This may seem like a silly blog to be writing about because I’m sure you’re going, “well, duh, water is for DRINKING!” However, water is used for a lot more than just drinking.

It’s important to understand that when you plan your water storage needs that you’re planning for all of the following:

Drinking
Hygiene
Cooking
Cleaning

Sure, you might be rationing your water a bit during an emergency, however, you still use water for all of the above purposes. Even if you use just a little bit on a wash cloth to quickly wipe down a pot or wipe down your body, it’s still using water.

So how much extra water should you store?

That really depends on the size of your family, how many pets you have, how much livestock, if you plan to have a garden, etc. It’s suggested that you should store 1 gallon of water per person, per day. However, that wouldn’t be enough for drinking, hygiene, cooking and cleaning. I would suggest storing at least 2 gallons per person, per day.

When it comes to water, you want to have way more than you need. Water is life. Here in Texas, we need far more water in the hot months just to stay hydrated and our hot months can last a long time.

Even if you live somewhere with an abundance of water sources around, you have to think about the time it takes you to go back and forth getting water, as well as the amount of time and resources it takes to purify the water.

The best way to get an idea of how much water you’ll need is to keep track of daily/weekly water consumption. Then calculate from there how much water you’ll need to store for an emergency or disaster. Obviously in an emergency or disaster you wouldn’t be using as much water, but it’ll at least give you an idea.

You’ll also need to consider the types of foods in your food storage that will require water. To cook 1 cup of rice, you need 2 cups of water.

So the amount of water will depend on how many people are in your family, how many pets, farm animals, your region, your food storage, etc.