Easy Prepping Activities to Do at the End of the Year

Written by Bernie Carr

With Christmas over and the New Year almost upon us, I was trying to think if I got any prepping activities done this month.  I have been busy with work, and, like everyone else, shopping for gifts, getting ready for Christmas, but that was no excuse to slack off.  So I was trying to think what did I get done, and I realized that I did most of my prepping activities earlier this month:

• Took advantage of grocery sales and bought extra canned vegetables and fruit
• Bought extra dehydrated potatoes that were also on sale
• Added a large First Aid kit for the car
• Also added jackets and sweaters for the trunk of the car
• Picked up refills on prescriptions received this past year before they, and added them to the emergency stash.
• Gave survival themed gifts.  I plan to post a review of a couple of the items that I received, so stay tuned for that.

Now that old year is almost over, it’s a good time to evaluate how we did and do a few quick projects before year-end.

Review

• Review how much supplies you have stored up.  How much water and food have you managed to store so far?  For us, due to space issues, we have about a couple week’s worth of water, and about 10 weeks worth of food, including the refrigerator and pantry.  We have a ways to go in terms of water, but we added some water storage containers and some back up water filters.
• How much equipment do you have?  We checked our supply of batteries, matches, flashlights, camping stove and lanterns as well as solar chargers in case the power gets interrupted.
• Test your gear. A lot of preparedness equipment get left in the box until they are needed. An emergency is not a good time to find out that your equipment is defective. Try them out now; return and re-order if possible.
• Examine your canned food expiration dates.

Skills

• Consider the skills you’ve picked up.  At Apartment Prepper, so far we’ve covered how to make bread from scratch, brew coffee without electricity, sprout seeds and make home made yogurt.  We also featured basic recipes for plain white rice, and making a pot of beans.  The patio garden has a few plants stir surviving , but we are getting ready to start is up again this coming year by ordering reasonably priced heritage seeds. Pick a few more skills – check out my e-book, Frugal DIY.

Create space

• De-clutter and make more space for your supplies.  We are constantly trying to find space for survival supplies, so we have to keep re-evaluating our space.  The end of the year is a good time to clean up.  You will also want to check if any pests are around your storage areas.  We are pretty vigilant about keeping pests out but notice they try to come in from the outside.  In apartment buildings, whenever someone moves in or out we notice a few extra pests trying to come in.

Safety measures

• Crime is on the rise in many cities, so now is a good time to evaluate your home security.  Being in the big city, we are always conscious of security issues.  Make your doors and windows more secure and consider other alternatives for home security.
• Evaluate items you carry daily and consider personal security items as well.

The above is not a complete list, but should hopefully get you thinking about your own preparedness and survival activities.  Don’t beat yourself up if you fall short of your own expectations; instead, give yourself a pat on the back on how much you have accomplished!  Likely, you are already ahead of 70% of the population.

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Bernie Carr is the founder of Apartment Prepper. She has written several books including the best-selling Prepper’s Pocket Guide, Jake and Miller’s Big Adventure, The Penny-Pinching Prepper and How to Prepare for Most Emergencies on a $50 a Month Budget. Bernie’s latest e-book, FRUGAL DIY has just been released on Amazon. Her work appears in sites such as the Allstate Blog and Clark.com, as well as print magazines such as Backwoods Survival Guide and Prepper Survival Guide. She has been featured in national publications such as Fox Business and Popular Mechanics. Learn more about Bernie here.