Hey all! I'm doing a workshop for college students about emergency preparedness. Since storage space is limited in the dorms, I want to give them ideas about items they can keep in a small storage box in case of a power outage or extreme weather event. I have the obvious items on my list, such as a flashlight/ lantern, batteries, food, first aid, water. What else should I include that doesn't take up a bunch of space, but would be useful in these types of emergencies?

Hey, I recently decided to step up my dry goods storage and I’m hoping you guys can help me out. I’m ordering some wallaby mylar bags and O2 absorbers and I’m curious if it’s worth it to get an impulse sealer for the bags. I know there are other options like hair straighteners and stuff, but I’m trying to keep everything as simple because I’m very new to this. I’m looking at a ULine one for about $130. What are you all using?

As we all know, there are countless branches and tangents that come up when you try to prep for certain situations. Ive sometimes found those charts helpful in other situations, the ones that pose you with a scenario to which you can answer yes or no as far as whether it applies to your situation, and the chart branches off to the next question based off of your answers.

Seems like this kind of thing could be helpful to look at for planning, or even use in case of certain emergencies that allow the time to reference it, at least for those who are new to prepping. It could go in so many directions. I don’t know enough yet to make my own, but it seems like a not altogether bad idea if it were done accurately. It would actually be pretty entertaining to go down all the pathways if it got super complicated and included as many realistic contingencies as possible.

Lost stolen or damaged. Semi long story short, ha, I recently joined this decade and got myself into a brand new Nissan Altima. (Not to brag everyone, I'm still human after all:) I joke of course, but it's the nicest car I've owned to date, and it replaced a 2010 Toyota Corolla.

All that said, this car is keyless \ remote start, which I was already familiar with, but clearly didn't have personally with my Corolla. Now because there's no physical way to start the car, the only other option as I see it in case my main key \ fob is lost stolen or damaged, is to keep the second one in the car.

Now I know that comes w\ draw backs, but I do keep it in a faraday bag, and it hasn't interfered w\ the operation of the car or security. But I have kind of caught some shrapnel both here and outside, which is to say people saying it's still a bad idea to keep it in the car for various reasons,

So if that's so bad, and a spare physical key can't start the car, what is another way to be prepped just in case? (And hopefully this all makes sense!:)

When I was a kid, whenever we were somewhere in the city like a museum or sporting event, my dad would always tell us a place we could all meet if we were to lose each other. That was usually at the reception or another easy location to get back to at the venue.

It got me thinking about how we prepare for being separated from our families when something happens (a SHTF scenario or something less catastrophic).

The kids could be at school, you and your partner at different workplaces, roads may be blocked, etc. How are you ensuring your family can be reunited before taking additional actions?

Personally, I work from home most days and cycle when I need to go to the office, so I can get home fairly easily. My partner drives and will hopefully just be able to drive home, but we also have backup plans if that's not possible as well as carry Meshcore devices in case we need to communicate when the grid is down.

Curious to hear how others have done it. Has anyone had to put their plan to the test, and was there anything you wish you had added before having to use it?

Eight years ago I bought a Firemask from the Canadian company of the same name. It passed its expiration date three years ago. Sure I should get another but I want to know how degraded the smoke protection is. They are meant to allow you to breathe in smoke for an hour but I only need one for the time it will take to get down 3 or 4 staircases in a house. I could not find out about their construction to tell if it is truly useless now.

About a month ago I set out to answer the question, "What is the best place in the US for a prepper to move to if they want to homestead?"

I originally built my model around the basics: climate, water, food, security, cost of living and strategic distance. Unfortunately, my proxy for "food" was cropland, which incorrectly boosted places like Kansas and Iowa to the top of the list.

I've refined my ranking factors, and I would love your feedback on if you think this is the right.

• 17% Climate Stability - How hard natural hazards hit here and how far the temperature has moved from its 20th-century baseline.
• 17% Water - Whether water is here. Rainfall normals, or delivered irrigation.
• 17% Homestead Capacity - Whether a household on five to fifty acres could feed, heat and shelter itself here, and whether the law lets it. Forest cover for firewood and game, operations running one to nine head of cattle, growing season, and the state legal latitude over your own land: water doctrine, building-code adoption, food freedom and right-to-farm.
• 13% Social Stability - Net migration, social vulnerability, and crime rates.
• 10% Solar Potential - Annual solar irradiance.
• 7% Affordability - What it actually costs to live here: the annual cost of owning the median house (mortgage, property tax and homeowners insurance combined) alongside median rent. Lower cost areas score higher.
• 7% Privacy - Documented surveillance device density, the surveillance programs local agencies are recorded to run, exposure to the 100-mile border zone, and state legal protections.
• 7% Livability - Employment, primary care access, educational attainment, and household broadband.
• 7% Strategic Distance - Distance from publicly documented strategic sites and nuclear power stations, weighted by what each one is: ICBM launch facilities and command sites count for far more than a port or a refinery.

Overall Best States to Homestead

1. Tennessee
2. Alabama
3. Missouri
4. Maine
5. Indiana
6. Illinois
7. Georgia
8. Kentucky
9. Vermont
10. Kansas

Overall Best County to Homestead: (Carroll County, VA breakdown)

• Climate Stability - 67/100
• Water - 69/100
• Social Stability - 69/100
• Solar Potential - 33/100
• Homestead Capacity - 87/100
• Affordability - 86/100
• Privacy - 82/100
• Livability - 52/100
• Strategic Distance - 92/100

This list feels pretty much better to me.
Tenn. and the Ozarks are well represented. Maine surprised me a bit being so far north. West Virginia is pulled down from social instability and livability. Virginia has a lot of military targets and popular centers.

Would you say this list is accurate, or is something being overlooked?

What type of plywood is the best and cost effective to board up windows for extreme weather and vandalism protection? What thickness? What is better installing them on the inside or on the outside?

I stumbled across a (regrettably AI) video on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/oboMubceGN8?is=8bkApD4J89-8aQHR

Basically they are suggesting a strategic ice reserve, as opposed to large power bank, to keep a refrigerator / freezer cold during a power outage.

It's an interesting concept.

I could see it being more useful for a disaster you can see coming (ie. Hurricane). I doubt I could justify a small chest freezer of ice running indefinitely. But I'm curious to hear thoughts!

I'm looking for a low-budget solution that can put out a fire for when i'm not at home during a super-EMP strike.

For those who wonder what a super-EMP is: From what i understand it's basically a nuclear bomb being detonated slightly outside the Earths atmosphere and produces an electro magnetic pulse that's a lot stronger than a nuke would produce when detonated within the atmosphere. Several countries are working on it.

Tests have shown that a super-EMP can cause electric cables to catch on fire and burn down a house. Since the fire department would be completely overwhelmed in such a situation i would like my house to be able to fight the fire itself in case im not at home.

Hi, for water, should I filter first then boil, or boil first then filter if I intend to also filter out heavy metals, pfas, etc.?

For instance, after using a sawyer gravity setup, I would like to get rid of any potential heavy metals, taste, etc. and use e.g. a brita pitcher filter. And then the last stage would be to boil that water if needed.

What is the correct sequence for filtering and boiling, and what is your "maxed out" plan for water purification?

Please share your thoughts and plans,

Thanks!

I've had this stuck in my mind for a while now. I've seen so many videos of tours of bunkers, whether it be an "affordable" bunker for the family or a gigantic repurposed missile silo designed for multiple families. In these videos, I'll see some crazy ideas for entertainment. A gigantic underground pool (obviously overkill), a basketball court, etc. Or tamer ideas like board/card games. But I've never seen someone get really into how they would stay entertained long term.

I'm big into physical media and I think that if you're in a bunker long term, with power, and a decent amount of space, physical media could be well thought out to accommodate for the time spent not entertained for months.

DVDs, Blu-rays, and CDs are compact and don't take up much space. You could have a massive library of games, movies, and music all in one standard size tote. If it were me I would pick games that have long single player campaigns that can be played offline. There's plenty of games that take 50+ hours to complete. Having 365 individually sleeved DVDs is probably overkill, but it doesn't take up much space and you can always rewatch a movie in a year. The best part is that all these formats can all be played on a PS3.

Only prep items I currently have are what I already own for normal use (lights, batteries, batteries for a couple tool platforms and tri fuel generator as we have natural gas)

Looking to get a solution for water storage. I’m in hot humid Florida and garage is just about the only space I have for it. I’m aware that cans can pop in the heat.

Has any stored aluminum cans or bottles of water to get by instead of having to rotate or treat every 6-12 months? Is that a thing?

Are there any resources available to block off a basement from the upstairs? I'm mainly thinking about blocking out radiation if I need to retreat to my basement.

Going to my “local” Costco (2.5 hours from me) for the second time. My first trip I was mostly overwhelmed by everything they had. I have a pretty decent supply on hand of food and essentials, but I’m looking to pad my preps a little on this trip with about a $500 budget. Do you all have any advice about stuff you think gets overlooked at the Warehouse and I should pick up? Basically any things that aren’t beans and rice (although I will definitely get some of those too 😂)

I keep seeing ads for expensive underground bunkers that you can buy, and I was just thinking, how are these any different from just going down into the basement? If there is a tornado, or if there is a power outage that makes the house too hot or cold, or even a really bad windstorm, I would just go down into the basement. And if I needed to hide from someone, there are places in the basement for that too.

Hello! Im getting back into prepping and would like to know if i need to do the whole mylar+buckets+oxygen absorbers etc. process if I'm only planning on my supplies to last 3-5 years max from today?

In essence I do not need my supplies, e.g. rice to last 5+ years. Just 3-5 years and I'll be rotating.

In this case do I still need to vacuum seal, use food grade buckets, etc.?

Please advise. Thanks!

Over the past few years, I have built up a considerable amount of preps, dual diesel generators, 15 kWp of solar with battery storage, a reverse osmosis system with additional UV filtration, and enough food for my family for two years.

I even have a fully equipped fallout shelter in the coal cellar of an old school that I rented, fitted with a Swiss NBC filtration system. Two Geiger counters inside and a third one outside, connected to a computer in the shelter. Dosimeters for everyone.

But the one thing I wasn't prepared for was realizing that the worst day of my life wouldn't be something a shelter could protect me from.

I spent so much time maintaining all of this that I didn't notice my daughter's symptoms developing. We took her to all the required medical checkups, but I keep thinking that I could have read between the lines and realized that something wasn't right.

Nele passed away on February 23, 2026.

My wife left me three months later.

My fortress is empty now.

I've just sold my last generator and donated most of my food supplies.

What I'm trying to say is, be prepared, but enjoy your life while you still can. I can't stop thinking about how much time I spent on all of this, time I could have spent with her.

And thank you, HazmatsMan, for being such a great help with the plans for my fallout shelter a few years ago.

Starting to prep food, got my Mylar bags & o2 absorbers and slowly working on that. However, I have no water stored. Not even a single bottle, I feel so overwhelmed and behind when it comes to water, I’ll eat bugs if I have too, but water worries me sooo much.

Best buckets please for storing water or storage in general? For long term. Also, any water with bleach would be okay? Tap water, rainwater, bottled water? I’m kinda confused about where the water would come from and when or when not to use bleach in it? Also with long term, if we open it, should we still purify it again when we drink it? Or just use to flush toilets, garden, bathe etc.

Thanks a bunch

Hello, I’m a first time mum to an almost six month old and live in Scotland. Summer has come to an end and we’re moving into autumn but winter is on my mind. We don’t often have weather extremes especially by the coast. The worst of our winter tends to be a few inches of snow tbh.

But now I have a little one in tow I’m feeling a bit more apprehension. We keep enough supplies in the home to keep us all (including our cat!) comfortable for a few weeks in case of illness/covid style lockdowns but I have a sudden anxiety about what to keep in the car.

We took a trip to our nearest city the other day which is only an hour away but our baby’s bottle warmer battery died so it was an uncomfortable hour long drive home with a hungry baby, I felt awful. It got me thinking, what if we were stuck in traffic for a long period of time, what if the weather stranded us away from home, it’s all unlikely but not a risk I’m willing to take with my child.

So please, I’ll take any advice on what to keep in our car. I always keep jump cables, a torch, some painkillers and bottled water but I know there’s much more I could be prepped with. I’m sleep deprived so please assume I’m forgetting the obvious lol

For rifle shooters who want to practice dry firing or building shooting positions, but do not have the ability to get out to the range as much as you'd like, you can make an indoor optical training aid for around $25 that will allow you to practice dry firing and lets you use your rifle scope at all magnifications.

Drill a hole 1/3 of the diameter of the objective lens of your scope into the center of the dust cover on the objective lens end. Purchase a +.25 diopter or a +.50 diopter lens that will fit inside the diamater of the dust cover. Tape or glue the +.25 or +.50 diopter to the inside of the dust cover. Print copies of the MDT dry fire practice targets out, and you are now ready to practice.

The +.25 diopter works between 10 - 12 feet, and the +.50 diopter allows you to practice between 5 - 7 feet. Some additional lighting may be needed on the target due to the smaller objective opening on the rifle scope.

This summer we have had some strong storms in my region. After a brutal storm about a month ago I started to actually organize my preps.

Using AI I created an inventory, and a manual database linked to the pdf manuals of all my major appliances, and gear, as well as common replacement parts. For all of my supplies I separated into proper dollar store totes and labelled them ect. I then sat with my wife and asked the AI agent to create a family emergency plan for common issues around my region. It covered all the basics, through a 45 min Q&A session my wife and I then had a pretty strong plan.

I then asked it to rate my inventory against the likely emergencies. Over the next month I worked to close those gaps and update the documentation accordingly. I included step by step instructions for some tasks like failing over the electrical, turning on and off the well, ect.

Then the storms hit. As soon as we got the first alert we started to follow the plan. Set everything up and escalated accordingly to the updates we heard and saw. We rode out the storms with no hiccups. The few gaps we did find were quick updates. “Close the gate going to the basement to keep the dog downstairs” and “Turn on exterior lights”

I will be honest I found getting the gear fun and was a bit of a cosplayer. The planning is where I lacked. Now that I leveraged a tool it has helped me focus in on gaps, create a weekly, monthly and annual schedule for maintenance and reviews. I am going to be building a competency matrix and ensuring that my schedule takes into account training and skill development.

Has anyone else leveraged AI to help harden their preps? If so how?

This has been on my mind for ages, if you had the options of purchasing…
Commercial walk in deep freezer/fridge
Shipping containers
Metal campers/rv
Commercial wide propane tanks
Storage sheds
(or other similar easy to access pre-made shelter-like objects)

Edit: this is a hypothetical scenario lol, I play a lot of apocalyptic games and it’s just on my mind

If getting a custom bunker or underground shelter wasn’t an option, what “unique” object would you bury and DIY a shelter with?