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Top 20 Items to Have In a 72 Hour Survival Kit for The Home

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I have an inexpensive box that I keep ready as my 3 Day Survival Kit. I keep 2 gallons of water per person beside it, for us that is 12 gallons.

  1. Water and/or an individual water filter like a LifeStraw—we have a creek that borders the property.
  2. Two flashlights, with batteries beside them (no potential for corrosion and there for failure when needed). One headlamp for chores—my job.
  3. Waterproof matches and lighters.
  4. Four good quality Mylar emergency blankets. These are tough and reusable! You can sleep in your own bed with one on top and one on the bottom.
  5. Single serving bags of coffee, tea, propel zero and Mio to add to water.
  6. Three days of canned food, so I don’t have to cook, just warm up and serve—even if warming is with a candle, grill, or on our Deadwood Stoves!
  7. A good quality manual can opener.
  8. Paper plates, cups and utensils.
  9. Garbage bags for personal sanitation and more!
  10. Baby Wipes for personal sanitation and cleanliness.
  11. A bottle of hand sanitizer.
  12. Two rolls of TP.
  13. A roll of paper towels.
  14. A roll of heavy duty aluminum foil, mostly for cooking.
  15. Candles, for light and heat, and because they are always handy!
  16. Hard peppermint candy and hard chocolate candies.
  17. Two deck of cards!
  18. Two emergency radios, because one just never seems to work! #3 is the car radio!
  19. A survival whistle. Need to signal anyone? Low tech; high impact!
  20. Pepper spray! Yes! Inexpensive, simple and effective!

Check Out These Holiday Survival Gift Ideas

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Holiday Survival Gifts for Preppers

The Holiday Season is Officially Here!

Are you shopping for any preppers this season? (or looking for yourself ;-)

If so, then check out this incredible gift guide for preppers.

In it, you’ll find 160+ gift suggestions for preparedness-minded people. Some of the best tools, supplies, courses, books, gags, and more.

Best of all, they start at $20, so they won’t break the bank!

Although there are a lot of blogs and websites that put out similar guides, one of the coolest things about this one is that it has gift recommendations from 7 different “subsets” of the prepper space, either with their own visuals and curated recommendations, so you can see curated gifts, especially selected for:

Here’s an example:

survival gifts

Here’s another one of the visuals from the section on EDC gifts:

EDC Survival Gifts

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy the gift guide, and have a terrific Holiday season.

-Dan

Browse all 160+ prepper gifts here.

p.s. Not sure what to buy for a fellow prepper who is limited on space or too far to ship something to? Check out this digital library of survival PDFs. It includes 667 survival guides, manuals, and downloadable PDFs, and costs just $18. Not too shabby!

The Best Flashlights For Preppers

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flashlight, preparedness, power outage, blackout,

You cannot get much more basic when it comes to preparedness supplies than the flashlight.

Flashlights have come a long way over the past few decades. I can remember as a child my dad having a silver flashlight that ran on 2 D-cell batteries. This silver flashlight had an external slide switch to turn on and off with a button on top of it to turn it on momentarily.

Not particularly bright by today’s standards but lit up the dark whenever the power went out.

A decade or so ago the legendary Maglite was the flashlight to have. Large, bright, machined aluminum – a beautiful creation. I had several as well as the AA smaller version. These worked good and were standard issue at my job. Only problem was I went through bulbs like a mouse goes through a hunk of cheese.

Over the past 5 years or so flashlights have gotten brighter and lighter. Some might say more expensive and in many cases that would be correct. I now own LED flashlights almost exclusively. Conventional bulbs work just fine but have a much shorter lifespan and consume much more energy, thus I prefer LED flashlights.

If you go to any Wal-Mart or Target you can find quite a few LED flashlights to choose from. Prices vary greatly from under $10.00 to over $30.00.

A couple things to consider if considering picking up a new light:

  • Lumens – the measure of how bright the flashlight is. The higher the lumens the brighter the flashlight.
  • Battery Type – AA and AAA batteries cost the least and are easy to store.
  • LED – again, make sure he flashlight states it is LED. I also prefer one which has a single LED lamp rather than a collection of LED lamps. Both will work fine but the latest technology uses the single lamp.
  • Run Time – some packaging will state how long the batteries will last. I do not concern myself much with this as all LED flashlights have an excellent battery life.
If you like Amazon.com (which I love) here are some great flashlights that are also excellent values:
Nebo Flashlight – 220 lumens – approx $28.00
TerraLUX Flashlight – 220 lumens – approx $25.00

 

Streamlight Stylus Pro LED Flashlight and Holster – under $20.00

Streamlight PolyTac LED Flashlight – 130 lumens – approx $35.00

 

So – get yourself a few flashlights along with a bunch of extra batteries. You will be much better off than most to handle a power outage.

What Is My Favorite Tool or Preparedness Item?

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I have a lot of preparedness stuff – some inexpensive and some absolutely not. Some of my stuff includes what might be considered a gadget, some are tools, some are essentials.

If I had to pick a favorite prepper item – it would be the Gerber Suspension multi-tool.

I have had and used many Gerber multi-pliers and the Suspension is by far my favorite. Why? It is very versatile. It is extremely useful and rugged.

I also have some other favorites including a Ka-Bar knife, my Stag M4, and a couple of Streamlight Stylus Pro flashlights.

Top 10 Preparedness Items You Already Own (but don’t think about)

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  1. Your home-repair tool kit(s). Yes, you CAN get by with a multi tool and a rock, but real tools work a lot better for their intended uses. Get a couple gooseneck crowbars, if you don’t have them already.
  2. Your kitchen tools. You CAN peel potatoes with a machete, and cook ’em in a canteen cup, but why not think up a way to bring along your favorites? (I have a knife/tool roll that I bring to cooking jobs, but a quick yank can pull 2 magnetic strips out of a sheetrock wall to pack them, too…..)
  3. Your water heater. About 20 gal. of clean water you can get to, even if utilities are out.
  4. Manual pencil sharpeners (the cast aluminum ones from an art or craft work better than the slightly-cheaper plastic ones). Quickly put points on sticks/darts, make your own fire tinder rapidly.
  5. Picnic/Party coolers. There’s almost always a need to keep cold things cool, and hot things warm, without external power.
  6. Zip-top storage bags–at least a zillion uses.
  7. Ground cayenne pepper (or hotter chiles). Season food (obviously), repel deer and various other pests, use as a blood-coagulant on wounds (not fun, but does work), steep in warm veg oil for a day or so and fill a dollar store spray bottle when the commercial pepper spray runs out.
  8. Rope, cord, string, twine. Need I say more?
  9. Your kids’ old BB guns/slingshots/bows and arrows. Cheap and quiet small game-getters, and there’s an old saying “It hurts a lot more to be hit by a BB, than missed by a .44 Magnum”.
  10. Electrical extension cords. If there is power available, you’ll need ’em. If not, more cordage.

100 Items That Disappear First in a Disaster

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This list has been around for a while. It has been posted, torn apart, praised, and ridiculed many times, but in case you have not seen it yet, it’s worth reposting.

It was apparently put together on a forum thread, so it’s not like it was etched in stone by the finger of God, but there are some great ideas in here.

My opinion? Great list of things to stock up on. Many are common household items while others are not.

100 Items That Disappear First in a Disaster

1. Generators
(Good ones cost dearly. Gas storage, risky. Noisy…target of thieves; maintenance, etc.)

2. Water Filters/Purifiers

3. Portable Toilets (Increasing in price every two months.)

4. Seasoned Firewood
(About $100 per cord; wood takes 6 – 12 mos. to become dried, for home uses.)

5. Lamp Oil, Wicks, Lamps
(First choice: Buy CLEAR oil. If scarce, stockpile ANY!)

6. Coleman Fuel
(URGENT $2.69-$3.99/gal. Impossible to stockpile too much.)

7. Guns, Ammunition, Pepper Spray, Knives, Clubs, Bats and Slingshots

8. Hand-Can openers and hand egg beaters, whisks (Life savers!)

9. Honey/Syrups/white, brown sugars

10. Rice – Beans – Wheat
(White rice is now $12.95 – 50# bag. Sam’s Club, stock depleted often.)

11. Vegetable oil (for cooking)
(Without it food burns/must be boiled, etc.)

12. Charcoal and Lighter fluid (Will become scarce suddenly.)

13. Water containers
(Urgent Item to obtain. The Waterbob bathtub water storage container is a good place to start)

14. Mini Heater head (Propane) (Without this item, propane won’t heat a room.)

15. Grain Grinder (Non-electric)

16. Propane Cylinders

17. Michael Hyatt’s Y2K Survival Guide
(BEST single y2k handbook for sound advice/tips.)

18. Mantles: Aladdin, Coleman, etc.
(Without this item, longer-term lighting is difficult.)

19. Baby Supplies: Diapers/formula/ointments/aspirin, etc

20. Washboards, Mop Bucket w/wringer (for Laundry)

21. Cook stoves
(Propane, Coleman and Kerosene)

22. Vitamins
(Critical, due 10 Y2K-forced daily canned food diets.)

23. Propane Cylinder Handle-Holder
(Urgent: Small canister use is dangerous without this item.)

24. Feminine Hygiene/Haircare/Skin products

25. Thermal underwear
(Tops and bottoms)

26. Bow saws, axes and hatchets and Wedges (also, honing oil)

27. Aluminum foil Reg. and Heavy. Duty
(Great Cooking and Barter item)

28. Gasoline containers
(Plastic or Metal)

29. Garbage bags
(Impossible to have too many.)

30. Toilet Paper, Kleenex, paper towel

31. Milk – Powdered and Condensed
(Shake liquid every 3 to 4 months.)

32. Garden seeds (Non-hybrid) (A MUST)

33. Clothes pins/line/hangers (A MUST)

34. Coleman’s Pump Repair Kit: 1(800) 835-3278

35. Tuna Fish (in oil)

36. Fire extinguishers
(or.. large box of Baking soda in every room…)

37. First aid kits

38. Batteries (all sizes…buy furthest-out for Expiration Dates)

39. Garlic, spices and vinegar, baking supplies

40. BIG DOGS (and plenty of dog food)

41. Flour, yeast and salt

42. Matches
(“Strike Anywhere” preferred. Boxed, wooden matches will go first.)

43. Writing paper/pads/pencils/solar calculators

44. Insulated ice chests
(good for keeping items from freezing in Wintertime)

45. Work boots, belts, Levis and durable shirts

46. Flashlights/Light Sticks and torches, “No.76 Dietz” Lanterns

47. Journals, Diaries and Scrapbooks
(Jot down ideas, feelings, experiences: Historic times!)

48. Garbage cans Plastic
(great for storage, water, transporting – if with wheels)

49. Men’s Hygiene: Shampoo, Toothbrush/paste, Mouthwash/floss, nail clippers, etc

50. Cast iron cookware (sturdy, efficient)

51. Fishing supplies/tools

52. Mosquito coils/repellent sprays/creams

53. Duct tape

54. Tarps/stakes/twine/nails/rope/spikes

55. Candles

56. Laundry detergent (Liquid)

57. Backpacks and Duffle bags

58. Garden tools and supplies

59. Scissors, fabrics and sewing supplies

60. Canned Fruits, Veggies, Soups, stews, etc.

61. Bleach
(plain, NOT scented: 4 to 6% sodium hypochlorite)

62. Canning supplies (Jars/lids/wax)

63. Knives and Sharpening tools: files, stones, steel

64. Bicycles…Tires/tubes/pumps/chains, etc.

65. Sleeping bags and blankets/pillows/mats

66. Carbon Monoxide Alarm (battery powered)

67. Board Games Cards, Dice

68. d-Con Rat poison, MOUSE PRUFE II, Roach Killer

69. Mousetraps, Ant traps and cockroach magnets

70. Paper plates/cups/utensils (stock up, folks…)

71. Baby Wipes, oils, waterless and Anti-bacterial soap
(saves a lot of water)

72. Rain gear, rubberized boots, etc.

73. Shaving supplies
(razors and creams, talc, after shave)

74. Hand pumps and siphons
(for water and for fuels)

75. Soy sauce, vinegar, bouillons/gravy/soup base

76. Reading glasses

77. Chocolate/Cocoa/Tang/Punch (water enhancers)

78. “Survival-in-a-Can”

79. Woolen clothing, scarves/ear-muffs/mittens

80. BSA – New 1998 – Boy Scout Handbook
(also, Leader’s Catalog)

81. Roll-on Window Insulation Kit (MANCO)

82. Graham crackers, saltines, pretzels, Trail mix/Jerky

83. Popcorn, Peanut Butter, Nuts

84. Socks, Underwear, T-shirts, etc. (extras)

85. Lumber (all types)

86. Wagons and carts
(for transport to and from open Flea markets)

87. Cots and Inflatable Mattresses (for extra guests)

88. Gloves: Work/warming/gardening, etc.

89. Lantern Hangers

90. Screen Patches, glue, nails, screws, nuts and bolts

91. Teas

92. Coffee

93. Cigarettes

94. Wine/Liquors (for bribes, medicinal, etc.)

95. Paraffin wax

96. Glue, nails, nuts, bolts, screws, etc.

97. Chewing gum/candies

98. Atomizers (for cooling/bathing)

99. Hats and cotton neckerchiefs

100. Goats/chickens