It is always better to be prepared than not, but why should you prepare? Because it will make you feel happy! Being well-equipped for an unexpected disaster can reduce your stress level, help you focus on doing other things instead of just gathering more supplies, and give you some sense of control over your future.
Prepare now before the next major earthquake strikes or a civil war breaks out in your country! While it may seem like a waste of time, this way you are already on track to stay safe as possible.
You’ll also want to consider how much money you have spent on supplies thus far and if you need to reevaluate that spending.
The Benefits of Being Ready
In an increasingly connected world, it is easy to get distracted by your everyday life and avoid things that seem like over-the-top preparations or commitments.
Thinking about all of the ways you could be killed or injured at work makes most people uncomfortable. Considered as risky behaviors, going into too much detail may make you feel more stressed out.
But aside from being healthy stress factors, thinking ahead can also help you achieve other goals.
By preparing for potential disasters, you will show self-confidence in yourself and in others. You will prove that you are capable of taking care of yourself and those around you.
Furthermore, once you have prepared, it can help you move forward with your plans because you don’t need to focus on what you lack physically or mentally.
You can spend your time looking forward to important events instead of worrying about whether you will have enough food or water later today.
How to Start Preparing
Having a survival kit is great, but it’s not enough. You also need to be able to use your prepared items effectively and efficiently in an emergency.
Just because you have something does not mean you know how to use it!
Running out of food or water during a crisis can easily get people killed. Fortunately, there are several easy ways to improve your first aid skills so that you can help yourself and others more effectively.
First aid has three main components: action, treatment, and recovery. Knowing these concepts will make you feel more confident as you prepare for emergencies.
Action means performing tasks such as bandaging wounds or applying medications. Treatment includes things like administering medicines or doing surgery when necessary. Recovery looks at restoring someone’s health back to normal.
This article will go into detail about all three of those parts and how to strengthen yours. However, before you do that, let us look at the one part that most people forget…
Why should I care about first aid?
It may sound silly, but why should we worry about our own health and safety if we don’t take precautions?
Sadly, every year many lives are lost due to lack of knowledge or skill in first aid. This could be caused by no one knowing what first aid is, them leaving it until they needed it, or forgetting how to do it even once they knew it.
When To Stop Preparing
Stopping before you start is never easy, but it’s crucial to know when to call it quits. You should prepare as much or as little of each item as feels right for you and your lifestyle.
Preppers are usually seen with large backpacks that they fill up throughout the year. They also have elaborate food collections that take up lots of room at home.
Both of these things can be great if you feel that you’re ready! If you don’t think you’ll use an item then why spend money on it? Also, will you ever actually need some of this food and supplies?
You may not need several cans of soup every few years, so why invest in them? Why buy hundreds of rolls of plastic wrap when most people have enough to last a week?
A lot of it comes down to personal preference and needs. We all have different tastes and budgets.
This article will talk about how to stop preparing, so make sure you pay attention.
Why Preppers Should Be Prepared
Many people feel that because they do not live in a very populated area or under oppressive governments, then why should they be prepared?
They believe if an emergency happens elsewhere it will never affect them, so why prepare for something that might never happen to them.
This attitude is totally false.
You are already more ready than most others because you have made the decision to be self-sufficient by storing food, having alternative sources of energy, and being educated about basic survival skills.
But think about this – what would you do if there was a major disaster that took out much of the population and affected your community?
Would you have enough supplies to survive?
For some, the answer may be yes, but for many others, no. If this happened close to you, your chances of surviving are greatly reduced. You will need to know how to handle yourself and help others outside of social structures.
Having adequate supplies also means having access to them. How well can you cook? Can you sew simple clothes? Do you know anyone in the area who needs help rebuilding their life?
The answers to all these questions determine whether you are truly ready to rely on yourself for survival. More importantly, other people’s availability determines your own ability to exist after a catastrophe.
There is a myth that says everyone else will look out for each other, but this isn’t necessarily true.
The Benefits Of Being Ready For Emergencies
Many people these days seem to have a constant reminder that life is expensive, which makes them feel even more stressed out about their money.
Having enough food for at least two years, a second source of income, a stocked up house, and an assortment of equipment and supplies are all very cost effective ways to reduce your stress level.
Throwing together what you think you need isn’t the best way to prepare.
Instead, use the price tags as motivation to determine if this item is worth investing in. Are these things truly essential to my survival? If not, then I can live without it.
By being aware of how much some of these items cost, you will know whether or not to invest in them. You may also find cheaper alternatives that do the same thing.
Are You Preparing Enough?
A lot of people talk about how important it is to be prepared for an emergency, but are they actually preparing enough?
Many people start buying food supplies and gathering resources just before an emergency happens, and then they feel that they’re done!
They believe that they have stocked up enough, but they never really evaluate whether their supply levels are adequate per person. They also may not know what to buy when time comes.
If you work full-time and don’t have much free time, stocking up can seem like a waste of money since you won’t get to use all of your purchases.
It’s very easy to become discouraged during a crisis, so most people do nothing at all. This lack of action sets a bad example for other people who might want to prepare as well.
Sadly, many people don’t put away enough food because they think they’ll be able to eat whatever they have left over once they run out. Or, they don’t include water in their inventory because they assume everyone will be drinking filtered or bottled water soon.
Both of these assumptions are wrong. Even if there was no running low on food or water, would anyone else have them?
Fortunately, we have some tips here for you to consider.
Do You Have Enough Food For 6 Months?
A lot of people start prepping in the spring or summer, when food sources are plentiful and grocery stores remain open for several months. The problem is that our monthly supplies of food go down during major winter weather events such as blizzards or floods!
If you’re one of those people who starts preparing in the fall, make sure to also factor in how long it will take to run out of food due to unforeseen circumstances.
General guidelines: The best way to ensure you have enough food for six months is to put in at least a month’s worth of supplies. This means about two weeks’ worth per person every four months.
So if your family of four needs eight weeks’ supply, they should be putting in around sixteen pounds (seven kilograms) of food for each person. We recommend buying the average amount of food needed per person per day for a week, then adding another week’s supply on top of that.
Can You Survive Without Electricity?
Surviving without electricity is tricky, to say the least. Luckily, there are many ways you can survive without it for an extended period of time. Some of these strategies include: living off the land, learning how to manage your food supplies, and exploring different types of sheltering.
Most people have at least one source they know about that does not require power to function. For example, some people have a house with enough space to lay down and sleep, which they use as their bedroom. Others have a home office with a desk and computer, so they spend most days in front of such equipment performing work.
These are just examples, but a lot of people have a couple sources like this. If you do not, then it is worth looking into what resources exist around you and what functions they could perform if needed.
Something to remember when choosing whether or not to invest in a source of energy is how much money it costs to run and maintain it. Power plants cost money to build and keep running, so investing in them later will cost more than buying a smaller initial unit.
Also, make sure it uses little water to operate. Water is something we are starting to run out of! Using a machine that pumps lots of liquid wastes water too, creating even larger problems for our future generations.