10 things you might not know you need to store

Let's chat a little about emergency preparedness. I know we hear it all the time, "Have your 72 hour kits!" "Rotate your food storage!" and food storage is a really important thing. But it's not the only thing.
Two years ago my husband's work was laying off people right and left and the work coming in had slowed to a trickle. He took a big pay cut and suddenly that food storage became our only food supply. (This is why I don't store in bulk. I find it hard to rotate out and hard to use when I need it but I digress...) We spent several months living primarily off our food storage, shopping only for milk and small perishables.

And 99% of the time, that is exactly what food storage is for. It's not usually going to be a natural disaster or catastrophic event that has us using those reserves. But, though we are blessed to live in a place where true natural disasters are rare, I'm still a preparedness nut ball. Seriously. Consider me your local 'Doomsday Prepper'. And I'm here to tell you, there are some things you don't think about while stocking those food storage shelves that you might want to consider. So I made you a handy list, cause I'm cool like that.
Yeah.
You're welcome.

1) BLEACH
No joke. in the event of a real disaster most people don't die from the disaster itself, they die from contamination and illness after the fact. Besides being great for keeping things sanitized, bleach can also make drinking water safe and help prevent the spread of disease.

2) TOILET PAPER
Think about it. Yeah, gross, right? Along those lines I also suggest a...

3) PORTABLE TOILET
Basically, any camping store (or even Walmart) sells handy little toilet seats that affix to a bucket. You might never need to use it, but better safe than sorry. Again, hygiene is going to be a big problem if you aren't ready for it.

4) FUEL
By fuel I mean this. You have a fifty pound box of mac&cheese. How do you plan to cook it if the power is gone?

If you have a small home or apartment you can get a pallet of Sterno fuel at Sam's Club for less than $20 and it will give you a safe way to cook indoors. Or, if you have a yard at all, you can also consider a outdoor fire pit/grill that burns wood. (In an emergency, it might be easier to get your hands on wood than propane, just to think long-term.) You can go as fancy or simple as you'd like here, but it's something you need to be ready for. (We added a wood burning stove to our home mainly for this reason, but we also have Sterno fuel and an outdoor fire pit. You don't want to be cooking outside in the snow but you don't want to be burning a wood stove on a 100 degree summer day either)

5) GASOLINE
Not enough to fill your car tank or anything crazy (unless you want. Hey, crazy works too) but enough to power your mowers, tillers, garden equipment, etc. If it becomes a situation where you need to go cut firewood, it helps to have gas for the chainsaw.

6) FIRE EXTINGUISHERS
When you are cooking indoors with Sterno, or even outdoors with a fire pit, you need to be safe. In an emergency, who knows if a fire truck would even be available to help out in a crisis? I recommend at least two small-medium sized fire extinguishers in the home at all times and a small one in the car.

7) BATTERIES
You never realize how much a battery is worth until you need one and don't have one. On that note, I also suggest BATTERY POWERED LIGHTS. Flashlights are good, lanterns are better. Candles are messy and dangerous in the best of conditions.

8) A RADIO
A radio that uses BATTERIES! How many of us own one? Most of us anymore play music on the computer or iPods, right? But in an emergency, you want to have one good old fashioned stand buy.

9) BUG SPRAY & SUN BLOCK
Someday you will thank me for this.

10) FISHING POLES &BAIT
Seriously. We live near a RIVER folks. Which means if times got really desperate, we would always have access to fresh food. I recommend keeping at least one pole, a few cans of artificial bait, and a good fishing knife. Hunting in the city might be hard, but fishing could save your life.
(I've always wanted to say that.)

I think that about does it. My husband thinks I should add a GUN and AMMO to this list, but I know some of us feel less safe with a gun around rather than MORE safe. I will just say that we have one, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. As a word of warning, they say it takes less than 48  hours of real hunger before people adopt a "Mob Mentality". Something to consider. And if you don't like guns, think about a Bow. Seriously. Bows are cool and intimidating, so... two birds, one arrow.

Of course there is always SOMETHING I'm forgetting, so if you'd like to add a tip or idea, please let me know in the comments! Thanks! And happy survival.