The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

Si_Clist

FWIW we rely on handwritten lists stuck on the inside of cupboard doors etc and also on some groups of things (tinned meats, home-made jam, chutneys and suchlike) being readily visible 'cos they're on shelves.  In theory the lists are updated on the first of every other month, but in practice it happens whenever we realise they're out of date.  It's not our favourite chore, but losing the plot isn't an option.
One thing we find which makes things a lot easier is clearly marking the best befores on everything with a Sharpie.

GaleSF63

I started off with an old unused diary, each page headed with the container type, number marked on box, location, contents and best before dates. It was simple and worked well. 
Although simple, I'm afraid it's slipped rather, though the more inaccessible containers are still accurate. 
However there is just me, and not a great deal of space so it wasn't difficult and shouldn't be that big a job to be able to catch up.

Si_Clist said:

FWIW we rely on handwritten lists stuck on the inside of cupboard doors etc and also on some groups of things (tinned meats, home-made jam, chutneys and suchlike) being readily visible 'cos they're on shelves.  In theory the lists are updated on the first of every other month, but in practice it happens whenever we realise they're out of date.  It's not our favourite chore, but losing the plot isn't an option.
One thing we find which makes things a lot easier is clearly marking the best befores on everything with a Sharpie.

Me too; I started when I was having trouble seeing because of cataracts, but continued as it really helps. Even with my lovely improved eyesight, these dates are not the most light and reflection-friendly and it is easy to do a load as I store them. 

Serendipitious

Si_Clist said:

FWIW we rely on handwritten lists stuck on the inside of cupboard doors etc and also on some groups of things (tinned meats, home-made jam, chutneys and suchlike) being readily visible 'cos they're on shelves.  In theory the lists are updated on the first of every other month, but in practice it happens whenever we realise they're out of date.  It's not our favourite chore, but losing the plot isn't an option.
One thing we find which makes things a lot easier is clearly marking the best befores on everything with a Sharpie.

Especially eggs!

jk0

thriftwizard said:

A day for being glad of my preps...

Yesterday afternoon OH asked me, vaguely puzzled, "What's all that water down by the loo?" Oooer... on inspection, there was a small but persistent drip coming from the incoming mains valve. And it was getting faster... luckily our insurance covers us for an emergency plumber to attend, which duly happened at about 8pm, but basically the pipe into the rest of the house, including the boiler, has corroded & was just about to "go" bigtime;

I hope this was true. Plumbers are not unknown to make stuff up to get a lucrative job.

thriftwizard

@jk0 - I have the section of pipe that was removed - you can tear it with your fingers, it had worn so thin! Luckily only a few inches; apparently the bit by the mains valve always corrodes the worst. So I think he was on the level. Much of the rest of the plumbing is polypipe anyway. There's still a fair bit of copper piping hanging around - but that was for the gas lighting!

chirpycheap

LadOnTheHill said:

Has anyone else ever done any kind of audit on their prepping situation? DH and I have been talking about it, with the intention of both of us knowing exactly what we have,  what it's for, where it is, etc. But we don't know where to start. We've had talks about it, but there's no list or directions or anything like that. Any ideas as to how to go about this?

I sometimes wonder whether I have enough in my stores or too much. Compared to preppers I see on YouTube I am woefully short of supplies. However in comparison to the kitchen cupboards of friends and family I have an embarrassing excess of tins and jars. 

I am currently decluttering and minimising in the rest of the house. I now have empty cupboards in the lounge and am eyeing them up for food stores. I struggle with deciding on the correct balance between being prepared but not being overwhelmed with food stores. I swing between wanting to be positive and hopeful about the future and becoming fearful that the world is falling apart.

I'm probably doing my usual overthinking but I just can't decide whether my stores are a sign that I'm unhinged or actually completely sane in a scary world.

Si_Clist

chirpycheap said:

I sometimes wonder whether I have enough in my stores or too much. Compared to preppers I see on YouTube I am woefully short of supplies ... I struggle with deciding on the correct balance between being prepared but not being overwhelmed with food stores. I swing between wanting to be positive and hopeful about the future and becoming fearful that the world is falling apart.

We too wonder at times whether we've overdone it, but in response to the above ...

1. Have you ever considered how much of an element of showing off there is to much of the YouTube prepping stuff, and how many of them may well have an agenda that's not immediately obvious?  We don't care what others have in their cupboards.  That's their business, not ours.

2. If you can afford it, you have the storage space and you don't get obsessional about it, what is the down-side to getting in whatever provisions you can against the day that, for whatever reason, you can't get them?  Just don't stock up on any foods that you wouldn't normally buy, and don't buy more of an item than you'd normally get through before whatever the BBE is on the last one you bought.  Then if the world doesn't quite fall apart, as long as you've kept rotating your stock, nothing's been wasted and you've saved yourself some money. 

3. Don't sweat matters that are beyond your control.  You can't stop the world falling apart if it's going to.  All you can do about that is hope for the best while preparing for the worst

Nargleblast

Si has definitely hit the nail on the head. I was reading a book by the bloke who trained the Armed Forces in survival techniques. He said that those people who did not get themselves wound up about what other people were saying and doing, did not obsess about stuff on social media or mainstream news, did not stress about what was going on in the world and what governments and other countries were doing....those were the people who survived. The message was, of course pay attention to what's going on, but concentrate your energy on what you yourself can control, and you will emerge on the other side with your physical and mental health intact.

MingVase

Good post Si clist yes. In anything there's always the show offs. The " I've got more food/wool/land/money than youz" brigade.  As if it's that simple. It's having the sheer bloody mindedness to keep on going that does it, not the biggest pile of tins

You get a lot of this in the knitting groups - pics of rooms that look like a wool shop. Shelves and shelves full of wool. And you think - but this is a knitting group - if yuv got 5 million balls of wool then you're obv not knitting the stuff!  just silly.

Toonie

My DP (who has done a lot of camping, hiking, bushcraft etc) watches a lot of videos on youtube and what I find interesting from the glimpses of things he has watched is there are some fairly hardline "end of the world" preppers/survivalists who actually give the idea of prepping a bad reputation. A lot of them do tend to be from the US, and most seem to be preparing for extreme action. I don't think their prepping plans are relevant to most of us as they tend to get in MRE's and survival food (which to quote my DP "tastes like sh*t but is so high in calories you'll be able to climb a mountain or trek across a desert"). This is not food you are going to want to have around as a general store cupboard prep. And if that food goes out of date because what actually has happened is...well not much, you will have wasted a lot of money on food you really don't want to eat.

Whereas if you buy food you eat anyway, get some shelf stable foods you enjoy, stock up on things when times are good to prepare for the times they aren't as good, and learn some simple survival things (eg first aid, basic home repairs, how to stay warm without heating your space) you'll be in far better stead than the "end of days survivalist" surrounded by their MRE's and knife and weapon collection.