure you have an emergency kit available to you, no matter where you are.

This will require having multiple kits. Ideally, you want one in each of your vehicles, one in each family member’s workplace (although vehicle ones can double for this, assuming you can get to your vehicle), and one at home. Don’t depend on just one kit for everything. Not only do different situations present you with different needs, but your family will probably be scattered in different locations. Each family member must have emergency supplies available to them, in case they have to shelter where they are.

The hardest family members to do this for, are the children. If your child has a locker at school, you can prepare a kit to keep there. But if not, they’ll be limited to their backpack (unless they drive to school). That means you’re going to have to think carefully about what you have them carry, as you don’t want to burden them unnecessarily. Besides, doing so merely guarantees that they’ll take the kit out of their backpack and leave it at home.

Finally, make sure that each kit is appropriate to the number of people it must serve. Your home kit will obviously need to be the largest. One kept in your office merely needs to take care of one person, like the ones in your kids’ lockers. Car kits will depend on who uses that car and what they use it for. A car that is only used by one or two people won’t need as big a kit as the primary family car will.

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Those of us who are part of the prepping and survival community tend to look down our noses at the government’s emergency response agency, FEMA. Granted, there’s plenty of reason