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We all prep for different scenarios, and start at different times in our lives. What made you start prepping? Did someone convince you that it’s a good idea? What’s your excuse for not prepping? Most of the people I try to get prepared have many excuses for not starting. Being 22 and just one semester away from getting my bachelor’s, the most common excuse I hear is I can’t afford it. Well I say. If there’s a will,  there’s a way and in this article I am going to share how I practice being a prepper in college.

I grew up in a small farm town of 3500 people. Growing up I wasn’t in boy scouts. I was just a kid that liked shooting guns. We always had a little bit of food set aside, and we would always rotate food. I never realized what it was for. I never recall them talking about any radical ideas for it, just thought it was a good idea to stocked. Just. In. Case.

For the past four and a half years I’ve lived in a small apartment (now in a duplex) in a college town with a population of nearly 91,000.

The first couple years of my college life I was on campus in the dorms. Luckily for me, being on a native American campus we have a good amount of mother nature on our campus. Mother nature always provides, but you have to know where and what.

I have a pretty small collective of friends that I fully trust, but I have several acquaintances and connections that give me opportunity. My close friends my age know I prep, but they always say it costs too much to start prepping. While they say this I think in my head how much they drink and go out. Obviously you still need to live life and enjoy it, but I believe at some point you have to prioritize for the well-being of yourself and your family’s safety. There’s plenty of money to be made, and plenty of deals to be had. Building one bug out bag takes a good amount of planning and strategy which takes time. Just having one bag puts you ahead of most people in urban areas. I built my several bags and prep’s by purchasing one piece at a time. There is no excuse for the lack of prepping.

Prepping doesn’t have to cost a fortune

I’ve always had a knack for finding good deals. In no way am I wealthy, but I grew up wheeling and dealing. I am constantly scouring Craigslist, Facebook marketplace, etc. I work hard for my money, and when it’s not enough I find side jobs come in handy. Most college towns have places where you can donate plasma. This is a good way to build some spending money. My part-time job is an auto detailer for a dealership. I’ve found that I’m quite good at it and I like doing it. It is becoming a lost art and there is a lot of money to be made.

Side jobs are likely necessary to have extra cash to spend on discretionary supplies. Competition is fierce for these spots.

Another misconception that is popular with college kids making excuses in my area is that it’s all about spending money. Prepping isn’t only material things. Sure it’s a big part of it, but it’s also a mentality. Everyday I think what if’s and different scenarios to challenge my mind. Prepping is a prepared state of mind. This website and others brought me very good insight as to what I could and should do in different emergency scenarios. Even if you can’t afford to build several bug out bags, buy firearms, stockpile food and water, then you should definitely be researching other aspirations. Knowledge is power and there is a lot of survival information to be had on the internet! Not everyone grew up as a boy scout, I know I didn’t. Knots can be as important as knowing how to skin an animal, or what plants are edible.

Friends of mine that try to prep dismiss the fact that upon the beginning stages of WROL it will be a blood bath at regular store such as: grocery stores, pharmacies, gun stores, etc. They all say oh I’ll just go grab some food at the store. No. It won’t work that way. This is why it is very important for us to prep. Even if you live in the dorms it would be a very good idea to have some canned food, bottled water, flashlights, and batteries hidden away. There’s plenty more you can prep for but I believe most people I talk to could not handle a stressful event such as SHTF. If you have a little prior knowledge to survival and your environment, then it should help you prepare mentally. Having a small stockpile of supplies can be a safety net, and should provide you a little bit of time to collect your thoughts as to what just happened and forming your game-plan.

Start small but build continuously

I am just now starting to buy some canned food to put aside just in case of a power outage. A single can of corn in my area is merely 69 cents. It is easy and cheap to stock up on canned foods to keep in your place of residence. The only problem I see is when you must bug out, the canned food will be very, very heavy. Make sure to keep your home stockpile separate from your bug out bag supplies. A good habit for both is to still use the supplies in both spots and replace them with new ones to keep the “best by” date as far out as possible.

It is easy and cheap to stock up on canned foods to keep in your place of residence.

My generation has lost the ability to be self-sufficient and prepared. For other college students reading this and wanting help to prep on a very tight budget, I urge you to read as much as you can. Free information will only be around as long as society holds up. To be clear I definitely live the “college experience”. I don’t go to parties or go out for nights of binge drinking. There is other ways to be social and they are much cheaper.

The biggest challenge in prepping for a college student is preparing for an active shooter. You don’t know when it’s coming, from where, or how many there are. Most college campuses don’t allow firearms or conceal carry. Some states are starting to allow conceal carry on campus which, in my opinion is a great idea. My state is one of those starting to allow that. Unfortunately for me I go to a Native American College that is federally owned so the law doesn’t hold there. How do you prep for an active shooter if you’re not allowed to have even a pocket knife, and you don’t want to break the law? This question brings me back to what I stated earlier about reading as much information as you can. The have been survivors of every school shooting and their stories are out there.

So I am constantly reading and building my knowledge of survival. Now what? Personally a bug out bag is my go to item to start with for any prep. Whether you believe in TEOTWAWKI or just wanna have a head start on a natural disaster there is always room for a bug out bag, and it is very important to have this bag with you at all times. I have found that Walmart can sell everything you would need for a bug out bag. Piece by piece you will complete it. That being said don’t be that person to go buy a “pre-made emergency bag” they are made in bulk and most likely won’t be very accepting to your specific needs. MRE’s are a good choice for any style of bag as well as freeze dried foods. You need to always consider where you would go, how far is it, and the terrain you would trek through. If you have found that there is several options for water I would choose Mountain House freeze-dried meals because, they are light and filling. If water sources will be scarce then MRE’s take much less water.

For the preppers who believe in the large-scale, scary things that could potentially happen remember that there’s always going to be someone wanting to take what you have. I once read a very good article on here that mentioned that no matter where you hunker down there will be people after it. You WILL be overrun. That has always stuck with me and because of it I am constantly thinking where would I go now? Where would I go next? I suggest knowing your terrain and various routes to get around area’s that are going to be most likely a huge mess.

A lot of the things I’ve talked about have been really similar. The constant repetition should help retain the information for all the young, hard-headed, minds I am trying motivate. I’ve only scratched the surface of what I could say, but for my first article I wanted to keep it short and to the point. Bottom line is if you keep making excuses you may find yourself scrambling when the stuff starts hitting the fan.

  We all prep for different scenarios, and start at different times in our lives. What made you start prepping? Did someone convince you that it’s a good idea? What’s your

Since I started prepping officially I have made quite a few purchases. Some of these have been incremental, single purchases and some have been raids of the local Walmart or Sam’s Club to buy a ton of items in one trip. When I do get to make trips like this I usually come out of the stores with bags of items and have to put them somewhere.

In the past I would try to incorporate my prepping supplies into the rest of my household items thinking that by doing this I would enable a good rotation plan. If you add 12 packs of batteries into the battery drawer you will ensure they are used and never expire or at least that was what I thought. I did this with things like batteries, hygiene items and first aid supplies but then I went to look for batteries for a GPS I bought several months later only to find that we were almost completely out. My kids had gone through a ton of double AA’s over the summer playing their Wii.

Then I went to audit the bug out bags and found other problems. In each bug out bag I had a small clear plastic bag that contained the basic hygiene supplies so that if we were forced from our home we could clean up should the opportunity present itself. I had travel size toothpaste, shampoo, hand sanitizer, toothbrushes and other minor items that would just help you feel like a human again if you had been without a shower for a while. Three of the bags were missing items that had been pilfered throughout the year for camping trips, vacations and out-of-town travel. I was starting to see a problem with my plan.

I figured on buying a ton of prepping supplies and then checking that box off my big prepping checklist that I had. Once I bought these sundry items I figured I was good, but I slowly remembered due to this reinforcement that I was pretty much the only person who was thinking about supplies like this in my family.

After that I began to hide all of my prepping supplies. Not really, but I began to take them out of circulation so they wouldn’t disappear without my knowledge. I put a bunch of supplies in a large bin and tucked it safely away behind a lot of other things like wrapping paper that was reserved for the holidays, decorative centerpieces and Knick knacks that almost any home has. My wife knew about these supplies so that if I wasn’t around she could make use of them, but keeping them out of the general population of household items ensured they didn’t get used.

One day my wife told me we were out of pain medicine and naturally this occurs when she has a screaming headache. She asked me if I had any, knowing that I had planned for the apocalypse like a good prepper and of course I did. I didn’t want to dig into my stash though. Not because I wanted my wife to have any pain, but I didn’t want to have to resupply the aspirin or Motrin or whatever she needed, but naturally I dug out my box and grabbed her the medicine she was asking for.

It was like a trip down memory lane for someone who doesn’t have a very exciting life. I opened the box to see the items I had stored and smiled to myself a little for being so darn smart to have thought of this in the first place. About that time I looked at the expiration date on the Tylenol and realized it was expired by a year. I know that expiration dates do not render medicine bad or ineffective, but still I wanted to have the freshest supplies for my family so I needed to go back to the drawing board.

Organized so that you know where things are

Organization is an important part of prepping to avoid some of the problems I mentioned above but primarily it helps you to know where your supplies are. Have you ever purchased anything related to prepping and then couldn’t remember where you put it? I have done this before and almost always find it, but if time was of the essence, looking around the house for that crucial piece of gear is not what you need to be focused on.

The problem usually comes down to storage space. If you have a ton of storage space in your home, like a completely empty basement or garage, no problem. If you are like a lot of people and shoving food under the bed you have to think about your prepping organization plan a little differently. I wish I had a basement that I could line with shelves and keep all of my supplies, food and tools in an easy to access place, but I do not.

When space is at a premium, it helps to group like items together in storage bins so you can keep track of what you have and for perishable items, rotate stock. All those prepping supplies hidden in the back of the closet were fine but I neglected to remember to rotate things we did use like medicine, vitamins and batteries. Almost everything else in there, because it was stored in a climate controlled environment would last for decades without any problem

storagebin2

A place for everything and everything in its place.

Organized so that others know where things are

Organization is something that my wife and one daughter have in their DNA. Actually, if I gave my daughter a pile of all of our prepping gear, enough time and plastic storage totes, she would have it all organized, notated and inventoried. Wait, now that I say that…

Seriously though. It isn’t just enough to go on your supply runs to Walmart and drop a couple hundred dollars and hide it away. Your family needs to know where to turn if you aren’t there and they need something. Hiding supplies in your desk drawer isn’t a system. You should have a designated place for prepping supplies or maybe several but the supplies should be labeled and your family should understand that some things are not to be used. It helps to start this when you are getting started prepping but can also be changed even if you have been prepping for years. All it takes is some spare time and a plan.

I have broken my supplies down into categories:

  • Food
  • Shelter
  • Security
  • Hygiene
  • Sanitation
  • Communications
  • Lighting

Food is the easiest because we do eat on this every day, it has a place already (the pantry) and I don’t worry about anyone taking food because it has to be rotated. I do have places for freeze-dried food and MRE’s because those are not part of our short-term storage.

The other items are located in bins in various places that my family knows about.

Organized so you can rotate items in your storage

There are some items you don’t have to worry about rotating. For example in the hygiene box I have soap, shampoo, toothpaste, combs, razors and a lot of other things. We don’t need to rotate any of these supplies because they will last decades provided the storage location is free from heat or moisture.

Items like batteries last the longest in cool (not refrigerated) spaces so I wouldn’t want these to get stored in an out building. They should ideally be rotated too but if stored in their original sealed plastic they will last a very long time. Vitamins should be rotated, so should medicines and one way to do this is to keep your rotatable items in a separate container. When you go to the store to purchase new medicine, it goes in this container and you take out something with a closer expiration date. Instead of throwing everything in the same drawer, this discipline will make it more obvious that you need to use the first in first out items. It also helps that your spouse is on board with this plan.

It might seem easier to shove everything into a big box and forget about it, but a little organization will help you and your family with knowing what you have, keeping their intended use in the front of your minds and ensuring you can find it quickly when you need it.

What organization ideas or practices do you use in your prepping storage efforts?

Since I started prepping officially I have made quite a few purchases. Some of these have been incremental, single purchases and some have been raids of the local Walmart or