Make this the year you get better prepared. Here are 35 projects to launch you into action. Each is low budget; some require nothing more than your time. Most require no more than a weekend to complete.
- Get organized! Begin a 3-ring binder to organize notes; this will be your Emergency Binder. Use it to consolidate your preparations, notes and lists in one place.
- Research on Google Earth the area around your house. Get to know your danger areas. Where are the “choke points” for escape via automobile? Where are the natural water supplies? Where are the risks? Make notes for your Emergency Binder.
- Using Google Earth, find three different routes from work to home, from home to your safe place and other places you may need to travel. (Pick up children from school, etc.) Identify possible problem areas. Update your Binder
- Buy a detailed laminated paper map of your city and county. Store in your binder.
- Begin to accumulate $200 in 1-dollar bills. Store in your waterproof, fireproof, secret compartment place in your home. When able, increase to $500.
- Scan your personal documents and copy to a thumb drive. Store the thumb drive in a safe place. Include social security cards, passports, birth, driver’s license, marriage, divorce decrees, insurance and title documents, deeds and contracts, bank account numbers and charge cards, (including lost or stolen notification numbers), stocks and bonds, wills, medical information, prescriptions, etc. If you have some survival books or guides on your computer, you can also include a few of these on that thumb drive as well.
- Scan head-and-shoulder photos of each family member. Save to your thumb drive. Print a copy for your Emergency Binder. If family becomes separated, a recent photo may help.
- Video or scan still photos of your home contents. When disaster strikes, having a home inventory will help with insurance claims. Copy to your thumb drive.
- Start saving plastic 2-liter pop bottles (not milk jugs, they decompose). Sanitize and fill 1 with ¾ with water. Use it to fill any empty space in your freezer. If your electric fails, this ice jug will help keep food preserved in the freezer as well as being a source of drinking water. If space permits, have a least 1 2-liter bottle in the freezer per person.
- Ask friends and family members to save soda bottles for you. Lie about your intentions, (tell them it’s a school project for little Johnny). Sanitize the bottle, lid and threads. Fill with tap water. Your goal is to accumulate 30 bottles per family member and large pet. You can also use soda bottles for fishing.
- Prepare a “Car” 72-hour emergency bag. Think Shelter, Water, Fire, & Food. Pack into a backpack. Store it in your car. Revise it with the change in seasons.
- Store survival bars in your emergency bags.
- Catch up on immunizations, dental and medical procedures. Invest in your family’s health.
- Learn to shut off your home’s water, electric, and natural gas. Teach your spouse and children.
- Replace those exterior door hinge screws with 3” screws, reinforce the door jamb and add deadbolts with at least a 1” throw. Add pins to casement windows.
- Update exterior lighting around your home, garage and out buildings. These should be solar, motion-detected security lights. Mount high up so that vandals can’t reach. Stock extra light bulbs.
- Check the status of your fire extinguisher, fire alarms and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (battery powered) with each spring time change. Stockpile 1 extra battery for each alarm
- Buy and mount an axe in your attic. In the flood plains, if you retreat to your attic, you need a way to cut through your roof as a means to escape.
- Get on the other side of the law by joining your local Sheriff’s auxiliary, search and rescue, joining your local CERT (Civilian Emergency Response Team), or getting licensed for Armed Private Security in your state. None of these are guaranteed to give you a pass when you’re dealing with an Orwellian law enforcement official, but they will improve your odds considerably
- Make some dryer lint fire starters.
- Build a heater out of a candle and some terra cotta pots.
- Make a candle from a tub of Crisco.
- Earthquake proof your home and food storage shelving. See the post at Prepared LDS Family for some great ideas and be sure to scroll down into the comment section as well.
- Get in your food storage room and do an inventory or some organizing
- Protect your electronics with your own homemade metal trash can faraday cage.
- In a multi-car family, one vehicle will probably sit during a crisis. Consider long-term storage (longer than 6 months) and determine your auto’s needs.
- Committing to reading one homesteading or self-sufficiency type book each month for the next year. Search for free books on Amazon.com for Kindle“Camp out” in your backyard with your family.
- Find out what you don’t know about living off the grid for 1 weekend. No matter what the weather, deal with it. Pitch the tent, sleep in sleeping bags, eat from can foods.
- Harden the garage door with reinforced tracks. Supplement glass with Lexan, Plexiglas or security film mounted inside. Decide where is best to park the un-needed vehicle – in the garage? Used as a barrier on the property? Hidden and camouflaged?
- Check oil and coolant. Drain or add anti freeze to windshield wash reservoir. Remove anything that will mold, rot or mildew. Anything that will attract rodents to nest. Jack it up or sit it on concrete blocks to keep tires from developing flat spots.
- Disconnect the fuel pump and run the car until it quits to drain fuels from the engine lines. Insert steel wool in the tailpipe to prevent rodents from nesting in the exhaust system. Place several rodent traps in the engine compartment.
- Do not engage parking brake as the pads may become fused. Remove battery and cover
- Plant prickly bushes under windows to deter vandalism. Consider other ways to use landscaping to your security advantage.
- Power tools don’t operate without electricity, pre-cut ¾” plywood to cover all first floor windows. Especially in hurricane/tornado areas. Pre-drill holes so that you can install plywood easily. I was more worried about looters so I chose to make chain-link panels for my windows. They store flat, and can be handled/installed by one person. I can see out the window and it protects my window from a Molotov cocktail. Sure, there are better options, but this is cheap and you can accomplish it immediately while you research other options
- Find 10 survival-type recipes that your family likes – 10 breakfasts, lunches and dinners. Ingredients must be all shelf-stable foods. Stockpile enough ingredients to make each recipe 3 times and you have 30 days of food storage.