Are You Storing These Items? – Rogue’s 31 Days To Readiness [Day 7]

Have you seen day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5, and day 6?

Prepping isn’t all about gear, but it sure helps.

I’ve talked often about how I feel gear is the preppers tools of the trade. Yes, knowledge is important, but a carpenter uses his knowledge in conjunction with his hammer. A baker uses their knowledge in addition to a mixer.

It’s okay to use gear to increase our ability of thriving in any situation.

Sure, sometimes preppers can go overboard with gear, I won’t lie, I love gear. I especially love gear that can help solve a problem or maybe something I never even knew I needed but has helped me tremendously since adding it to my preps.

It’s ok to like gear and it’s ok to store gear, do try to think practically about your gear.

Here are 20 items you should be storing today:

1. Beeswax – make your own candles, salve, lotion bars, chapstick and much more. In addition, I’d also suggest keeping wicks.
2. Cotton towels – of various sizes, can be used for cleaning, reusable baby wipes and disinfecting wipes, alternative toilet paper, char cloth and much more.
3. Soap – I prefer castile soap and the no rinse body wash, but really, any soap will work and bonus points if you learn how to make your own.
4. Baking soda – make your own toothpaste, make your own deodorant, relieve insect bites, clean with it, dry shampoo and much more.
5. Honey – never goes bad, can be used as a substitute for regular sugar in most cases (and better for ya!), also great for medicinal purposes.
6. Fuels – any type of fuels such as propane, newspaper, cardboard, scrap wood, etc.
7. Batteries – just make sure to store them property and check on them often to ensure they’re still good, may also want to consider rechargeable batteries.
8. Entertainment – board games, cards, journals, craft boxes, etc.
9. Oils & fats – storing oils and fats for long term isn’t a good idea, but they’re necessarily for overall nutrition. They can be stored for 6 months to a year, depending on the type of oil or fat. Best way to store is to regularly use the oil and fat and have 1 or 2 extra on hand.
10. Books – any type of book, especially reference books. Physical books are best, but certainly get eBooks as well and potentially print out certain bits of info if you feel it might be worthwhile to have on hand.
11. First aid supplies – can easily stock up on first aid supplies from the dollar store. First aid items would include medications and vitamins.
12. Rubbing alcohol – 70% is ok, I promise.
13. Drinking alcohol – obviously this will be personal preference, but this wouldn’t necessarily be for drinking. Vodka can be used to make tinctures. You can trade the alcohol for other items that you might need or for a variety of other purposes besides drinking.
14. General hygiene items – In addition to soap, stock up on general hygiene items like q-tips, cotton rounds, razors, toothpaste, deodorant, nail trimmers, tampons, etc. You may be able to make some of these things, but never hurts to have it around anyway.
15. Seeds – even if you don’t plan to grow anything right now, not a bad idea to have some around. Many seeds can be sprouted or planted in containers.
16. Borax – as a general cleaner and to combat bugs and even to get rid of mice.
17. Matches/lighters – always useful
18. 5 gallon buckets – always useful
19. General tools – hammers, screws, nails, tarps, screw driver, tape, garbage bags, etc.
20. Sewing supplies – from repairs to sewing up new clothes, sewing supplies are always useful.

As you may have noticed from this list, I focused on items that can be reused or can make stuff out of. I didn’t point out some obvious items like, a knife, can opener, etc., I wanted to focus on items that aren’t as talked about as much. They’ll come in handy in everyday life, as well as during an emergency or disaster.

As a bonus, I would highly recommend looking into a portable solar panel to charge your devices or batteries. Alternative energy is handy.

One last bonus, be sure to think about those communication options and have alternative options available, like a ham radio. Ham radios can also be charged via a solar panel.

When thinking about short term and long term items to store, try to think about reusability and longevity. How long will these things last and how beneficial will they be to you in the long run? If you ran out of toilet paper, you have alternative toilet paper using towels! Maybe not ideal…but we’d certainly get used to it.

See you in day 8!