The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

Thriftygifty

Please don't stop posting MrsL you have been incredibly helpful with prepping info as have others which I am very thankful for.  

This is probably a silly question - soap, is a pack of 4 bars for 69p as effective at washing this virus off your hands/body as more expensive soap?  Or are they all pretty much the same, i've never looked into soap!  Also same for washing powder, we use the big box of T £4 non bio soap powder is this ok?  I wash pretty much everything at 60 on an hours cycle will this wash the virus/kill it, the 90 wash will destroy our clothes and takes hours!  The 30 degree 30 min wash is only used for baby clothes which are organic cotton.  What is everyone using to wipe kitchen counters down, we are using detol which I know doesn't kill the virus and a dishcloth which is reused for a couple of days maybe we should use a new dishcloth everyday, again I wash these at 60 with the tea towels when we have a full load, I don't use kitchen paper or sponges as was trying to help the planet before all this kicked off!!

shanks77

Thrifty it is my understanding that it is more about the rubbing action as opposed to what you rub with IYKWIM. Seemingly there was a study where they washed with just cold water, just hot water, cold with soap, hot with soap and whilst the hot with soap was best there wasn’t a huge amount of difference between them and it was the rubbing action that was the clincher. I am sure someone more knowledgeable than myself will come along and help with that and the washing machine question. Personally I haven’t changed my routine with that clothes go in a 30 degree wash apart from bedding and towels (90 degrees)  and I don’t know anyone else who has done things differently since this started. Stay safe, be sensible and try not too worry too much xx

Happy_Sloth

Yes cheap soap is completely fine it works as well as anything.  I have lots of bars of soap in my preps because frankly it's cheaper/lasts longer and does the same job as liquid soap.  In terms of prepping it's ideal because the shelf life is long. 

On the subject of social distancing, my eye's nearly popped out of my head today when my husband told me we'd been invited to a BBQ next weekend! .... i musta looked at him really weird.  He tried to explain that it was a member of his families 50th and it would be a small gathering.  I have to admit i was perhaps a little blunter than i should have been because i asked if the social  distancing rules had suddenly changed in the past few days that i wasn't aware of.   He seemed really upset and asked if we might make an exception because it was a special birthday. 

I didn't know what to say... i'm not his mother, or his boss ... but i really don't want him to risk bringing something home we could then pass on to his dad... we have shielded for weeks to protect him when we go to his house to care for him. I don't even go to the shops and now im being made to feel guilty for not wanting to go to a BBQ. I'm royally ticked off..  I feel bad for him because i know he feel's under pressure because it's a special birthday.   

My cousins wedding was cancelled a couple of weeks ago because of this and they didn't breach the rules because it was special,  next weekend i'm supposed to be at another cousins hen-do ... a trip that's cost me about £300 and have had to cancel. We are still having the hen-do but it's now via Zoom.... speaking of which i need to figure out a dinosaur costume haha...  . but i just think people have gone mad..  you only need to walk around the streets near me to see people have almost completely given up on social distancing. 

greenbee

The price of the soap is irrelevant - it works if you wash your hands properly.  Soap destroys the virus by breaking down the lipid membrane, so rubbing to make sure you cover all of your hands (particularly between fingers, under nails and the sides of hands and wrists) is important. Rubbing also helps remove it.

Water temperature appears to be irrelevant- it just needs the be comfortable so you wash your hands for long enough. So far clothes, again it’s about the soap, and the washing action. Temperature isn’t the issue, so wash according to labels. Some reports have said 27C, so a 30C wash should be fine. And if you’re not going out or doing much don’t worry.  All the keyworkers I know are washing clothes as normal. Scrubs worn as part of PPE get a 60C wash, but then they’re in high risk situations and frequently have other reasons for needing a hot wash!

Thriftygifty

Thanks everyone for replies re soap and washing powder etc, the reason for asking was to prepare for next potential phase of Thriftygifty household.  The children and I have been home since just before official lockdown and DH furlough from April, other than to have our baby and one baby weigh in we haven't been out as we are fortunate enough to get deliveries at which point everything is bleached or quarantined and have enough space for the children to be free so haven't felt the need to go out at all, however we are hoping that DH will still have a job (he can't work from home) I don't want to temp fate however we are preparing plans for when he is at work/comes home, he's out and about for work so we are thinking he can take a portable water carrier with a tap on it and soap out on the road with him to wash his hands frequently if temperature isn't an issue?  Then when he gets home strip off in the porch (we didn't have a curtain in March whilst he was still working, a joy for the neighbours haha) and get straight in the downstairs shower, wash uniform everyday, disinfect phone and car key.  I don't want to go over the top as such but if it becomes routine it won't be such an issue, it's trying to think of holes in the plan.  

Also even though we have concerns about DS starting school in Sept and are thinking about home school instead this year,  if we do decide to send him I need to know that he is washing his hands properly rather than the way he currently washes them!  I don't want him to be paranoid at 5yrs old, so for the next 3 months we will be "preparing" DS hygiene on the quiet without him realising so that it becomes second nature to him.  

Floss

Thriftygifty, check out the employers guidance on Gov.UK as that may indicate what your DHs employer should be doing to keep staff safe in their job. There may be things they have to provide for him, rather than yourselves.

r.a.i.n.b.o.w

Tink_04 said:

DH thinks I’m crazy as I’m making an ‘extra’ prep box with dried goods that have a 2022 date on and hiding them out of the way. I plan to keep adding to this even just a tin at a time when we get a good date on something so we have a back up winter box of peeps.

This is actually a cracking idea - takes it a step further from stock rotation. I like this, I'm going to look closer at dates as groceries come in and stash away anything with 2022+ dates on them.

GaleSF63

euronorris said:

I think people often don't analyse their own behaviour as well as they do others. It's very easy to think of people you know and care about as 'safe', as that is how we are programmed all our lives, essentially. We teach our children who to trust, and why, and our parents did the same with us. It can be very difficult to push that to one side because of a virus. A strong part of brain still recognises certain people as 'safe', when sadly that just isn't how it works with viruses (or any other contagious illness).

So, I think the same people who will quite happily sit and let their little ones play closely on the beach, or in a paddling pool in their front garden, for example, would berate others for doing the same thing. Objectively, to them, the strangers are unsafe, whereas their friends or family members are 'safe' in their minds.

It's not how it should work, but I think that is what is happening a lot. I have seen it with one colleague. Complaining about some peoples behaviours, and then posting pictures of her little boy playing in a paddling pool with another little boy. She only has one child. 

It's frustrating, but I can also see how it happens. I have had to fight that instinct myself, as it tells me certain people are safe, and I have to consciously remind myself that I can't possibly know if they have the virus, neither can they, and vice versa.

This happens a lot and it's not just with people. A long time ago I lived in an area of London that wasn't really very safe. I lived about half a mile from the tube station and  I was quite happy to walk up the road by myself late at night because I was familiar with it; it was  as if living there gave me immunity -  as if that made it  safer!  

It was years after I'd left  that the illogicality of it struck me. 

Familiarity skews our thinking.  

euronorris

Yes, I think it is also why Happy_Sloth's DH wants to go the BBQ and is offended at her reaction. To him, they are 'safe' and it's a special occasion, so it should be fine. As opposed to strangers, and a flimsy reason for a get together.

That, and they are likely friends or family he is missing dearly, so he WANTS it to be OK.

It's hard. I know where he's coming from. He's as fed up of this virus as, no doubt, we all are and wants it to be over. 

Articles like this, keep me in check: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/nyregion/new-jersey-family-coronavirus.amp.html might it help your DH to remember what is at stake? Desperately sad for that poor family.

Jazee

With regards to dates, DH says I'm a nerd, but I have a spreadsheet which gets added to as we add to the preps.  It's in date order, says what the item is, where it is stored and when it goes out of date.  We have items that need to be used by this June but also tins with 2023 dates on them.