I keep my car’s gas tank half full, at least, at all times. Any disaster in my region (except something cataclysmic) I think I’d be able to get far enough away from to protect our lives.
House fire.
(That’s a lie, I’m not and I live in an apartment, but I plan on prepping for it)
Had a gas can inexplicably catch fire in my yard but close enough to the house to scorch and melt siding. Was able to put it out on the third attempt just before the fire dept showed up. I now have a variety of sizes and types of fire extinguishing apparatus around my house.
Invest in fire safety. Lives are at stake.
I grew up with food insecurity being a regular thing. Even though my wife and I are, fortunately, both doing reasonably well professionally and have no trouble affording or obtaining groceries, my wife has been very kind about my ingrained need to make sure our well-stocked pantry still contains the big packs of dried rice and dried beans I’ve been conditioned to always have on hand in case things get That Bad again.
I have one plastic bag that is full of other, crumpled plastic bags.
You would not believe how many more bags you can fit in that one bag if you fold them, rather than crumple them!
Folding plastic bags seems annoying though.
Might you be Arab by any chance? If not you can probably get citizenship somewhere.
Havin a baeg of baegs is just one of those things you do in the Midwest. Donchya know
I feel like that was a universal experience back in the days of bags
Sub-zero degree sleeping bag in the trunk of my car, plus a jug of water and some MRE-type food packs with water-activated food warmers. I grew up in a very rural area and got stuck on the side of the road in a blizzard for too long; I came out ok but it was terrifying. Now I live in a densely populated area that doesn’t get blizzards but I still prep.
I used to let my toilet paper run nearly down to zero before I bought another pack. The pandemic lockdown months changed that. I used paper towels and liberated a couple rolls from work back in the day. Now I keep more on hand before triggering next buy. Never again.
I’m a good example of “we prep for our fears”. I also do backcountry backpacking and everyone in that hobby does to some degree. I go out with a nurse sometimes and her first aid kit is nearly three pounds while mine is a couple bandaids and rubbing alcohol swaps.
You described equipment for pretty much climber. You don’t have shops every corner in the mountains and sleeping overnight happens sometimes due to bad weather. Sub zero temperatures are the norm in the mountains
I do home-brewing as a hobby so I guess I have cider and wine to enjoy the collapse of society and the end of the world as we know it tipsy enough to take the edge off.
Nothing anymore, or perhaps just that I buy my TP by the case from Costco, LoL
A couple weeks ago I found some unexpected puddles in my basement, and tracked it to my emergency water supply. A couple plastic jugs that expired in 2010 spontaneously started leaking.
I understand that’s not a good long term solution to water, but also prepping apparently takes more going maintenance than I’m motivated for.
A bit different than others, but every time I ride my bike, I have the equipment to patch a tire with me.
We prep based on whats happened or likely to happen.
The most common thing where I live is a power outage. Usually only lasts a half day. Once it was out for 3 days. We have a generator and the gas station isn’t too far away.
As for a water outage. Usually, we get a letter stating when the water will be out but not always. We have buckets to fill. A couple of times I’ve gone to the store and brought home a couple of water cooler jugs.
We always keep extra food on hand.
I mostly prep for digital disasters. Data loss, identity theft, internet outage.
Used to live in an earthquake zone right in front of the ocean, so tsunamis were always a risk.
So I kept a bug off bag with water, clothes, blanket, cereal bars, lights and a battery pack ready to go by my bike.
I did use it once and skipped all over the traffic going to the shelter. Fortunately the water didn’t rise enough to be a threat, but I thanks to the peace of mind the bag brought, I didn’t even stress during the evacuation
Well, I live 5 meters under sea level. The most realistic disaster to happen to me would involve a giant crushing wave of water, and there’s not much you can do to get out of that.
But since I like backpack hiking, and buying in bulk is cheap, I have something like a month of food, some lifestraws, some water, extra cooking gear, etc.
I would say fire, flood and no tap water for three days.
Those are the most probable things that people are not ready for and should be. If you leave in a city near a river, chances are high that the general population (you included) underestimate vastly the risk of flooding. I learnt it this year with the heavy rains in my area.
“General population” is probably what we’re not prepared for. Where I live has a low chance of disaster and I always naively thought that I have credit cards and enough charge on my EV to get 100+ more miles inland and find a hotel. That probably doesn’t work as well when everyone wants to do it at the same time
Terfs
I have a trans pride flag and a baseball bat next to my front door
Remember to keep your bat dressed with a long sock, so if someone grabs it, their hold will just slip away along with the sock
Good point, time to order some trans pride programming socks
dress the bat in a series of pride socks so it cycles through them all if they keep grabbing the bat
I don’t think a game of baseball will solve anything. :P
There’s a chance it could bore the attacker into leaving.
Well, it’s a good thing OP is willing to try an innocent sports game, and not anything premeditated
Well, it’s more than one thing but I don’t consider myself as a prepper.
- I have a few months’ worth of food both frozen and canned/dried/long lasting.
- I have enough of flour to bake a bread for a year.
- I have enough toilet paper, toothpaste, shower gel, soap, cleaning supplies, etc. to use it for 6ish months.
- I grow my own veggies. Between October and May I don’t buy any veggies and for the whole year I don’t buy spring onion, radishes and herbs.
- I know how to fix things.
- I know how to cook.
- I have several flashlights and radios with a crank (no battery needed).
- I’m about to install solar panels, wind turbine and rain water collector.
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My parents made their house self-sufficient. They have a water pump, filters, and a photovoltaic on the roof that can power the whole house and an EV. They’re planning on using the car‘s battery for the house once it’s too weak to drive. They also installed a wooden stovetop which heats the whole ground floor. As for food, my dad‘s a hunter and inherited way too much ammo for a single lifetime when my grandad passed.
