Prudent Prepping: Intermission

The dust has settled and the First 72 Hours have passed. Follow along as I build a long term plan via Prudent Prepping.

I mentioned in last week's post that it was my first post-move article. This is my second post-move blog entry, but it isn't the final, totally over-and-done-with-moving post.

You see, I'm staying with my wonderful sister and brother-in-law while my next place to live is getting settled and sorted out. I'm moving again in April, for what I hope will be a nice long stay.

Spring, I Hope
This post is about what I'm doing with the time between moves: an intermission, defined as "A pause or break." A break is exactly what I needed after getting out of the place I lived in for the past 5 years, a break to continue to weed out and trim down what I own and want to have with me. This has taken longer than I thought it would, and also longer than it should. I (and the rest of us here at BCP) write about disaster preparedness, Bugging Out and Getting Home regularly, but it turns out I needed these moves to really get set to live the life I write. I'm not a hoarder in any way, but I have collected too many things that I can do without quite easily.

Since I'll be with different people (the Master Chief has moved elsewhere), my stored food will be changing slightly to reflect the people I'll be around. Before I moved, I already donated the easily sorted items, so what's left are the 'good quality' things that have to make the cut to 'excellent quality and very useful' all the time. I'm also using this time to check on every last emergency item in my gear, such as:

Camping Gear

• I have multiple stoves, so each one is getting looked over to see if parts (like wind shields) are missing,  and that the repair parts are included in the WhisperLite bag.
• Rain gear. My primary coat and pants have gone with me to work every day for several winters now, so I checked on the spare ones I keep with my extra backpacks.
• My tent, waterproof tarps and ground cloths are neatly stored in a storage tote.

Get Home

• I'm much, much closer to home this year, so the Bag of Homing is being pared down a little with extra clothing coming out of the pack and into a bag in the trunk. If I need it when I'm farther away from home, it will be available, as with food and water. Thinking like this has removed almost 5 lbs of 'must carry' weight from my pack.
• Packing some of the Get Home necessities in the trunk means I need to clean up where things are stored there too. I'm keeping a case of bottled water and the excess Get Home gear in bags, stored in and behind my trunk organizer. While I seriously miss my truck, having a place to store equipment completely out of sight trumps the versatility of my beloved truck.

Home Stores
This is the last difficult bit I'm working on now: the things I want. Frank Lloyd Wright wrote,“Give me the luxuries of life and I will gladly do without the necessities.” Yeah, about those...

• Canned goods are being transitioned to freeze-dried much slower than I like, but I have a definite budget to follow. The bulky things are still going into the Buckets of Holding, even when I get more food designed for longer term storage. Pasta and sauces, rice and such don't compact down very small.
• Clothes are the next things to get a brutal trimming. I'm amazed at what I still have, even with two trash bags full of clothes going to Goodwill. I don't need anywhere close to the number of shirts and polos I have, even if I like the company logos.
• Finally, I really will be going through my books since in my new place I won't have room to put up all the shelves I'd need to get even 50% of my collection displayed. Many are going to be sold, some are going to friends that will appreciate them, and I'll keep the balance and maybe finagle a little space for one compact set of shelves.

The Takeaway

• I know most of you are still in the middle of winter, but it's never too early to get your gear out and ready for an emergency. 
• Floods, more snow and rain are forecast even for me here in California. Don't be caught with little to show for your planning.

The Recap

• Be hard on yourself in your preps. If you don't, or can't, it will be even harder to get away in an emergency or even move like I'm doing. 
• Nothing was purchased this week but lots of sweat was spent.

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NOTE: All items tested were purchased by me. No products have been loaned in exchange for a favorable review. Any items sent to me for T&E will be listed as such. Suck it Feds.