Top 5 Tips to Ignite your Prepping Efforts this Spring
Food Stockpile
We all store food in different ways, but it’s important that we take time to ensure that everything is fresh, free from contamination or infestation by pests or rodents. Take time to examine your storage area and check for signs that your supplies have been compromised. Check the seals on your containers and canned foods. Double check dates to ensure that certain products have not expired past their shelf life.
Take time to organize your supplies and rotate older products so that you consume them first. Replace items that you have consumed and give some thought to different menu and food products that you and your family will enjoy during the warmer months. This is also a good time to determine what items your family did not enjoy eating during the winter and replace them with other options.
You also want to evaluate the effectiveness of different packaging methods that you’ve been using over the past few months. Did they work? What can you do to make them better and more efficient? Are portions big enough to meet the needs of you and your family but small enough to minimize waste? These are just a few examples of things to consider as you walk through your storage area, but the point is to evaluate what worked and what didn’t so that you can make necessary changes to ensure that your stockpile is fresh, loaded and ready to be accessed as needed.
Survival Kits
There are obvious differences between winter and summer survival kits, and now is the time to modify them for the warmer months ahead. This is also a good time to make sure that items are in proper working order. Take everything out of your bug-out-bags and survival kits and test them. Inflate air mattresses, test batteries, inspect and clean equipment and restock items that you’ve used over the winter. Think about what items were useful and which ones are redundant or unnecessary. Make changes accordingly to ensure that you have optimized your gear so that you’re ready to put them to use in a moment’s notice.
First Aid Supplies
Inspect and assess your first aid kits and medical supplies. Make sure that everything is still fresh and ready for use. Bandages get stale, ointments may have leaked and medications could have expired. Go through everything and replace items as necessary. You also want to consider adding different items that are more relevant to warmer months such as insect spray, sunscreen and hot or cold packs.
Water
Make sure that your water supplies are adequate and fresh. Check your filters and purification tablets and replace or restock as necessary. Clean and disinfect water bottles. Consider how your water consumption will increase as temperatures go up. Start to plan and build up your stockpile so that you have enough on hand to meet demand if an emergency arises.
Structures and Perimeter
Get outside and examine the condition of your home, bug out location and property. Make a list of things that need to be repaired or replaced. What’s the condition of your solar water heater or cooker? What’s the condition of your outside water tanks? How does your garden area look? Is your fencing in good condition? Check your lights, motion sensors and other security features that you have in place. Check your smoke detector batteries and fire extinguishers.
Once you examine these general categories, start looking at the totality of your preparedness efforts. Go through everything and leave no stone unturned. Any deficiency that you can identify now will give you the opportunity to take corrective action and help you to avoid being caught off-guard in the future.
Remember that good survival preparedness efforts involves continual evaluation and modification. The changing of seasons is a great time to take stock and improve and adapt as necessary, and the sooner you get started will help to put you in an advantageous position.
