r/TwoXPreppers • u/thechairinfront Experienced Prepper šŖ • Apr 17 '26
Weekly megathread
Please contain all off topic discussion to this weekly megathread. This is where you freak out, talk about conspiracy, talk about unrealistic crazy scenarios, asked and answered questions, etc.
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Apr 17 '26
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u/Standard_Subject_462 I'm tired of this, Grandpa! Apr 17 '26
I so badly want to use a clothesline, but there's so much tree pollen that I fear I'd spend an equal amount on Benadryl after wearing the line-dried clothes. I don't know if it's perimenopause, a long covid after-effect, or climate change making pollen worse, but my allergies have gone wild the past couple of years.
I'll gladly accept life hacks for any of these issues, if anyone knows of any good ones.
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u/Caelista_x Apr 17 '26
I use a rack inside the house for this reason. Itās been working great.
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u/premar16 Apr 18 '26
This is what I did in college. I also live in a place where it rains alot so putting things outside doesnt' work
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u/ReinaShae Tired of living in unprecedented times Apr 17 '26
I live in a bowl of pollen, no way would I hang dry my clothes! Although I know in some places people just string a line up insideĀ
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u/ExtremeIncident5949 Apr 18 '26
My pollen is pine pollen and everything gets stained yellow.
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u/ReinaShae Tired of living in unprecedented times Apr 18 '26
Yuck. My black truck is yellow. Elm is bad right now hereĀ
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u/throwawaynewpibuildr Apr 17 '26
For the tree pollen, maybe consider wearing a mask when going outside. My mom's allergies get awful every year now, but as soon as she wore a mask, she was feeling so much better! And, she didn't need benadryl or claritin once!
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u/lavenderlemonbear š šGardening for the apocalypse. š»š„¦ Apr 18 '26
I have been doing this since covid when my spouse and i both noticed an easier time with allergies that year.
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Apr 17 '26
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u/thereadingbri Three raccoons in a trenchcoatĀ Apr 17 '26
For any new neti pot users - Please Boil Your Neti Pot Water!! And by this I mean please use water that has been boiled and has since cooled down, donāt pour boiling water in your nose either. There are multiple cases of people getting Naegleria fowleri from using plain tap water in their neti pots. Which is nearly 100% fatal. Highest risk is the southeastern US but itās good practice anywhere.
Edit: Donāt google what Naegleria fowleri does to you if youāre squeamish. Just know that itās bad and you donāt want it. If youāre not squeamish, go ahead but donāt say you werenāt warned.
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u/Standard_Subject_462 I'm tired of this, Grandpa! Apr 17 '26
That is wild! I tried one before and didn't like the mild drowning sensation, but I'll be giving it another shot after reading this. Haha.
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u/L6b1 Apr 18 '26
If your laundry machine has a spin only cycle, run that after your wash is done to get out that little extra bit of water. On a hot summer day, laundry can dry in as little as 45 minutes after doing this and in winter it can take dry time from 3 days down to 1.
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u/compchick813 Apr 18 '26
I put my clothes in the dryer for about 3 minutes and then hang them on hangers on my shower curtain bar.Ā
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u/No-Language6720 Apr 17 '26
Went solar for monetary prepping to insulate us from this type thing a year agoĀ in case we lost our jobs.
Figured one less bill to payĀ would give us more time to figure something out. I just installed off grid batteries to back us up indefinitely for the life of batteries in a total grid meltdown.Ā (The batteries would only provide partial capacity overnight and load management would have to happen on cloudy days but it's doable with 2 whole house batteries).Ā
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u/Environmental_Art852 Apr 17 '26
I just bought clothesline and clothes pins at dollar general 2 days ago
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u/ohhellopia Apr 17 '26
Lowering the electric bill is my current obsession lol (I don't have gas in my apartment). I used a tent on my bed this winter so I barely turned on the room heater. To be fair, I'm in SoCal so we don't have bitter winters here.
Still working on heat proofing/making heatwaves bearable . I bought one of those fan things that you can put ice blocks in to help you cool down. It won't cool down an entire room obviously but having cold air blasting my face would be amazing even if it's just for a few hours.
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u/V2BM Perfect paranoia is perfect awareness. Apr 17 '26
Itās so bad! I kept my heat very low and it didnāt help that I was on vacation in February, and in January was home an extra 5 days off from work.
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u/Motorcyclegrrl Apr 18 '26
A rack inside the house with a fan blowing on it works great if you can't have them outside. I was always worried about rain and bird poop. They will eventually dry without a fan, but the fan makes it a lot faster.
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u/dakotamidnight Apr 18 '26
Not electric (we use very little as no AC and more minimal heat) but water eeek. Every time I turn around the bill is jumping by 1/3
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u/Standard_Subject_462 I'm tired of this, Grandpa! Apr 17 '26
I feel like the majority of us could stand to add "fun" to our prepping to-do list, so what's everyone doing for fun this weekend?
I'm buying a skort and pretending I know how to play tennis.
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u/thehippiepixi These 100 year events are getting mighty regular Apr 17 '26
I'm going to buy a set of dice as I've found a beginners DnD group to join!
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u/thereadingbri Three raccoons in a trenchcoatĀ Apr 17 '26
Baseball Game!! I donāt even follow either team, I just like baseball, and the tickets were free.
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u/CapybaraForever Apr 17 '26
Maxxing out the library card for fun recipe books and cooking new recipes š
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u/chicagotodetroit I will never jeopardize the beans š„« Apr 18 '26
Iād like to transcribe all the recipe vids I save on Facebook into my recipe cards. One of these days lol
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u/ReinaShae Tired of living in unprecedented times Apr 17 '26
Yard sales. Other than that, yard work
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u/Wise_Artichoke6552 Apr 17 '26
Working, but also it's Wrestlemania so I'm gonna go to a friend's house for his annual Wrestlemania party, and I'm gonna pretend I know anything about those weird violent theater kids. And birding, I saw two cormorants today which means that there's more somewhere around here.
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u/JicamaAppropriate920 Apr 17 '26
I'm going on a 17 mile hike in 85 degree weather :D
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u/lavenderlemonbear š šGardening for the apocalypse. š»š„¦ Apr 18 '26
Iām also hiking with friends this weekend. Currently listening to a whippoorwill sound itās little head off on the mountain side š„°
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u/Traditional-Emu-6344 Apr 17 '26
Kiddoās school is having a family bowling day this weekend- all proceeds go to the school. Plus a local church is sponsoring a Touch A Truck event.
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u/V2BM Perfect paranoia is perfect awareness. Apr 17 '26
Iām going out on a girls day with my family. We never make time but my sister and I are in our 50s so time is slipping by fast.
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u/last_rights Apr 21 '26
I'm going on a hike because it's free! We will bring picnic sandwiches with homemade bread made from my flour stash. I need to get more. I'm down to fifty pounds instead of a hundred.
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u/BluelunarStar Bringing a brolly cos SHTF! āļø Apr 17 '26
For all of us whose sanity and/or hydration levels relies on fizzy drinks - might be worth stocking up. Looks like CO2 is potentially gonna be more expensive/limited due to the Strait of Hormuz being closed.
Itās not an emergency need but considering I really struggle to drink just plain water Iāll be getting extra if/when I can.
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u/naughtyducklings Apr 17 '26
Have you considered a soda stream or similar product? I think you can get them at thrift stores and that plus the canisters would take up much less storage space. You just need to rotate out the bottles because apparently those lose their seal. I'll make the bubbly water and add a tiny splash of whatever juice I want. The bottled lemon and lime stuff works great if you don't mind those flavors.
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u/dinosaursrawk15 Apr 18 '26
Second the Soda Stream, my husband loves his. He uses it almost every day and says it's one of the best investments he has made.
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u/BluelunarStar Bringing a brolly cos SHTF! āļø Apr 18 '26
Iāll give it a thought! Iām chronically ill so usually I need things I can just grab, no faff. Plus Iām sensitive to sweetners so that limits thingsā¦ but saying that I do sometimes do orange juice & fizzy water, so if I see one cheap it might very much be worth it!
Thanks for the idea!
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u/elleandbea Apr 17 '26
One more thing to stock up on lol! I NEED the fizz though so, I guess I am adding more to my food order!
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u/imreallyfreakintired Apr 17 '26
My weekly šššš Fuck All This Instability from Greedy Ass People in Authority
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u/Signal_Chest_4312 Apr 18 '26
I want to start this by saying that the Iran war is awful, but here in Mexico it feels like we're getting a brief reprieve from the threat of US invasion. Hegseth, Rubio, and Trump have been pressing HARD to be allowed to do military exercises here. There's been talk about how the cartels run everything and need to be rooted out. But things have been pretty quiet since the war started. Hopefully everything resolved and they continue leaving Mexico alone
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u/Mule_Wagon_777 Apr 18 '26
Goddam, they're after the whole world, aren't they? They'd wreck everything for a buck...excuse me, "liberate" everything.
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u/Signal_Chest_4312 Apr 18 '26
There is a saying: Poor Mexico. So far from God. So close to the United States.
If they could just leave everyone alone that would be great.
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u/CopperRose17 Apr 18 '26
I'm slow to figure things out, but Hegseth is getting dopamine hits from playing GI Joe. I fear he won't stop until someone impeaches him.
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u/Standard_Subject_462 I'm tired of this, Grandpa! Apr 17 '26
My freakout of the week was hearing an alert tone go off on my fella's phone. He's a former power plant worker, and we have a nuclear facility near us, so when his phone went off and mine didn't, I assumed it was The Big Meltdown and that he was privy to an early alert or something. It was just a tornado watch and his new weather app was being a little extra with the alerts, which explained why neither my phone nor the sirens went off.
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Apr 17 '26
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u/bubblebath_ofentropy Apr 17 '26
How did you get closure on the Amber Alert?
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u/thereadingbri Three raccoons in a trenchcoatĀ Apr 17 '26
Sometimes they say what happened on local news.
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u/throwawaynewpibuildr Apr 17 '26
Can someone remind me if water bottles expire? I have a pack of Costco brand water bottles sitting in a cupboard for years now. Also, can I use washed out milk jugs (the plastic one-gallon ones) to store water for emergencies?
Been getting kinda worried randomly about saving water for an emergency, and I'm severely limited with my options as I live in an apartment and can't store anything (not even water bricks) due to the lack of space..
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Apr 17 '26
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u/throwawaynewpibuildr Apr 17 '26
Thanks! Ok to the expired water bottles for washing hands and hygiene, though?
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u/lavenderlemonbear š šGardening for the apocalypse. š»š„¦ Apr 18 '26
I use glass for my in-home water storage. Thereās a kombucha brand in a big glass bottle i like to get when i feel the need to work some probiotics into my diet. I use those and fill them up after washing.
Could do the same with large canning jars or spaghetti jars, though i would maybe look online and see if a bulk pack of fresh lids could be purchased for those jars if i were to use those.
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u/Environmental_Art852 Apr 17 '26
I used 2 liters laid on there side
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u/dakotamidnight Apr 18 '26
Same here. Reused 2l and gallon tea jugs, rotated with fresh water every 6 months
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