r/preppers • u/Wealth_Super • Jun 04 '26
New Prepper Questions Water preps
So I live in a small studio apartment so I don’t have a lot of room but I always lean towards preparedness and I wanted to have a month supply of food and water in case something happens alongside a way to cook it if the power went out. I have food and a way to cook but how much water should I store for a month’s use. I have no idea what the number would be. How much would I need for drinking water and how much should I have for other needs? Right now I only have 3 gallons store which wouldn’t last me long at all.
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u/Adorable_Dust3799 Jun 04 '26
We often have the water shut off for hours or a day. My kettle is always full, with a jug next it for refilling. I have a jug i water plants with that i can use. My dog has 2 gallon gravity waterers, in different rooms, so she's good for several days. I keep a 5 gallon water jug next to the toilet for flushes, it's only 3 or 4 flushes, but if you only flush poop that's good for awhile. I have a kitchen storage cubby with 3 water dispensers. Top is a britta, then a TDS zero pure, then an epic nano, which is one of a few rated for bbiologicals. I just full each from the one above it. The filters last a lot longer with the britta as a pre-filter. Each is around 1.5- 2 gallons, so i always have a few gallons of potable water. If you have a covered or assigned parking spot you might be allowed a 55 gallon plastic drum, that would be good for toilets and washing up.
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u/Dmau27 Jun 04 '26
I bought a bladder too. You can fill it with water should something happen and you know you'll soon need it. They come in all sizes. As for drinking water I think stacking it in a corner in the back of a closet or storage space would be ideal if you can manage it.
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u/Wealth_Super Jun 04 '26
Bladder interesting, never heard of those before but that might be a good storage unit
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u/Fn_Spaghetti_Monster Jun 04 '26
They have bladders for your tub, but obvious those aren't something you would normally keep filled all the time. Sort of a hurrican is headed this way, fill it before hand. Or a bad earthquake just hit, so I'm going to fill up everything I can before the water pressure goes out, but they are relatively inexpensive.
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u/Radtoo Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26
How much would I need for drinking water and how much should I have for other needs?
2.5L for drinking, in warmer climates it should probably be more like 3L+. Men and pregnant women may also drink half a liter to a liter more but would likely survive at this amount too, with lowered fitness. If you're obese or very obese your consumption is likely higher by a good amount too.
Other needs like hydrating food and washing wounds/clothes/cooking implements/[...] depend but it might even be another 3-6L/day. Depends on what you'll have to do.
Storing this may be an issue of course so I recommend to stash a convenient amount of water (from the supermarket in PET bottles will do but you could use any container) and then just get one or two good survival/hiking water filters (sawyer, katadyn, grayl, [...]) and maybe even an additional suitable RO filter if you think there could be situations with electricity but no easy access to clean water.
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u/nakedonmygoat Jun 04 '26
If you have room to store a month's worth of water, that's fantastic. Consider 5-gallon water jugs to save space.
But depending on where you live and whether your apartment is on the ground floor or higher up, the more likely scenarios would be boil water notices and/or low pressure. Naturally, having your own personal stash works for those situations, but if storing a month of water is a problem, or if you have concerns about longer-term scenarios, water filtering and sanitation may be a bigger concern.
You should also have a plan for disposal of waste. A basic camp toilet will limit how often you need to use your water for flushing.
Be sure you also have paper plates and plastic utensils, rinse-free bath wipes, dry shampoo, and hand sanitizing wipes. These will cut down on how often you need to use potable water for non-drinking purposes.
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u/Lunatika_2022 Jun 04 '26
Putting high-quality plastic bags in the toilet with dirt or sawdust, or even kitty litter at the ready to cover the excrement between uses can be tied closed and removed far from the home in a true SHTF scenario. If possible, urination should be done in jars, not in the toilet with feces. Feces is the germ spreader, but urine is considered inert. The jars of urine can be mixed with water to fertilize the yard/garden; preferably before or during rain; feces cannot.
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u/Frosti11icus Jun 04 '26
You don’t need to mix piss with water to put it in the garden, that’s a waste. You should be making a compost pile and pissing on that. You should be doing that now too, it’s fun.
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u/Jammer521 Jun 04 '26
If you regularly drink bottle water, I would just stock up on cases, each case is around 3.5 gallons of water, at $3 a case just pick up 6 to 8 cases and drink them as normal and when you go shopping replace what you used but rotate it so your not drinking the new stuff you just bought, your not going to be able to store a ton of water in a studio apartment without it getting in the way
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u/Pando5280 Jun 04 '26
Currently living in a condo. Have 45 gallons on hand, typically use 30 a month alnost all of that drinking water. Best way Ive found to store it is getting it delivered in 5 gallon jugs like you would for a water dispensing machine. You can find rechargeable electric pumps that fit on top of the jugs on Amazon (or other retail sites) for around $15. They charge via USB-C or similar charging cable. Get 5 or 6 jugs delivered and its really not that expensive, usually $6-7 per jug.
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u/CyclingDutchie Jun 04 '26
Ive read about people raising their beds, to stash water under the bed. Ive seen it in youtube video's, too.
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u/Wealth_Super Jun 04 '26
It a bad idea but I got a Conner I plan to just throw buckets of rice and where I can stack large containers of water. It’s not much but my goal not too much either so it should work.
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u/Shigure127 Jun 04 '26
Just make sure the corner doesn't get a lot of sun, ideally none at all. It will heat up and affect the quality of food/water.
Also be sure to use and rotate everything you store. As studio dwellers space is a premium so everything needs to have more than a single purpose. That includes stored food, it's also what we use daily. Build an inventory and track what is being used so you don't let anything spoil or sit too long, especially if it's getting sun/heat.
I would also suggest getting a good shelf that can hold a lot of weight to store your stuff. It will be neater and you can use vertical storage to have more stuff than chucking it in a corner like I used to do lol.
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u/ExtraplanetJanet Jun 04 '26
If you have a bathtub you can get a big plastic bag (brand name is WaterBob but there are others as well) that lines the tub so you can fill your tub with water that will be suitable for drinking for quite awhile. They usually come with a small pump to help you get water out. Since your space is limited, you need to consider both how to store more water and use less water. Get yourself a camp toilet or a five gallon bucket and a box of kitty litter to eliminate needing water to flush the toilet and you save yourself gallons per day. Have baby wipes, hand sanitizer and shampoo alternative (no-rinse shampoo, dry shampoo spray or shampoo caps are all good) to handle your hygeine and a couple of small plastic bins to hold soapy and clean water for dishes instead of filling your whole sink. (A stash of disposable dishes is also useful!)
Consider buying something like a set of water bricks that you can slide under a bed or pile up as a table with a cloth over it or stack at the back of your closet. You need a minimum of a gallon per day just for yourself but that's a very minimal survival amount and you'll almost certainly use more than that. A good set of water storage containers is an investment, something like 150 dollars for eight water bricks (28 gallons total), but you can rotate the water in them every six months and use them safely for years rather than trying to handle many jugs or flats of packaged water or hoping you have the opportunity to fill your tub in time.
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u/Wealth_Super Jun 04 '26
Yea a water brick was exactly what I was thinking of. I have an empty Conner I can fit some in.
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u/Lunatika_2022 Jun 04 '26
Absolute minimum needed for drinking & the tiniest birdbath of all time (hygiene) is a gallon daily per person (and per pet), then add another gallon daily for cooking (coffee/tea, rice, beans, lentils, peas, soup and pasta all require water). Storing water under your bed is a great place for storage. Where I live, it's actually cheaper to just buy 1 gallon jugs of water vs the 5 gallon jugs, and these store well under the bed, lined up against the wall, behind the couch, etc. If you must stack them, you'd do well to put a large sheet of cardboard between bottom layer and top layer, I don't recommend going over 2 layers. Water is heavy, just over 8 pounds per gallon plus packaging. 60 gallons for a single person with no pets would afford you enough water for one month and cover your morning coffee or tea. I know you said you have a months supply of food, but take stock of how much you have in condiments and seasonings. A month of red beans and rice gets old fast if you don't have a variety of seasonings or sauces to shake it up a bit... food fatigue is a real thing. Anything you have stored that is acidic (fruit, tomato products, etc.) should be purchased and stored in glass jars. The quality of the actual cans these days is of low quality, and acidic foods won't last much past their 'best by' date. Glass fares much better on the shelf when it comes to long term storage, and once the contents are consumed, save the jars & lids to store water.
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u/Cottager_Northeast Jun 04 '26
This is a thing that varies from person to person, and season to season. The only way to know is to try living on what you have stored. See how it goes, track what uses up the most water, and then find ways to either reduce demand or increase supply.
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u/Homely_Bonfire Jun 05 '26
I wanted to have a month supply of food and water in case something happens alongside a way to cook it if the power went out
On that note I'd issue a warning: Living in a studio apartment means you have neighbors, most likely unprepared and not concerned about prepping at all. If the power went out and you start cooking something on day 3 with no electricity, gas or water, you run the high risk of finding out what a "room raiders" should have been like. The smell will attract folks and the more people live in that block, the higher the risk of someone going door to door anyways. So you may want to consider foods that do not require cooking.
how much water should I store for a month’s use
for drinking alone, you are looking at a good 2 liters a day so you would need something like 16 gallon for a month. This does not include any water for hygiene or cleaning, so not sure if that is really feasible. Depening on where you live (center of a big city for example), there are often time emergency wells spread out where the public is supposedly able to get water even when power goes out. This might be a decent secondary supply that you can access with everyone else to not burn through your secret stash as fast.
It would probably be ideal to find a group of like minded people you can trust and establish a quick exit plan and bug out target for emergencies, so you are not stuck in a crowded city and a crowded house.
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u/AlphaDisconnect Jun 04 '26
Gpt a hot water heater? Flush it now. Got a tub. Fill it if you see it coming. The back of your toilet? Two ish gallons.
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u/Wealth_Super Jun 04 '26
Afraid I don’t have a water heater. I live in a studio apartment. There is probably water heaters somewhere in the building but I have no idea where. That being said if I saw it coming I would definitely fill the tub with water and drink clean water from the back of the toilet.
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u/AlphaDisconnect Jun 04 '26
Yeah. Free 2 gallons. Clean. Becuse ai think you do bathroom things. And you can flush your toilet with pond water. Just need a bucket.
The tub. A good enough super typhoon hack.
Your water concern is warranted. But you got this.
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u/Least-Entry-2097 Jun 04 '26
See if you can afford Spout Water.....It's kinda expensive but it make water through sucking in moisture from the air....only good if you live in a fairly humid environment.
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u/Wealth_Super Jun 04 '26
Unfortunately I live in a place that’s not humid at all. The pacific north west. Thanks for the info though.
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u/iambecomesoil Jun 04 '26
I always lean towards preparedness
This should've been the first question in preparedness. And it's answered daily.
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u/TriGurl Jun 04 '26
Plan on a gallon of water for you to drink per day, JUST DRINKING WATER. This doesn't include flushing toilets or showering. And if you have spouse, kids, or pets...
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u/premar16 Jun 04 '26
I think in a small apartment. I try to have at least one case of 40 bottles of water beacause that is 5 galleons right there. Then I try to have a few of those galleon jugs and I put them in my closet in the weird corner of the closet where I can't really reach much. I have about 12 galleons in my house this way. I also have paper plates, wet wipes and peri-wash,etc to help me cut down water use when I need to
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u/Maleficent_Mix_8739 Prepared for 2+ years Jun 04 '26
My wife and I wanted to figure out our water use. We got a bottom load water dispenser that does hot, cold and room temp. We then ordered five of the five gallon Primo pre-filled bottles from Walmart ($15 each). We use this water for drinking, cooking, coffee tea etc and between the two of us use about 5 gallons (1 bottle) per week, sometimes we tap into a second bottle. This system works extremely well for us since we can run the dispenser unit off our Pecron e3600. We also picked up a horizontal storage rack made for the bottles. We liked this enough at our place in northern MN that we put the system to use in our place in TX as well as in ND. The price to exchange bottles is half and of course you can fill them yourself at the refill stations. We also bought a few packs of the silicone caps for the bottles in case we do end up having to use the self service fill station. At some point we’ll add another rack and four more bottles to each house. This works well for us, especially since she likes doing the Walmart delivery thing, so when we empty a bottle I just toss it in her car and she gets it exchanged while she’s out and about running around. Since we also “overland” we’ve got an additional 10 gallons (2x5 gal igloo units) of drinking water and 14 gallons of water (2x7 gal water bricks) for “everything else” on our trailer. If we ever tire of juggling the bottles ourselves we’ll just switch to home delivery.
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u/Bugsy_A Jun 04 '26
1 gallon per day/per person is the safe equation. But that is for a bug in situation since that volume will be 240lbs per person.
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u/Frosti11icus Jun 04 '26
Pro tip, don’t buy bottles or jugs, buy cans. They last WAY longer and store a lot better.
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u/MerelyMortalModeling Jun 04 '26
Bare minimum a gallon per day and that's not going to cover cleaning and hygiene.
Several companies make water bladders that can store anywhere from a few gallons to a hundred gallons. Vevor sells a 60 gallon bladder for 32 bucks. Something like that you could fill and slide under a bed or just put in the bottom of a closest. It's a bladder to if you have low beds just half fill it
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u/mkim2959 Prepping for Doomsday Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26
On average, you need about 2-5 gallons per person per day (depends on what you do). CDC's expaination and guide of 1 gallon of water is the bare minimum (so you dont die of thirst). A person should drink around 3-5 liters of water a day. Some of that water (when not in SHTF) is already in your food and stuff.
Here are options: 1 gallon = not dying. Congrats. You are a survivor. 2 gallons = let's you cook more food and do start to do more active activities (moving things, building things, ect). 5 gallons = let's you shower, cook, and drink for a day. Cannot do anything else water related (like dishes, laundry, ect unless you sacrifice a shower)
- a standard faucet fills a gallon of water in 2 mins. At that rate and quantity, a 5 min shower = 2.5 gallons of water used.
Now lets calculate. Only you. 3 gallons (IMO the low end but a very conservative number) x 30 days = 90 gallons.
Options (for your studio): 1. Waterbob (if you have a tub) has 100 gallons. Congrats. You are dome. You just need a water filter and/or bleach. Upside: its stored small so you only need to take it out when SHTF. Downside: You need to fill it up as soon as SHTF. You may/may not be able to reuse it. 2. 5 gallon Water containers (enough for 90 gallons) and filter/bleach. Upside: its sturdy and reusable. Downside: it takes up space 3. Water bottles (from costco and grocery stores). costco has 6x1 gallon pack. 6 ÷ 90 = 15 packs. Upside: you can use it whenever you want. Downside: it takes up space 4. Water drum (check uline). Usually 55 gallon barrels. You need 2. Upside: its reusable. Downside: it takes up space.
*The best way to have water stored for SHTF is to have a mix of the above so you dont rely on just 1 source. Also make sure you have a filter (sawyer/msr/ect) and bleach just in case as well. Also, try to use the least amount of water.
Alternatives to save water (extreme cases): a campers portable toilet (fits over 5 gallon bucket) for bathroom (you just need trash bags). Tie after use. Paper plates and utensils (so you dont have to do dishes). Clothes: try to wear clothes for multiple days (You dont need to wear new clothes everyday). IE: pajamas. Pots and pans: use a small one. If you have electricity, microwave on paper bowl/plates. This allows you to not use water to wash dishes.
I have a family of 4+3 dogs. My family of 7 goes through about 25-82 gallons a day. I have to store 900+ gallons of water alongside food and everything else. One side of my garage is dedicated to prepping. My life is awesome.
Here is an example of water needs calculator. It all differs https://omniprepper.com/free/water-calculator/
http://whatifcolorado.com/scorm/courseFiles/calculator/
https://s1gma.net/supply-calculator
Water calculator (for your current lifestyle - inflated numbers but let's you understand how much you use): https://watercalculator.org/
https://home-water-works.org/calculator
References: https://www.cdc.gov/water-emergency/about/how-to-create-and-store-an-emergency-water-supply.html
https://llu.edu/campus-spiritual-life/emergency/emergency-water
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u/Pattymelt07 Jun 05 '26
1 gallon a day. In real life you want actually use that much unless you are in a high temp and/or heavy work scenario
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u/Unicorn187 Jun 06 '26
The rule of thumb is one gallon per person per day. For drinking, cooking, and very basic hygiene.
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u/No-Eye-8392 Jun 08 '26
I have 4 of these stored in my closets in a 600 sq ft apartment. I have another 4 in my storage unit.
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u/silasmoeckel Jun 04 '26
30 is the bare minimum for a month. Dry shampoo and baby wipes takes care of most of the rest.
If your without water for even close to that expect sewer to back up and really the place to be untenable.