The beginning of Preparedness
As a preparedness consultant the most prevalent question I am asked is “How do I begin?” and that is what I will talk about in this section.
What I tell people is that I have one proven piece of advice for you, do an inventory. Until you KNOW what you have you won’t KNOW what you need. Doing a written inventory (use a computer, crayons, a pad and a pen, doesn’t matter – just write it down) does several things for you.
1. Let’s you physically see what you have and what condition it’s in.
2. Gives you an actual count of items compared to “Well I think I have this many…”
3. Helps you to better organize what you do have (I’m coming to that)
4. Allows you to save money
As your counting things and by that I mean every last can of vegetables, bandage, gallon of gas etc. you are helping to lay out a plan. Don’t let the task intimidate you, don’t make it an all day project. Count some today, do more tomorrow and then finish it the day after or make it a family event, get the kids involved, get the spouse involved. Once it is done organize your list the way that makes the most sense to you – Food / Medical / Ammunition / Fuel / Camping equipment, etc.
Once you have that done then you will have an accurate, up to date listing of what you actually have on hand. Also by finding everything and counting it gives you the opportunity to examine it all at the same time, “oh that’s right I need to put batteries in this flashlight” or “oops, where is the flashlight?” Could be that most if not all of the material is in good shape but by counting everything you KNOW what shape it is in.
Above I mentioned helping to get your stuff organized. Well if in the process of counting you discover that you do have four camping lanterns but they are scattered all over the place you can collect them up and put them together which means they are easier to find when you need them. Could be you want to go camping, a strong rain storm knocked out the power so you need some light, ah ha I know right where the lanterns are!
Saving you money, in this economy that is a huge issue and inventory actually helps with that. Once you have finished your inventory you can identify areas of weakness in your supplies. Say you realize you only have one flashlight and no spare batteries, now that you KNOW that you can address that by buying another flashlight and a pack of batteries which will serve both of the lights. Your money is being spent on what I call ‘targeted spending’ which means it is going to a very specific purpose.
Once you have finished the inventory it will be easier the next time you do one. Set yourself up on a schedule, reinventory as often as you are comfortable with, monthly or bi-monthly, etc. Now you can sit down and look over what you actually have versus what you thought you did. It is now much easier to identify weak areas in your preps and allows you to move forward knowing what you have on hand.
