Podcast episode 102021
Published on October 20th, 2021
Firstly, and foremost welcome to the newly formatted show. We’re excited about offering a navigation plan through the chaos that enters our lives. We all hope that you are able to take away something of benefit to you, and your family.
In this episode we’ll look at intelligently determining the best location, both: inside, and outside your primary residence for storing those supplies necessary to survive natural disasters. In this episode we’ll also cover the appropriate containers to store your supplies in. We’ve covered some ideas as to what to put in it, now let’s talk about what to put it in, and where to put it. When considering the placement or our stores, we need to consider the the largest potential threat, thereby giving our stores the best chance of being intact and usable.
Time to take a look see through the mail bag.
Bonnie from Utah starts us off with “in the mountains does it really matter where the preps are?”
Jaden from California asks “if we have land, isn’t it better to create an underground storage area away from the house?”
Bill from New York asks “living in a small apartment, I don’t have many stores, and I’m at the mercy of the building structure. What can I do?”
Donde from Mississippi asks “while being prepared for a flood is my greatest challenge, I only have one floor. What would be some options to consider for this?”
Terry from Oklahoma asks “is it better to store our preps in a very secure place, or use several “not-as-secure places?”
Great questions to all those who sent them in. If I didn’t get to your question, sorry about that, but don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll touch on this topic again as its really relevant to a requirement for survival.
[Chaotic Greeting]
So, today I’d like to talk about the storage of our preps, and necessary resources for ease of accessibility, especially during a crisis. But before we really drill-down in the location placement, let’s talk about what we are going define.
- “Go” stuff. These are the immediate needs, and should be “ready to go” at a moments notice. They should include anything you are going to need in the next twelve (12) hours. Mind you, it should be a stripped down version of what you are going to need… Leave the hairdryer home.
- Weekender. Weekender level of stuff may be stored in fairly convenient areas, but are not as necessary as our “go stuff”. This level may include our overnight stuff like blankets and/or sleeping bags, as well as some additional nutrition. This is also going to be potable water.
- Long Haul. This section is really our “without the grid” stuff that lasts for weeks at a go. Again, we are going to expand on our nutrition and water needs here. Possibly larger medical kit, and change of clothing. Might want to include our protective equipment here as well.
Each of these levels of preparedness items somewhat creates a location preference just based on the needs. However, having defined our levels of preps, lets talk about where we should store them.
To this point, we’ll cover three major topics:
- Where are the optimal places to store our resources, pending your imminent threat. In this section, we’ll cover a distributed storage model versus centralized, or a hybrid of the two.
- Accessibility will be next where we talk about ensuring we are keeping our stores refreshed, giving us the longest window possible.
- Calculate the threat impact, and immediate needs versus longer term necessities as well as ongoing maintenance stores. Understanding the possible threats that may affect your location.
So, our first point is the optimal locations. We first need to identify where the different items need to be, so we’ll talk about “go bags” versus storage totes, and where best to get the necessary items as quickly as possible. In this segment I want to discuss the availability of our “preps” when things go horribly wrong. So, thinking about locations based on the level of prep, lets consider the three (3) major egress points:
- Exterior doors - Front and back doors, but we need to make sure that the storage is balanced against the need to quickly enter or exit the residence. Obviously, any amount of preps don’t do anyone any good if we become trapped in our residence. Included in this section would be garage doors. The point here is to keep the “go” stuff closer to the doors, in-lieu of further away.
- Exterior windows - In much the same way, if we had to get out quickly, keeping our “go” preps closer to the egress points.
- Special areas - Attics, crawl spaces, tornado cellars, and basements may have specialized egress points that can be considered. Again, keeping the “go” stuff immediately available makes good sense.
When providing a matrix for what goes where, consider your residence collapsing, with all your tools “on-hand” can you get to your supplies? When considering the placement of even the longer-term preps, can you get to it, given the disaster that has occurred? So thinking about the depth within the residence for storing the preps, let’s consider a total collapse of the residence. This is the best way to make sound decision about storage location.
Next up is the necessity of accessibility to the stores.
Finally, let’s talk about calculating the risks, and selecting our storage areas based on this threat.
As you can see, there is a substantial list of factors that could affect where and how awe store our resources.
As always my friends, I am honored and humbled that you have chosen to spend this time listening to me. I deeply appreciate each and every one of you. Being prepared provides each of us with the confidence for successful survival. We mentioned before, and will certainly say again, that survival is a 90% mental task, but that 10% of physical resources is critically important.. By having a confidence and discipline, we can and will survive. Remember to be strong, be safe, and keep your head on a swivel… Peace
