22 Items Every Prepper Should Stockpile

[dademoss]

And propane.

SHHHHH, it's for the grill, you know how fast it eats propane

 

[Weedygarden]

GAAAA! That's only 21 items!! Now I have to watch the flippin' video to find out what the last one is. (Not a big heartache, since I was gonna watch it anyway.)

And the list I made has 23 items.

 

[Supervisor42]

Sorry. I thought I counted correctly. The item I omitted was Plastic Bags.

...Like everybody doesn't already have 200 of them on hand .

 

[Weedygarden]

...Like everybody doesn't already have 200 of them on hand .

Not the people who have clutter free houses!

 

[dademoss]

...Like everybody doesn't already have 200 of them on hand .

290 Resealable sandwich bags

120 Quart ziplock freezer bags

120 gallon ziplock freezer bags

Plus assorted trash and contractor bags.

So, MAYBE

 

[dademoss]

Not the people who have clutter free houses!

So thats where I made my error

Oh well.

 

[Weedygarden]

290 Resealable sandwich bags

120 Quart ziplock freezer bags

120 gallon ziplock freezer bags

Plus assorted trash and contractor bags.

So, MAYBE

Yes, that is more like me. In my organization business of late, I decided to have a bin for all each of my ziplock bags. They are great. I remember when they first came out and my friends would wash and reuse them. Some still do!

 

[Supervisor42]

290 Resealable sandwich bags

120 Quart ziplock freezer bags

120 gallon ziplock freezer bags

Plus assorted trash and contractor bags.

So, MAYBE

Come clean now!
When DW gets home from the store, she cannot bring herself to throwing away "perfectly-good" plastic bags.
... and I was being conservative when I only said '200'.

 

[dademoss]

Come clean now!
When DW gets home from the store, she cannot bring herself to throwing away "perfectly-good" plastic bags.
... and I was being conservative when I only said '200'.

OK, OK , turn off the bright light . That is the count still in unopened boxes. There are MORE in "open stock" in the kitchen.

NOOOOO,NOOOO, NOT THE BAMBOO AND RUBBER HOSE.

 

[Proud Prepper]

That would be my guess as well, water purification. I never thought of this as a top 20 list. I thought of it more as a "things you should have that are often overlooked" list. I am giving her the benefit of the doubt that the essentials, even for a newbie prepper, are already covered.

Water is certainly critical to survival. Acquiring it, storing it, purifying it, you cannot live without it. The only thing I would put above that would be shelter.

Since I discovered chlorine dioxide solution, I don't store as much bleach. It's much better than bleach for making safe drinking water, also to treat mold, mildew and has enormous medicinal uses. I'd put it as my number one prep item after food and water. It's cheap and easy to make.

 

[Weedygarden]

Come clean now!
When DW gets home from the store, she cannot bring herself to throwing away "perfectly-good" plastic bags.
... and I was being conservative when I only said '200'.

As of the first of January, there are supposed to be no single use shopping bags in stores in Colorado. Some still have them and are allowed to use them from previous stock.

I have folded the ones that do not have holes in them and kept a stash of them in my car trunk for various uses. The rest get donated to stores that have a collection barrel for them. Those will have to be going away soon. Then what? There are tubes at dog parks for donating bags to use for cleaning up after dogs.

 

[Caribou]

The great thing about a list like this is it gets your brain working and you can easily double the list without too much effort. Thanks for posting this!

(And yeah, I already store this stuff. But it's a good to get new ideas and also be reminded of things to stock back up on.)

Exactly. The main reason for list articles is to get you thinking. When I weigh my preps off a list I count a line if I have that item or a replacement for it. Sometimes there are things on a list that don't apply to me. I don't count that item against me. Why store something, okra for example, that I'm never going to use.

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

...Like everybody doesn't already have 200 of them on hand .

The salt is for preserving meat as mentioned by Weedy and some basic hide tanning if needed.

Here is me, sheepishly raising my hand once again and admitting to far more than two hundred plastic bags.

-A box of one thousand shopping bags purchased from the grocery store the day before they were banned for purchase.

-500 black barrel sized contractor bags

-Maybe a 100 zip locks; they are crap these days.

-500 food grade bags of different sizes from a bulk restaurant supply store for over sized chickens, turkeys ect.

-Originally 3000 gallon and 1/2 gallon vacuum bags for a vacuum chamber. I vacuum pack all of my meat after wrapping in butcher paper. It's good for 10 years in a freezer that way. Now, about 2500 bags.

-500 large household garbage bags.

Turd Boy can ban stuff all he wants. But he needs to get up a lot earlier to catch this worm.

 

[Alaskajohn]

A few years ago there was a thread on here about useful preps for homesteaders. There is probably not a homesteader on the forum that doesn’t have a couple dozen well used 5 gallon buckets and that’s still not enough. So many uses. SHTF they are gold.

 

[Haertig]

Originally 3000 gallon and 1/2 gallon vacuum bags

???

First we had someone with 600 lbs of salt, now we have someone with 3000 gallon plastic bags. You guys are deadly serious about your prepping!

 

[Morgan101]

First we had someone with 600 lbs of salt, now we have someone with 3000 gallon plastic bags.

You have to have quite an imagination to call a 3000 gallon container a "bag". I would call that a pool liner.

 

[Morgan101]

This came to me after the fact, but an upside to this list is that you can get almost all of these items at the Dollar Store. If you do need to stock up or replenish you don't have to break the bank.

 

[elkhound]

3000-1 gallon and half gallon freezer bags.......wow ! its kinda woman i want in my life !

i have 1000 canning jars....lol

 

[Amish Heart]

I'm not counting mine.
Bags are handy.

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

Think about how many mylar bags people who have freeze dryers or even dehydrators, use. If they decide to ban them, and they will, you would buy ahead, as cheaply as possible.

Canning jars have become too expensive if your just getting started, at $26.99 a dozen. Lids are now $7.99 a dozen and scary bad. The US has some of the cheapest food prices in the world and you are still feeling the pinch.

They are attacking farmers and the ability to take care of one's self and they are not going to stop. I'll take food and food preservation as the top ten items on my list. I can't eat a flash light.

I am not counting on elections to fix any problems. It's a good time to be oldish.

 

[Weedygarden]

Originally 3000 gallon and 1/2 gallon vacuum bags for a vacuum chamber. I vacuum pack all of my meat after wrapping in butcher paper. It's good for 10 years in a freezer that way. Now, about 2500 bags.

I was talking to someone about getting a quarter of a beef. She said that meat in a freezer doesn't taste so good in about a year or so. I told her that vacuum sealing is really better for any frozen meat. I have never used butcher paper first on frozen meat, just the vacuum seal bags. This is interesting. Do you think it preserves your meat better? I have used freezer paper alone, and have some in the freezer now.

Growing up, any meat that was processed for the freezer was wrapped in freezer paper and then labeled with what I think was called a grease pen, something I haven't seen or heard of in years.

Looks like they are called China markers, for marking ceramic China.

 

[Haertig]

She said that meat in a freezer doesn't taste so good in about a year or so. I told her that vacuum sealing is really better for any frozen meat.

Vacuum sealing makes all the difference.

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

Many years ago, too numerous to count, butcher paper was un waxed. Now it is waxed. A properly/tightly wrapped hunk of meat, no air pockets, will easily last 4 years without vacuum packing.

This assumes no freeze thaw cycles with malfunctioning freezers and extended power outages. It also assumes quality meat went in, not borderline spoiled.

If you vacuum pack only, no paper, you will lose the meat if the vacuum fails for any reason. If the meat is wrapped first, it will survive the failure. I have eaten meat out to ten years and there is no difference. Ideally though, you would be eating it sòoner.

Vacuum packing paper wrapped meat stops puncturing by bones and removes any residual oxygen.

Taste tests should be blind to avoid psychological hang ups. Kind of like best by dates.

 

[Weedygarden]

If you vacuum pack only, no paper, you will lose the meat if the vacuum fails for any reason.

I have had vacuum sealed things get unsealed because of pin holes, such when I sealed some lentils and garbanzos. This is one of the reasons that I believe in a second package for sealing things, such as grains and beans. For grains and other dry goods, rodents and insects can and will get into it if you just put Mylar packaged stuff on the shelf.

 

[Aerindel]

What are the cotton balls for? I've never owned cotton ball, let alone prepped one.

 

[Aerindel]

Sheesh. You ain't done nothing yet. I have 600 lbs of salt. SHTF better happen before I die or my kids will be dealing with their own version.

I only have about 500 myself. Guess I need to up my game.

 

[Hardcalibres]

What are the cotton balls for?

Impersonating gangsters.

You stuff the gap between your upper teeth and your cheeks with cotton balls.

It has the added bonus of making your voice sound like Marlon Brando in the Godfather movies.

 

[Haertig]

What are the cotton balls for? I've never owned cotton ball, let alone prepped one.

You massage Vaseline into them, and then you have a nice waterproof fire starter. For my hiking pocket survival kit (always in my pocket, in addition to a larger survival kit in my backpack) I keep these greased cotton balls. Make sure you start out with a cotton one, not the synthetic ones. Massage in a good amount of Vaseline. Then roll them into long strands and stuff them inside a jumbo sized plastic straw that you cut down to a size that will fit in your pocket kit (in my case, that is an Altoids tin). Clamp the end of the straw with a pair of hemostats, and melt it closed with a BIC lighter. Repeat the melt-sealing on the other end. Now you have a non-messy way (after you wipe off any excess Vaseline) to store your greased cotton balls in your kit. To use them, cut open the straw and pull out a piece of the cotton ball. You need to fluff it up by pulling and teasing it so you have hair wisps sticking out to catch a spark from your ferro rod. You'd be surprised how many greased cotton balls will fit into a straw. Or you can put them into a slightly larger container if you want - like a 35mm film cannister (I wish you could still get those easily - great for storing little things!)

 

[Magpie]

Since I discovered chlorine dioxide solution, I don't store as much bleach. It's much better than bleach for making safe drinking water, also to treat mold, mildew and has enormous medicinal uses. I'd put it as my number one prep item after food and water. It's cheap and easy to make.

Is that the same as this? We use it here also, though I do keep a bit of bleach to hand. Son uses it for cleaning the inside of of gaming controller or music equipment.

 

[shanrose]

Sheesh. You ain't done nothing yet. I have 600 lbs of salt. SHTF better happen before I die or my kids will be dealing with their own version.

I would agree with salt, socks + undies but a lot of that other stuff holds no attraction to me. My version of vaseline is 25 lbs of bag balm for medicinal purposes and milking cows.

Why did you buy so much salt?