Everyday prepping: it’s not just about Doomsday

Not every crisis or emergency heralds some Doomsday scenario. It sounds like a contradiction in terms, but most crises may come completely out of the blue but are, in fact, fairly run of the mill – practically, everyday occurrences.

And for emergencies such as that, your best line of defence may be in everyday prepping.

Prepping as a way of life

An article by American broadcaster CNBC in December last year described the shortage of essential supplies during the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Sudden shortages of items such as:

• flour;
• pasta;
• toilet paper; and
• hand sanitiser, etc.

could easily have been avoided if people had only done a little preparation in advance by stocking up on things. Things they knew they were going to need in any kind of circumstance. In other words, if only they had done a little everyday prepping.

Even for those expecting the Doomsday scenario, events are unlikely to turn out to be quite so apocalyptic as they first imagined. Describing his brush with the Doomsday set, a correspondent writing in London’s Evening Standard on the 6^th of April 2020 confessed that he was being won over to the idea of stocking up on a supply of imperishable food and keeping a bug-out bag under his bed.

In a decidedly British manner of understatement, the correspondent described this as “engaging in a little light apocalyptic preparedness” – everyday prepping in other words.

Everyday prepping – a little light apocalyptic preparedness

A golden rule to prepping for any emergency situation – including the everyday ones that fall far short of an apocalypse – is to remind yourself that the first 72 hours in any disaster are critical. Survive these first 72 hours and your chances of long-term survival are substantially increased, says the UK Preppers Guide:

Water

• water is essential, of course, and to make sure you make it through those initial 72 hours, stock up on at least three days’ supply – with an emergency bottle or two in your bug-out bag;

• for the longer-term, invest in water purification filters or devices;

Food

• think both immediate and long-term needs when laying down your stores of food;

• in the immediate-term, for example, you might want a stock of ready to eat meals that require next to no preparation – for the longer-term, think canned or dried goods and non-perishable foods;

First aid – medical

• a first aid kit is essential to making sure that minor cuts, scrapes, and grazes do not develop into debilitating or even life-threatening emergencies;

• there are any number of ready-made first aid kits available from chemists and suppliers of outdoor equipment – most should cover all the basics you are likely to need but remember that your own first aid skills and techniques are likely to be just as important as any kit;

• remember to include any medication that you are taking on a daily or regular basis – access to chemists during the emergency is likely to be patchy at best and non-existent at worst;

Shelter and cooking

• in practically every “everyday” emergency, your home is likely to provide the one and only shelter you will need – even if it lacks the creature comforts, such as heat, light, fridge, cooker, or even gas and water, to which you are accustomed;

• if there is no gas or electricity and your cooker fails, make sure you have already developed the skills you need for cooking on an outdoor barbeque, fire pit, or even camping gas stoves.

Prepare for Doomsday by all means. But you are likely to be just as well off considering the more realistic, almost run of the mill, common or garden emergency, and engaging in some everyday prepping.