Emergency preparedness checklist:Prepping for beginners UPDATED DECEMBER 22, 2019 THE PREPARED

Do you want to be better prepared for emergencies but aren’t sure where to

start or if you’re doing it right? This “prepping for beginners” emergency

preparedness checklist walks you through the basic steps with sane, expert-

veri�ed advice for modern people. When you’re done, you’ll be ready to handle

the majority of what may come your way.

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It’s simple: depending on what happens, you’ll either stay in your home,leave your home, or be away from home. Making it needlessly

complicated makes you less prepared.

LAST UPDATED: DECEMBER 22, 2019Whole new version of this guide, with updates to the structure and links to reviews and guides we'vewritten since the last version. Expand Most Recent Updates

Whether you’re worried about a sudden layoff, home invasions, car accidents, the power going outfor a week, natural disasters, or long term economic and societal decline, it’s critical that you startgetting prepared now. By de�nition, if you wait until you need it, it’s already too late.

You’re not alone: Millions of rational people from all walks of life are taking preparedness seriously— and the movement is growing as more people realize they can’t depend on others to save them inour changing world.

But prepping can seem overwhelming. And to make matters worse, there’s a lot of crazy “loudminority” junk out there that pollutes rational preparedness with extremism, dangerous info, orsilly internet debates that don’t actually matter.

The whole point of prepping is to reduce the chances of major life disruptions and to better recoverfrom disruptions when they do happen. That’s it!

Even something as simple and common as a �re extinguisher in your kitchen counts — the vastmajority of prepping has nothing to do with bunkers and bullets!

Don’t just look for a single checklist and skip the reading. You will save yourself a lot of wastedmoney and time, and be better prepared, if you take a little bit of time to learn from others insteadof making the same mistakes most beginners make when they try to “skip the vegetables” — thereal trick to prepping well is knowledge and following the right path, not putting a bucket of gear inyour closet.

The basic steps to prepping:

1. Build a solid personal �nance and health foundation

2. Get your home ready for two weeks of self-reliance

3. Be able to leave your home with only a moment’s notice (“bug out bags”)

4. Prepare for emergencies that happen away from home (“get home bags” and everyday carry)

5. Learn core skills and practice with your gear

6. Share and recruit while continuing to learn and going beyond the basics

In this guide:

Why you can trust this plan

We started The Prepared because we used to be in your shoes — typical people who wanted to getprepared in a way that meshed well with normal life — and we were frustrated by how unhelpful,untrustworthy, and irrational most online resources were.

So everything you see on this site, including this guide, is crafted by survival and preparednessexperts with advice that applies to a wide range of people, places, budgets, and scenarios.

Some contributors, for example, teach military pilots how to survive if they eject behind enemylines, advise the White House and US DOD on related issues, run major nonpro�ts that help victimsafter a disaster, are �eld medics patching up soldiers kicking down doors in the most violent places,

You're not alone

Tips and common mistakes

Planning based on your risks

Maslow's hierarchy and the 80-20 rule

Step 1: Money and health

72 hours vs. 2 weeks

Step 2: Get your home ready

What is a bug out bag and how does it �t in?

Step 3: Bug Out Bags

Step 4: Everyday Carry and Get Home Bags

Step 5: Learn, practice, and plan

Step 6: Share and recruit

Then what?

and shelter administrators who were on the ground for major events like Hurricane Katrina or theCalifornia wild�res.

Be prepared. Don’t be a victim.

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Why are you here? Regardless, you’re not alone!

Maybe you’re generally worried about politics, the economy, and natural disasters. Or maybe you orsomeone you love went through an emergency and you’ve decided not to be a victim anymore.

Whatever your reasons, you’re not alone: Millions of people are actively preparing, and theirreasons are as diverse as they are.

More: The major reasons why rational people are prepping

Regardless of your politics, age, gender, location, and so on, you probably know people who areprepping. They just tend not to broadcast it. We’ve even had spouses each independently tell usthey’re prepping, asking how they can bring it up to their partner “without it seeming weird,” onlyto �nd out they were both doing it already!

Tips and common beginner mistakes

Many of these are �eshed out in the sane prepper rules. To highlight the most common:

Don’t buy off-the-shelf kits. 98% of them are not worth buying.

You can’t predict when an emergency will happen, so a good prep is always ready.

You cannot predict what’s going to happen, so be diligent about �nding and avoidingassumptions in your preps.

Stay realistic and practical. Avoid zombie and Rambo fantasies. Focus on the things that mattermost and remember that simpler is better.

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Don’t let prepping overwhelm or defeat you. It’s important to enjoy the good life now and not godown a dark spiral of doomsday depression or blow your life savings on supplies. You can preparewithout giving up, just like how buying health insurance doesn’t mean you’ve given up on yourhealth.

Ignore the noise and extremism that tries to take over prepping from the fringes. Unfortunately,many of the related blogs, forums, and Facebook groups are riddled with junk. Speak up or gosomewhere else.

Prepping is better when you connect with like-minded people. Try to connect with othersthrough our website and through local groups (eg. scouts, CERT, amateur radio clubs, hikingclubs, etc.)

Avoid “double dipping” your gear. It’s tempting to pick stuff out of your bug out bag for acamping trip, for example. But then life tends to get in the way, the gear stays scattered, and thatcreates windows where an emergency might strike and you’re unprepared.

If you’re on a budget, it’s better to buy fewer high-quality things than cheap stuff that will failwhen you need them most. You can prep without much money, but it looks more like DIY andsecond-hand type of purchases, less so the dollar store.

Don’t just buy some gear, throw it in a closet, pat yourself on the back, and move on. You are notprepared unless you practice with your supplies and plans.

A bug out bag is not simply for bugging out to a predetermined location along a predeterminedpath. It’s the one bag you grab �rst when you need to leave your home.

It’s wrong to think “my plan is to bug out” or “my plan is to shelter in place at home” —emergencies don’t care about your plans, and a good prep means being able to do both.

Planning based on your risks

It’s very common in social forums for people to respond to a beginner prepper’s plea for help byasking “well, what are you prepping for?” and then tailoring plans and supplies speci�cally to thatevent.

That isn’t horrible, and it has the bene�t of keeping people grounded instead of being stuck indoomsday fantasies.

But, in practice, that mental model causes people to get tunnel vision — which then makes theirpreps less effective or ef�cient — or gives the false impression that there are huge differences inhow to prepare.

The good news is that the prepping basics checklist is the same for 98% of people andscenarios.

It’s once you get past those essentials that things start to get customized or tricky — if you want togrow an indoor garden in your city studio, for example, or have unusual medical needs.

There are speci�cs you layer on top of the basics depending on your local risks. If you’re preparingfor a hurricane, for example, you’d want to �gure out your storm shutters plan sooner than later.But all the core stuff like two weeks of supplies and a go-bag are the same.

Maslow’s hierarchy and the Pareto 80-20 rule

We talk a lot about the 80-20 rule (the “Pareto principle”) on The Prepared and how it should guideemergency preparedness.

The initial 20% (what this guide covers) of all the possible work you could do in prepping gets you80% of the way there. To go from 80% to 100% prepared requires a lot more work and money.

That principle applies throughout prepping. For example, you should prepare for the 80% of likelyscenarios, not the unlikely ones like fascist zombies arriving on a radioactive alien asteroid.

Maslow’s hierarchy is a popular psychology principle that explains what humans need to surviveand thrive in order of importance:

The foundation is, obviously, essentials like air, water, and shelter. Many preppers refer to The Ruleof 3’s: You can survive 3 minutes without air, 3 hours without shelter in bad conditions, 3 dayswithout water, and 3 weeks without food.

Once you’ve got those covered you can then think about the next layer, and so on. At the top of thepyramid is self-actualization, which means things like enjoying hobbies and “�nding yourself.”

Use these two critical frameworks to keep your preparations grounded and prioritized. For example,it’s much better to have four boring meals than two of your favorite meals.

Believe it or not, we see people making these mistakes all the time. “I’d rather have chocolate andthe Game of Thrones books in my bug out bag, because what’s the point of surviving if I can’t havecandy and fun!” No! #badprepper

Step 1: Get your health and �nances in order

Medical issues and �nancial dif�culties are the most likely disruptions you’ll face in your lifetime,and since you’re a sane prepper, you prioritize the most likely emergencies �rst.

All of the statistics around personal �nancial health are shockingly bad — particularly in the US.For example, over 50% of Americans can’t handle an unexpected $500 emergency (eg. your expired-warranty home furnace suddenly fails) without using credit cards.

You should not spend any money on gear/supplies beyond the essentials (eg. two weeks of water inyour home) without �rst having core �nancial preps such as a rainy day fund, debt-reduction plan,and retirement savings.

More: Tips for normal people to turn their �nances from “problem” to “prepped”

Similar story with personal health: We’re getting sicker and less capable of handling the physicaldemands that are inherent in an emergency. It’ll be hard to survive at all if you struggle to walk upstairs, have addictions, or can’t keep your mind clear while your body goes through extreme stress.

More: Physical �tness gurus (who are also preppers) pick the best exercises for preparedness

Don’t forget other “adulting” basics like insurance and estate planning. Do you have a will? Doesyour family know what to do if you’re in a bad accident and can’t talk? Do you want doctors to keepyou alive in a vegetative coma? Have you added bene�ciaries to your �nancial accounts so yourfamily isn’t locked out from money while waiting for the probate court system?

Tip: Going for random walks around your home is a great way to exercise and check off a core 101checklist item (know your surroundings!) at the same time.

“There is an urgent need for residents to prepare for two weeks.” —Robert Ezelle, director of Washington’s Emergency Management Division

72 hours vs. 2 weeks

Until recently, emergency preparedness guides typically recommended having 72 hours worth ofsupplies. The Department of Homeland Security’s Ready.gov site currently says, “Being preparedmeans having your own food, water, and other supplies to last for at least 72 hours.”

They’re wrong. Surviving for 72 hours is better than nothing, but most modern experts believe youshould be prepared for at least two weeks in order to handle the majority of likely events.

Some groups, like the Red Cross, have updated their suggestions; their site now says, “3-day supplyfor evacuation, 2-week supply for home.”

Our emergency systems, �rst responders, and community supplies can be quickly overwhelmed.The system just isn’t designed to handle sudden and widespread disasters.

Recent events like Hurricane Harvey, the Japanese Tsunami, Haiti Earthquake, and the CaliforniaWild�res are all examples of localized disasters where people were displaced or without basicservices for weeks, not days.

In 2016 the US Navy, Coast Guard, and Washington state’s National Guard did a full-scale, nine-daydrill to test how well they could respond to a massive earthquake in the Cascadia Subduction Zone.That area covers Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland through northern California.

The 83-page report comes to a lot of scary conclusions. The authors admit the systems are notready, infrastructure would collapse, and they’d have a full-blown humanitarian crisis in ten days.

We recently interviewed the Portland Water Bureau, and they had a similar message about anearthquake in that region: a million people in that 225-square-mile area will be without water formonths, not days.

Politics and budgeting are making things worse over time, not better. It would take at least a weekto properly coordinate outside resources brought in to help. For example, the American militaryreports they need an average of eight days to mobilize a response inside the US border — and that’sjust for a relatively-localized crisis, such as an earthquake.

Step 2: Get your home ready for two weeks of self-reliance

We start with the home because it’s where you spend most of your time and is usually the best placeto make it through an emergency. Which is why governments give the standard “stay in yourhome!” advice during a crisis.

Example situations:

You have an unexpected big expense or layoff that blows your tight budget

School and work is cancelled due to a crippling heat wave

The electrical or water grid goes down for a few days

A nasty hurricane �oods your city for a week

An epidemic is spreading and you’re quarantined to your home

Civil order breaks down with mass unrest in the streets

A nearby city is attacked by an enemy

Total collapse (“Shit Hits The Fan”)

Your goal is to be able to survive in your home for at least two weeks without any outside help —whether from people or the grid. That means you can’t assume you’ll have electricity, water,cooking or heating gas, communication, internet, 911, ambulances, and so on.

Home checklist summary:

Water: store 15 gallons of potable water per person (roughly 1 gallon per day) and have ways totreat dirty water via either a portable water �lter or Berkey / Brita

Food: at least 23,000 calories per person (roughly 1,500 calories per day) of shelf-stable foodthat’s ready to eat or only needs boiling water to make

Fire: lighters, matches, and backup �re starters

Light: headlamps, �ashlights, candles, lanterns

Heating and cooling: indoor-safe heaters, extra blankets, USB-powered fan

Shelter: a cheap tarp (anything you �nd at a local store) comes in handy for improvised shelter,plugging holes in the house, and clearing debris

Medical: list of 145 prioritized home medical supplies

Hygiene: wet wipes, hand sanitizer, camp soap

Communication: either a one-way NOAA radio or a two-way ham radio (if you know how to useit)

Power: spare batteries and rechargers (your bug out bag will have a solar charger, but you canalso get a second one for home)

Tools: axe, shovel, work gloves, wrench for your gas lines, zip ties, duct tape, etc.

Self defense: depends on personal views, may include body armor, �rearms, etc.

Cash: as much as you can reasonably afford to stash

Mental health: board games, favorite books, headphones, movies downloaded to a tablet, etc.

Documents: copy of deeds/titles, insurance policies, birth certi�cates, maps, pictures of familymembers, etc. in both physical and USB thumb drive forms

Local & emergency info: write down important contact numbers, know the location of thenearest hospitals, etc.

Water is just too important to leave to chance. So don’t assume you’ll have time to �ll the bathtubor run to the store, and don’t use inappropriate vessels such as milk jugs. Buy proper water storagetanks and keep them in a closet instead.

Food is usually handled one of two ways, although you can do both: freeze-dried survival foodbuckets or a deep pantry of what you normally eat.

“Store what you eat and eat what you store” is a popular saying because it’s easy, doesn’t cost morein the long run, and works well for people who already eat at home a good chunk of the time.

For sake of example:

Susan normally eats soup twice a week.

Cans of soup have a shelf life of three years.

Today, Susan keeps a few cans in the pantry and buys just enough every shopping trip to hold herover until the next trip.

So, at any given time, Susan may only have a handful of cans at home.

Instead, Susan starts buying a few extra cans each trip when her budget allows.

Newly-purchased cans go to the back of the pantry line (with dates written on them in marker)and Susan always eats the oldest can �rst.

After a while, Susan has built up a surplus with a pantry of up to 312 cans of soup (2 per week x52 weeks x 3 year shelf life).

Once she hits the right surplus level, she goes back to the habit of just buying enough each tripto replenish what was eaten since the last trip.

Her daily-life routine doesn’t change, yet she never eats expired soup.

If an emergency happens, there’s now over 300 cans of food that Susan already enjoys with up to3 years of life left!

Tip: If your habits change (eg. Susan suddenly becomes allergic to soup) or you end up with someinventory that’s going to expire soon, then just donate them. Local �re�ghters/police tend to havedonation drives, and that’s a good opportunity to meet some of your local heroes.

What is a bug out bag? Should I have one?

An emergency can strike at any time. You may only have seconds to leave your home. Or maybe yougain an advantage (eg. beating traf�c) by evacuating while everyone else is still scrambling.

That’s why a core part of being prepared is having one bag that’s always packed and ready to use —no matter what happens, you’ll know you have the right core essentials to survive, comfortablyhandle the aftermath, and potentially help others around you.

So your bug out bag is essentially your emergency kit, since you’ll be okay if that’s the only thingyou ever have/prepare.

Bonus: As a beginner prepper, building your go-bags is in many ways the same as building anemergency kit for your home. Since the bag is always kept at home, if something happens aroundthe house or you shelter in place during a longer emergency, those go-bag supplies can be used ifneeded.

Since you can’t assume you’ll have vehicle transportation, these bags are designed to be footportable. That means using a backpack and keeping things at a reasonable weight while consideringyour local environment.

Some folks think a bug out bag is exclusively for “bugging out” along a predetermined path to a pre-stocked “bug out location” (like a cabin in the woods). That might happen, but that’s an assumptionthat breaks the sane prepper rules.

Similarly, some people say “I can’t imagine a realistic scenario where I would need to bug out formore than a few days.” You can decide to skip building a packed-and-ready bag if you’d like, butthat means you’re deciding to be less prepared. The whole point is that you don’t know what’s goingto happen, so why not have a bag that’s always packed and can do double duty in your home? Theonly time we think it’s rational to skip this step is for elderly or disabled people who face steepchallenges outside the home.

There are countless situations where having this one bag, ready to go, can make the differencebetween life or death — or at least the difference between smooth sailing or lots of pain and lostmoney. Some examples:

Authorities order an evacuation and you want to beat the chaos and traf�c jams by leavingquickly while others scramble to pack.

You need to get somewhere fast (maybe a family member is suddenly on their deathbed) and youdon’t have time to pack an overnight bag.

You wake up in the middle of the night to a house �re or rapidly-approaching wild�re that burnsdown your home just after you escape.

Someone is injured outside your home, so you grab your bag (which has medical supplies) andrun towards them.

The hurricane or tornado you thought was going to miss you suddenly changed course, and nowyou’re in a FEMA shelter for a month.

An earthquake forces you outside and you can’t go back in for days while they turn off the utilitygas to stop the �res.

Civil unrest develops outside your home and you want to get some distance.

An enemy has attacked your area, perhaps with a missile or bio weapon.

A home intruder or other domestic violence situation means you need to leave quickly.

Your go-bag has what you need to survive, like water and shelter, while also including things torecover, like important documents for homeowner’s insurance or pictures of loved ones.

And that’s the tricky part: How do you put together the most well-rounded complement of stuff youneed to survive and recover in one bag? How do you build that bag in a way that covers the widestrange of practical scenarios as possible?

More: Why you should use a prioritized bag system instead of bags based on timelines

Step 3: Bug Out Bags for every adult

More accurately: a bug out bag for everyone around the house who can carry them. Many familiesbuild a separate bag for children once they hit 10-12 years old, modifying the contents as needed,for example.

See the complete bug out bag checklist — there’s too much to include on this page, including thereasons why experts prioritize the gear they do and how to prioritize gear across three levels.

For example, a basic 20-pound “go bag” should have:

Individual First Aid Kit – Level 1

32 oz potable water stored in a hard canteen

Collapsible canteen/vessel

Water �lter

Water puri�cation tablets x 20-40

Food that’s ready to eat

Lighter x 2

Tinder

Headlamp

Field knife

Multitool

Cordage x 50’

Tarp

Waterproof paper and pen

Documents (physical and USB thumb drive)

Cash

Condensed soap

Toilet paper

Nail clippers

Hat

Socks

Top base layer

Pants

Underwear

Jacket / outer shell

Shemagh / bandana / gaiter

One- or two-way radio

USB charging cable and wall plug

Li-Ion battery pack

Respirator

Contractor trash bags x 2

Storage bags (20L drybag and 5x gallon ziplocs)

More: Great bug out bag backpacks

Step 4: Get Home Bags, Everyday Carry, and vehiclesupplies

What happens if an emergency strikes while you’re away from home?

You clearly can’t walk around with a heavy bag all of the time, so the key is to keep the right kindsof supplies where they naturally �t within your life pattern — most people’s daily patterns tend tobe pretty consistent and predictable, so use that to your advantage.

Example scenarios:

A badly bleeding and clearly drunk student is stumbling around an alley alone on a cold Fridaynight — a real scenario handled by a The Prepared reader who used the info learned in this guide!

Your subway car loses power in between stations.

You witness a serious car accident while driving home in rush-hour traf�c. It might takeemergency services 10 to 15 minutes to arrive.

You’re cornered by two muggers while walking home from your friend’s apartment at night.

A shooter attacks random people while you’re in the shopping mall.

An earthquake strikes while you’re at work. Your car is in the parking garage and you work in thecity about 30 minutes away from your suburban home.

Kim Jong Un decides to interrupt your well-deserved spa day by sending an ICBM to theneighboring city.

For most people in modern societies, that means a combination of:

A Get Home Bag (GHB) in your vehicle trunk, work locker, of�ce, or wherever else it can be safelystored in a way that’s near you for as much of a typical day as possible.

Everyday carry (EDC) items you keep on your person at all times, either on your body or in adaily-use pack, such as a school backpack or purse.

Car supplies. Even if you keep a GHB in your trunk, it’s a good idea to keep additional gearspeci�cally for vehicle problems.

A Get Home Bag gets its name from the concept of “Shit just hit the fan, so I need to get homebecause that’s my primary spot!”

But a GHB also serves as your only source of supplies if the nature of the emergency means youcan’t (or shouldn’t) try to get home. For sake of an extreme example, imagine a bioweapon isreleased between your job and home, meaning you need to evac in the opposite direction. A morecommon example is spending a night in your car during a snowstorm.

So a GHB is similar to a BOB in many ways, just kept outside of the home. You should use andmodify the bug out bag checklist.

Common loadout differences between a GHB and BOB:

Car trunks can get very hot, so avoid foods and medicines that melt at 100-150 degrees.

Only �ll water containers ~85% of the way to allow for freeze expansion in cold climates.

In areas with stricter weapons laws, what you can legally keep stored in your BOB at home mightnot be legal in a GHB/EDC outside the home.

Since most Americans drive everywhere, the car trunk is the most common storage spot. Somepeople go as far as to bury their GHB near their job or on the route between work and home.

If you don’t drive or just don’t have the ability to store a whole backpack somewhere, do your bestto integrate the most important supplies (eg. a water �lter) into your daily-use packs or purses.

Everyday Carry checklist

Since EDC items are physically carried everywhere you go, you’re much more limited by space andweight. Over 95% of EDC items you see in the wild are made from all or part of this list:

In Case of Emergency details (eg. a laminated card of important info kept in a wallet)

Phone (usually with downloaded maps and helpful apps)

Li-Ion rechargeable battery pack

Flashlight

Pocket knife

Multitool

Lighter

Paracord

Some or all of a Level 1 IFAK

Boo-boo kit (less trauma oriented than an IFAK)

Respirator

Weatherproof notepad and pen

Self defense weapons, pepper spray, etc.

Hidden cash and/or credit cards

These items can be spread around in whatever way makes sense for you. For example, some peoplekeep the phone and lighter in their pocket, the �ashlight on their keychain, the multitool and CCWpistol on their belt, the paracord in the form of a wrist bracelet, and the medical supplies,respirator, USB battery, notepad, pen, and ICE info in their bag/purse.

We don’t recommend using bulletproof body armor, backpacks, or similar protective gear for EDC.The fear around active shooters is overblown — you’re more likely to die from winter ice — and thegear, although effective in a vacuum, just isn’t practical for everyday use (yet).

Vehicles

If you have a vehicle, you should keep basic gear on hand for road-related emergencies. These itemsdon’t need to be kept in a backpack since it’s very unlikely you’ll need to carry them on foot overdistance.

Popular gear kept in the car:

In Case of Emergency info kept in a glove box or console

Maps

Window breaker and seatbelt cutter tool

Mylar emergency blanket 1-2x

Proper blanket or extra coat

Extra hat, sunglasses, sunscreen

Jump start battery

Jumper cables

Tow straps

Road �ares or blaze signal

Spare tire

Tire wrench

Jack

Tire repair kit (plug holes instead of replace the whole tire)

Windshield scraper

Deicing wiper �uid

A small shovel (ie. “e-tool” or entrenching tool) or garden trowel for digging out tires

Kitty litter, sand, or other spreadable traction

Traction boards

Boo-boo kit, IFAK, Rx meds, extra glasses, etc.

Plug to turn a cigarette lighter into a USB charger

Stored water and/or water �lter

More: Check out the winterizing your car checklist if you live in an area with harsh winters.

Step 5: Learn, practice, and plan!

Having gear is one thing, but survival experts know that a great prep is a mix of gear, skills,planning, and practice.

Which means you are not actually prepared if you simply buy some gear, throw it in storage, thenpat yourself on the back! Again, #badprepper!

You do not want to rely on a product in an emergency that you’ve never used before. Even ifsomething seems simple now, your brain can turn into a bowl of mush when faced with chaos. Forexample: Think a car window breaker would be simple?

News Reporter Can't Break Into Car FAIL!News Reporter Can't Break Into Car FAIL!

And there are too many crappy “survival” products that fall apart in the �eld when you need themmost. Or maybe that lifeboat food you bought doesn’t sit well with your stomach, which you don’trealize until dealing with diarrhea at the worst time.

Once you’ve got some of the basic gear in place across your home and go-bags, it’s time tostart learning critical skills.

Do this in parallel as you continue building your supplies past the basics and �ne-tuning yourdisaster preparedness plan.

Although you can �nd hidden gems for free on YouTube, it’s hard to know which ones are legit andwhich ones are some random guy telling you debunked survival advice passed down from hisgranpappy. We’ve lost count of the number of random lessons around the web that teach debunkedsurvival myths, such as using tampons to plug bullet holes.

The Prepared has a whole section on survival skills, with new free content crafted by bona�deexperts coming all the time, and in 2020 we’re releasing video courses.

Some great places to start:

How to use a compass and map

Ham radio for beginners

How to clean a wound

How to use a tourniquet

How to give stitches

How to sharpen a blade with random stuff

More: List of preparedness instructors in the US and Canada

As you learn more about preparedness, don’t forget to practice your skills the same way you wouldpractice with gear.

It’s also time to get into the habit of an annual or semi-annual prep review, where you check yoursupplies, update anything expired, swap out winter and summer clothes in your go-bags, checkcontact info, etc.

Your annual review is also a great time to do practice runs with your family.

Step 6: Share and recruit!

Prepping is more effective — and more fun! — when you share the responsibility with your friends,family, and neighbors.

It’s like a multi-level-marketing scheme, except everyone wins!

Some old-school preppers followed too much of a Lone Wolf mentality, where they kept everythingsecret and assumed they’ll traverse the wastelands alone with their shotgun and trusty dog whileeverything else collapses around them.

Things just don’t work that way. During the Great Depression, for example, studies show that areaswith higher “community mindsets” fared much better than areas where people tended to go italone.

More: Why and how to talk about prepping with your inner circles

You clearly don’t want to broadcast your prepping to people you don’t know, whether in the form ofpublic social media posts or obvious “�ags” around your home. Don’t paint targets on yourself oryour stuff when an emergency hits.

But family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers are all potential recruits. Not only will you feel goodabout helping others see the light, you’ll be better prepared the more of a “buffer” you have aroundyou.

Tip: Use our free kit builder to send links of pre-populated gear to your network. For example, youcould send the URL to this �rst aid kit to your neighbors as a non-threatening or non-weird way tohelp someone ease their way into preparedness.

A great way to meet other like-minded folks in your community is through local training — whichmay even lead to creating or joining a “resilience circle” or prepper mutual-aid group.

Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) courses are a free and popular example. You can justgo for the class or sign up to be a community volunteer that’s activated during a crisis.

Then what?

You’re no longer a beginner at this point. Well done! Take a breather and stop thinking about badscenarios for a while.

How you progress from here starts to greatly depend on your goals and circumstances. Roughlyspeaking, people tend to:

Increase the amount of time they can survive in their home without the help or grid — whichusually means increasing supplies (eg. having multiple months or years of food and water) andimproving the home so it doesn’t need the grid.

Get into more advanced gear, such as multiple types of �rearms,

Explore ways to create their own food through farming or livestock, even if it’s a small indoorgarden or meat rabbits.

Explore ways to capture their own water via rain collection systems, etc.

Buy or build a bug out vehicle.

Be more intentional about cooking at home, repairing or mending products, composting, andother general homesteading techniques.

Build up a resource library of survival books or other info not dependent on the internet.

Continue improving their physical �tness and personal �nances.

Hedge against economic risks with precious metals and/or cryptocurrency.

Build or buy a bug out location, such as a cabin in the woods a reasonable drive away from home.

Continue learning advanced skills, such as Wilderness First Responder or metalworking.

Be sure to participate in communities like The Prepared’s blog and forum (coming 2020). We alsolike the /preppers subreddit. Prepping is a never-ending lifestyle, so try to check in with thecommunity from time to time.

Sources and footnotes: