Tam has tips on preparing for emergencies. It’s something I’ve always done. (Not so surprising, being the kid of a Depression era child and a kid raised on a farm before rationing was phased out… ) To these tips, I have some to add:
- Your house is bigger than it looks. You have dead space– behind furniture, unused rooms, crawlspaces, the attic (but please watch the weight), unused cabinets. Heck, if you have a garage workbench with cabinets underneath you never use, you have tens of cubic feet of storage. You can put stuff away, just be creative and the space can be found.
- Organize. Tip 1 doesn’t help if you can’t find anything. In my house, everything is sorted by type– canned foods, dry foods, liquids, supplies, clothing, etc.
- Hunt around. There are companies out there that make food designed for long term storage. There are also companies that make good, cheap water filtration units. Here’s the UGA guide to what you need.
Now, you don’t have to prepare for Armageddon… but preparing for say, a month without power is a good point to start. Here is a kit that will feed one person for 60 days. Two should feed four people for a month, and take up a mere 7 cubic feet of space. That’s 3.5′ x 2′ x 1′… which is the dead space under a bed.
Linoge
13 Apr 10 at 5:16 PM
Hell, Better Half and I managed to store probably a month’s worth of basic foods for the two of us behind the DVDs on our bookshelves, and we are apartment-dwelling cityfolk (though not much longer, thankfully).
If we can manage, damned near anyone can.
Dixie
14 Apr 10 at 2:03 PM
Heh. I have no spare room on my bookshelves. But, I do have spare rooms and some areas that are off the main house that we use for storage.