Thanks Ken.
Here are two articles I have done in the past on the subjects discussed in the net meeting. If anyone has questions, feel free to ask.
Although not specifically aimed at very low cost prepping, the principles in the first article can be applied to very limited budget planning.
Make A Plan/Prepping 101
So you have realized that becoming prepared for whatever might occur in the future is something you want to do. But how to go about it? It can be an overwhelming subject. So it is almost imperative that you make a plan on how to proceed. You are more likely to save money and get what you need as quickly as possible if you sit down, think things out, and come up with a flexible plan suited to your particular circumstances. Plans will be different for every individual or family.
How do you make a plan? One step at a time. Reading this is your first step. The next ones will guide you through the process of putting down on paper, or in the computer, those things you will need to do to get to the state of preparedness you want.
Some assumptions that I think are reasonable that should be taken into consideration when you make your plans:
• The overwhelming majority of preps will be needed for situations that occur at home.
• Most disasters will not be Doomsday, The Apocalypse, TEOTWAWKI or WROL situations.
• Most disasters will still have police and National Guard units enforcing law & order.
• People will still be responsible for their actions legally and morally.
• There will looters and violence in some major disasters, but the proportion of life & death incidents will be much smaller than the number of incidents requiring basic human needs.
• Most households will have some basic items at home that can be used during a disaster. Not everything has to be purchased for use only during one. You can often incorporate into the preps items you already have. (Basic First Aid kits including some OTC & any needed prescription meds. A flashlight or two & some candles. A knife. Bedding)
The actual plan:
1. Threat Analysis:
Sit down with your loved ones and have a discussion about the current situation and what fears and concerns everyone has. No one can prepare for everything, especially in the beginning. Make note of what the things brought up in the conversation. Don’t need to scare anyone, and it could be difficult to get them to admit to any fears, especially the younger ones. But it is important to include them, because not everything you will want to prepare for is life and death.
Forget about Doomsday Preps, Armageddon, or TEOTWAWKI for now. Keep it real. Do the best you can to decide what reasons you would bug-out as opposed to bugging-in. Bugging-in is the much preferred action, but there are very good reasons to bug-out. Consider what would drive you from your home, based on your location and situation.
2. Prioritize:
Once you know the things you want to prepare for, put them in a general groups of what you want to start with, what can wait a while, and what should be put on the back burner for the moment. Trying to do everything at once is likely to overwhelm and discourage everyone. You don’t want that. A steady progress to each goal you set will get the job done. And I will suggest a couple of goals right off the bat. One is learning and getting all the training you can. Classroom, internet, and book as well as hands on. The other is part of the first. Begin acquiring a good library of prepping books and magazines to read and learn from as part of your educational program, as well as storing them for future use.
3. Goals:
And keep things goal oriented. Set the goals, realistic ones. Goals that can be achieved. Leave the pie in the sky super deluxe bunkers and Mad Max vehicles to the fiction writers. You want something that you can achieve, on a timely basis. Set the level of preparedness you want for the first group of priorities. Once you know where you are going, you can start getting ready to get there. Set some general achievement goals on a timeline to get started. And remember that goals should be realistic to start with, but can be adjusted as things change, you learn more, or things happen that call for a change in the plan.
4. Budget:
This is an extremely important part of the process. A budget is a good idea for all financial matters, but is even more so when trying to get ready for things that might just happen before you are ready for them. You will need to spend some money. But you can’t let other things go, either. Still have to pay the mortgage or rent, the auto loan, and on and on. Get them in the budget. Everything you must pay on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis.
Don’t forget taxes, and the unexpected. And don’t give up everything you like to do. You still need to live a life, especially with a family. Once you have a household budget, you can determine how much you can spend on preps for given timelines. Then you start doing a separate budget, using those numbers, to get the things done you need to do.
Before you put many numbers in, you are going to have to decide on the items you want first, but get the budget set up, and keep it flexible. It will change over time. Once you have a reasonable budget lined out, add the timeframe and amount for the long lead items that you plan to purchase and start saving a budgeted amount per month for that item/those items.
5. Start Prepping
Once the basic plan is in place and the budgets set up, start prepping.
Prepping 101 by Jerry D Young
The best place to start is usually getting the basic human needs taken care of first, no matter what scenario you are preparing for. First you need to figure out what those are, but that is pretty easy. I have a list. The rest can come when you have learned more and not only have, but have practiced with, the initial items.
Begin to study and learn all you can now, and as you go along. Preps without knowledge aren’t nearly as effective as they are when you know the why-to and when-to in addition to the how-to. Do not feel like you must do everything in the order listed. You will need to do many of the things, especially these first ones, concurrently. Some things can wait, depending on your specific situation, but the basic human needs should all be met as quickly and completely as possible.
1. Air:
Fortunately, it is still free and available, for the most part, for most scenarios. If there is a problem with air supply, special equipment and supplies are necessary. Not a beginner’s subject.
2. Water:
Has to be contaminate free, naturally or with other means. And a lot of it. Store a lot, locate a reliable future source, get water treatment/purification. A few 15-gallon water drums, a couple of stainless steel water bottles with cups for the BOBs, a quality water purifier, either a high cap camping filter or a combination of a drip filter for the BIB and a smaller hikers filter for the BOBs. Scout out locations for long term supplies of water.
3. Food:
You can go for a while without it, but not long or you become useless. No cook, add hot water only, & easy-cook shelf stable foods, heavy on meats, fruits, and comfort foods. For both BOB and BIB. Buy in bulk or in case lots when possible. At the least, buy extra of the things you want and use on a daily basis when they are on sale. To build up longer term supplies, double buy each grocery day. Soon you will have a good pantry.
Learn to garden and grow as much as you can as soon as you can. Ditto home canning when you get the garden going. Don't be afraid of the commercially produced crops like wheat and oats. You can grow non-hybrid/organic types in a home garden.
4. Sanitation:
You gotta go when you gotto go. You need the safe means to do so. Chemical toilet, TP, hand washing means, bug spray, antiseptic cleaners, shovel to bury wastes. Toiletries. Charmin camper’s toilet paper and cleansing wipes for the BOBs. Infectious diseases protection supplies, face mask, gloves, goggles and hand sanitizer. And the ladies, and especially soon to be ladies, need large supplies of their needs on hand.
5. Environmental protection:
You need appropriate clothing as well as housing. Sometimes it is more important than food or sanitation in extreme circumstances. This includes being able to make and control fires. The right clothes for the season. Basic camping gear in case the house becomes unlivable.
You are probably already doing the right clothes for the given season, though here in Reno I see people going from heated homes to heated cars, to heated business and back again wearing a T-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops in 20 degree weather with snow on the ground and coming down hard (I am not joking). Have what you need to keep you comfortable in the weather.
And the camp gear is for when the house cannot be lived in and you need to camp out in the back yard or evacuate. Or even stay in the house when nothing is working. Fallout/blast shelters, like air purification, are another specific topic that deserves separate consideration. Put it in the budget, and start saving, but don’t short the other equipment and supplies unless war is imminent.
6. Security:
Beside protection from the elements, there can be a need for protection from dangerous animals, including other humans. Light is your friend. If you cannot see the threat, you cannot protect yourself from it. Lights and vision devices are an important part of a security plan, as well as all around useful. Once you know you can see it, you can get the actual means to protect yourself from those things in your threat analysis you decided were the biggest dangers. From wild domesticated animals, wild animals, and self-defense in those cases where it might be needed. Training, weapons, defensive measures. For some this is a much higher priority. Evaluate your needs and make the decision.
They tend to be expensive, so set up a long range budget and start saving money for them now, even if you can’t get it yet due to the overall expense. But as soon as you can, get something that is at least reasonably effective, even if you prefer something else in the future. Don’t put off protection items to get the penultimate weapons system. Train, train, and train some more with them. And don’t forget Operational Security. Be very careful who you let know you have preps. There can be repercussions if other people do know.
7. Fire/Lighting/Sharps:
These are important for safety and utility. You will want several means to start a fire, and a couple of items to contain fire. Fire steel, Lifeboat matches, lighters with some tinder for the BOBs. To heat one room in the house, an indoor safe propane or kerosene heater with a supply of fuel stored outdoors.
You will need lighting for indoors & outdoors. A couple of crank flashlights for both BIB and BOB, candles, propane lanterns, battery lanterns. Tactical lights for defense. Get some lighting specifically for preps, even though you probably already have a couple of flashlights with weak batteries and non-working bulbs.
You will need sharps to cut with. Knives/SAK/Multi-tool, axe, saw, etc. I’m fairly sure you have a knife or two in the house. Probably suitable for most uses, except lacking a sheath. But there are some blades that are better for field use and Swiss Army Knives (SAKs), and multi-tools can be handy, and if you need to build shelter or an outdoor fire, axes and saws will save you much labor.
8. Heat/cooling/Cooking:
There quite probably will be a need to maintain acceptable temperatures in home and in the field such as indoor safe propane and kerosene heaters. Gas grill w/tanks, various camping stoves for home or field to cook food when possible (but not in the house). No-cook, and add-hot-water-only foods are desirable in the early stages of a situation. But a hot drink and hot meal can raise the spirits and supply needed warmth in many situations. Not critical at first in some climate, but nice later on.
Others will need to up this on the priority list if in a cold climate and suitable clothes for the weather won’t be available. This could include a generator in addition to non-electrical means so a refrigerator, freezer, AC, stove, medical equipment, fans, etc. can be operated.
9. Medical:
Maintaining everyone’s good health should be a priority all the time. But in some of the scenarios you probably came up with include medical emergencies. Knowledge and the right tools are literally life and death in some instances. Extensive first-aid kits, heavy on the trauma treatment for at the scene and in both BIBs & BOBs and the rest of the alphabet.
These are supplemental kits to your regular home first aid kit. It’s is fine for minor cuts, abrasions, stings, and bruises. In a disaster the injuries are likely to be not only worse, but in great numbers. Stock up with quality in mind and with as much quantity as is possible. Another item to budget early on to get a bit later. And get some training.
Make sure to rotate items that have expiration dates. You can use some of the outdated items in training exercises. Dispose of over the counter medication and any sharps safely.
A note on prescription medications. Unlike OTC meds, prescriptions medications are limited to how much that can be obtained and stored. Some things, like narcotics, are limited to a single 30-day prescription. Other prescriptions can often be written for a 90 day supply. Work with your doctor to get as large of a supply of your prescription medication as you can get and can afford.
10. Morale/Welfare/Recreation:
If you need to be using preps, that means there is a lot of stress involved. The means to help relieve that stress can be very important. Games, some small toys and some paper and pencils, religious books, movies, books. Something to keep the kids quiet and busy, adults entertained or comforted, or just to break the monotony.
There are many more things on the list, but the first ten are the most important, in most circumstances. If your threat analysis includes certain scenarios, things like HAZMAT preparations climb up into those first ten
Some of the additional needs:
11. Information/communication:
We live in a society. You need to know what is going on around you. Radios can provide that service, though there are a few other ways. A wind up radio with NOAA weather alert (this could easily be the first item you should get if you’re in tornado alley or where coastal hurricanes occur), AM/FM, Short wave & a set of FRS/GRMS or MURS radios works for both BIB & BOB, Amateur Radios for LR comms, Binoculars, maps, compass, GPS, flares/mirror/smoke/whistle.
Forewarned is forearmed. If you know it is coming the better you can deal with it. And if you are lost or separated or trapped, having the means to signal will get you back a lot faster.
12. Transportation:
You may or may not be able to stay where you are, though it is usually the best in many scenarios. But some call for evacuation, often suddenly. Not only vehicular, but alternative means, with a way to carry the gear in addition to the people. A vehicular BOV if possible, Motorcycles, bicycles, animals, on foot.
Since, in my opinion, the majority of disasters do not call for bugging out long distances, if at all, transportation is down here on the list. If you live in a tsunami zone, near an active or soon will probably be active volcano, you might want to up the priority level. And if you have children or pets or both, evacuation on foot is very difficult and calls for some more sophisticated measures.
I consider LBE (Load Bearing Equipment) part of transportation. This is equipment to carry your gear and supplies when in the field. BOB/BIB/GHB/INCH bag/GOOD bag, etc. Packs, travois, game cart, bicycle. I am a proponent of taking more than what you can comfortably carry in a back pack. Especially if you have children. Definitely consider having some type of cart to carry heavier weights than you can on your backs, and give the little ones a chance to get off their feet.
13. Tools/Hardware/Cordage:
Besides fire/lighting/and sharps, you will need tools to fix things with, and some hardware to make the repairs to keep the above items in good repair, available, and useable. To get you out if you’re trapped in, to get in to someone that is trapped. Tools and parts to make and repair items. 100+ feet of 550 cord for the BOBs, plenty of rope of several types for general use.
Not everyone knows how to use many of the specialty tools, or are physically unable to. These are primarily for at the scene of a disaster, but some items can be carried in the evacuation kits for minor things on the road. This also includes fishing equipment/hunting equipment/traps/game prep equipment, wild edibles books and gathering equipment, etc for gathering wild foods.
14. Camping gear:
You may not be able to stay in your home, for a variety of reasons. Having adequate camping gear for the family, whether staying in the back yard or when bugging out, can keep you out of a community shelter and simply make life easier. The gear addresses most of the basic human needs, just in a relative portable package. And much of the gear can be used indoors if need be if the power and other services are out. And if you do need to bug out, in bad weather, the gear can be lifesaving.
15. Important Documents:
Having documentation after a major event can be critical for getting help, or avoiding problems. You will need to have originals or copies of IDs for everyone, contact lists, copies of insurance cards, etc. There are several lists of what you need to have. This is another thing that, though probably doesn’t need to be budgeted for (except to get replacement birth certificates and passports) does need to be planned out and executed over time.
You will be working with agencies of the government and big business with some of them and it just takes time. Start early and finish when you can will hopefully be good enough. It is serious enough for me to remind parents about children’s immunization records. Those could be a big deal.
16. Education & Reference Works:
You are going to need to how to do a lot of different things during and after a major event. Start accumulating as you see books and things on sale. Read over them and then put into good storage. Practice those things that are advantageous for ordinary times. Gardening, home canning, auto repair, and wild food gathering and the list goes on. This is long range planning. If you don’t already know how to hunt and fish, and process wild foods, you might want to work it into your schedule as you get more prepared.
17. Finances:
You will need assets during and after an emergency situation. Cash, gold coins, silver coins, a debit card. This is special disaster related finances, not your everyday household budget, which should already include an emergency fund for every day happenings such as car repairs. The things listed can, in various circumstances, be of great help. Or not. It is all situational. Some will take cash but not PMs, and some will take PMs but not cash, some won’t take either. Try to have something set aside if you have to evacuate.
And then there is barter: After a major event, there may be times when cash or precious metals just won’t do. People will be wanting things. This is quite low priority, compared to most of the other things on this second list, but you might want to stock some items to barter/trade to get things you need. For those that don’t think precious metals or cash will be any good, and to just have when having is better than not having. Don’t tie up junior’s college fund for it, but look at some of the many lists on the forums that address trade and barter.
18. Spares:
Don’t forget spares. Spares for everything that uses consumables plus spare parts for critical items. Once you get ‘things’, it doesn’t end. Some will need routine maintenance, some rotation, and some spare parts and extra consumables such as batteries, bulbs, wicks/mantles, fuels.
19. Special Situation Gear:
There are several situations that might come up, depending on what actually happens in the particular disaster, that the more or less normal preps don’t address. Things like the need to climb or rappel, either in the field or within high-rise buildings. Special medical supply and equipment needs for a member of the family, including pregnancy and birthing gear. Specific wild animal threats in an area. Specific climatic/weather threats in an area.
Some of these special situations require specific plans and gear that should be analyzed and budgeted for, then acquired, especially HAZMAT/CBRNE (Hazardous Materials/Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosive) CBRNE gear. Chemical can include transportation accidents, fires, and chemical weapons. Biological can include the common cold up to epidemics, pandemics, to biological weapons. Radiological can include radiation leaks at nuclear power plants, and “Dirty Bombs”. Nuclear includes all the “Atomic War”, “Nuclear War”, and “Global Thermonuclear War” scenarios that include direct radiation, blast, thermal radiation, fallout, and several more. Explosives are pretty much conventional bombs and pyrotechnical devices, including Molotov cocktails and IEDs.
HAZMAT/CBRNE gear is extremely important if needed, but expensive and requires training. Radiation sensors, Respirator, protective suit, other PPE. Bucket, brush, bleach to decontaminate. The cleansing items you probably already have. The PPE items are very important if needed. As stated above, if you live in an area where you have to think about nuke plants melting down, up the priority and get them in the budget for acquisition as soon as possible.
20. Humanitarian Aid:
This is a tough subject and tied closely with Operational Security. Should you spend your hard earned dollars on supplies for other people not in your immediate family? Or even your immediate family if they have made the decision to not prep? If you do decide to have things for other people to use, there are risks.
One is that once people know you have supplies, they will want more than you are willing to give. Another is that the authorities could confiscate them. If you do decide to set aside some supplies for others, you must decide how you will get them to the people that need them. One way is to just give the supplies to the people face to face. Might not be a good idea unless they are very close friends and you know they will not be giving out the location of where they got the supplies.
Another is to clandestinely leave the items and hope the right people get them. Another method is to anonymously present them to your local church, soup kitchen, the Salvation Army or other humanitarian agency for distribution.
Yet another consideration, especially if you are giving out the things directly, is do you do the very basics, such as rice and beans, while you are eating canned meats, fruits, and comfort foods? How will people react if they know you are eating better (or have a better situation in many ways) than what you are providing for them? A very difficult situation. You will have to make your own decisions
21. Special Needs:
Don’t forget those with special needs. That includes pets, livestock, babies, the elderly, and the disadvantaged. They have the same basic needs that everyone else does which must be met in ways appropriate to their situation. Special foods, medical needs, special clothing and housing. Evaluate occasionally and then obtain, store, and rotate as necessary items for those in your group that have these special needs.
Once into the process of following the budget and the plan is underway, continue to re-evaluate everything on a regular basis. You might need to adjust the budget based on less income, or even higher income, or situations might change that require a change in plans. Prepping isn’t static. You aren’t ever ‘done’. It is a continuing process, just as everything else in life is. Keep it in the back of your mind at all times, and your chances of surviving even some very desperate situations are much higher than the norm.
Just my opinion.
My thoughts on sanitation.
Sometimes sanitation can be a difficult subject to discuss. I believe it is one of the top subjects that needs to be discussed, especially when it comes to a group that might just be in close quarters at some point it time. If everyone knows and understands the basics, the ins-and-outs, the nuances, and especially the absolute needs, life will be much less unpleasant, less smelly, and definitely safer from a medical standpoint.
Sanitation covers several different, but related subjects. The first one I want to hit is personal sanitation. That is where it starts, especially health wise. One must keep oneself as clean as the conditions allow. And preparations should be made well before hand to make this as easy as possible.
If there is a working water supply and working sewer system this generally just means being a bit conservative with the supplies, but maintaining a daily or every other day body cleansing. Hands have to be washed and/or sanitized after any contact with anything that can harbor infectious or otherwise dangerous organisms or materials. Even if gloves were worn during the handling, wash or sanitize the hands after removing the gloves. And no matter how short a time period since the last hand washing, wash them before and during any food handling process.
While I suspect everyone reading this keeps themselves quite clean, including during bathroom visits, it is critical that this personal cleansing process is kept up, and even enhanced, if possible. The last thing anyone wants is to get a communicable disease from someone’s clothing that did not bother to make sure they were clean when they left the bathroom or latrine.
If hair can be kept protected with a hat, scarf, hood, or even just keeping it tied up if long, that will go a long way toward conserving supplies, as the hair can usually go two or three days easily without washing unless there is a specific need for it. And hair washing is one of the things that can be done without water fairly easily, fortunately, if you have the right materials. I will address this later.
Fingernails should be kept short and clean, and if there is any propensity to have dry hands, a good hydrating lotion should be used to protect the hands in general, but to also reduce the chances of dry cracks developing on the hands and fingers.
The same goes for toenails. One might not think that toe nail clippers and nippers are a survival tool, but long toe nails can cause cuts on your own feet or others if working closely without shoes and socks for some reason, such as gathering cattail roots with bare feet.
And, like the lotion for hands, some lotion for the feet is a good idea. But so are antibiotic soaps and antifungal creams to keep down the risk of infections that could be debilitating if they get bad enough to interfere with travel. A good foot powder and lots of clean, dry socks are also recommended for keeping the feet clean and dry when in the field. This may not sound like sanitation, but it falls under preventative measures to reduce sanitation needs.
Having plenty of disposable dust/clinical masks, or, preferably, plenty of appropriate washable masks will go a long way to preventing the spread of infections if everyone, including the infected person, begins to wear them as soon as the conditions exist that someone may be coming down with something
The same goes for having a good supply of hand sanitizer, and using hand sanitizer is another good reason to keep and use hand lotions, as many of the sanitizers will really dry out the hands with constant use.
If water or sewer facilities are limited there are some alternative method that will work.
For hand and dish washing a couple plastic wash pans, two or three 1-gallon Sno-cone syrup bottles with HD pumps, and cold water dish detergent and a good hand soap will work. Good hand bar soaps to store are Ivory for basic bathing and cleanliness; Lava for the tough work hand cleaning; and the antimicrobial Dial for the constant hand washing to keep down the risk of infections.
Personal bathing:
Get a couple MSR 4-liter Dromedary bags with shower kits for bathing. If you still have working drains set one up in the tub or shower. Do not use in the tub or shower if the drains are not working or there is a water bob in place. However, with that said, it might be possible to stopper the tub and use either a siphon hose or a small 12v marine bilge pump (if you have an indoor 12v system) to get the water to a waste water tote or outside. Can do the same with a blow up kiddie pool.
If you cannot use the tub, set up a privacy enclosure in the garage if it will drain to the street, or build a collection basin you can attach a hose to for directing the water where you want it. To the street, yard, or garden. Or find a place outside that is private, or have a privacy shelter where showers can be taken and the water drain to somewhere safe.
If you do shower, take a Navy shower where you wet down, turn off the water, soap/shampoo up, and then turn the water back on to rinse. Be very conservative with the soap/shampoo.
It is probably best to do a sponge bath with a container of water that can be emptied into a liquid waste tote.
If water is at a high premium, the use of baking soda, clean mortar sand, bentonite clay, clean saw dust, corn meal, and corn starch can be used dry to clean the hands, body, and hair. For the hands and feet, rub the items onto the skin firmly, and then brush off with a stiff brush and finally with a soft brush.
Do the body the same way, being a bit more gentle in certain parts of the body. Save the conventional methods for the sensitive areas. For the hair and beard, work the dry products into the hair down into she skin. Shake out and then brush thoroughly. After a bit of practice you will get the feeling for how much of each item you need, and which product works best for what areas. Be sparing, but stocking the dry ingredients is much cheaper and less space hogging than water.
Clothes washing:
Any way you look at it, washing clothes takes a lot of water. Brush and air out outer clothing to minimize the need for washing. When you do need to wash clothes, do small batches regularly, rather than wait and try to do a lot at once.
Use Fels-Naptha clothes washing soap or liquid cold water detergent, and Borax as needed.
Where a James washer (I no longer recommend these as quality seems to have fallen off) w/ringer & 2 wash tubs or a gasoline engine Maytag wringer washer might be an option at a home, a Mobile washer plunger (one just for clothing) with two or three 5 to 6 gallon buckets, is probably the easiest, most compact, and minimum water use method of washing clothes. They are much easier than a scrub board in my opinion.
You could even mount a hand ringer to a third bucket or a tub to get more of the water out before you hang dry the clothing. (If you do use a wringer, even a manual, be very careful of getting body parts caught in it. I still carry the scars of getting the fingers of my left hand in a wringer that split my hand apart to the palm between my first and middle finger when I was two or three years old.)
String a line over the tub, even if the drain does not work, to dry the clothes. Leave the bathroom door open if possible for more air circulation. Or hang outside if secure enough. Have the means to put up a good clothesline if you do not already have one. Poles, cross arms, guy lines, clotheslines, lots and lots and lots of clothespins, a couple of clothespin hanging bag, some laundry baskets, wheeled if possible.
TP replacements: red shop towels or custom personal marked/colored cloth squares, stainless steel step can, Fels-Naptha clothes washing soap or liquid cold water detergent, bleach, 2 steel stock pots (washing & rinsing), stainless steel tongs (washing & rinsing), 2 Mobile washer plungers (kept labeled) (washing & rinsing), a mop bucket mop wringer, several boxes of nitrile long gauntlet gloves, and clothesline materials. These items will allow for the use of individual personal wipe cloths, wash them, rinse them, and hang them in the sun for final sanitation. Keep things separate for each stage.
Moving on to living space sanitation. Another case of people probably keep a very clean, sanitary house. But in times of trouble, when cleaning time might be short, compared to all the other things that must be done, it is as important, if not more so, to keep surfaces that people touch often clean and sanitized, as there probably will not be an opportunity to get someone to a medical facility capable of treating something they picked up off the counter top, door knob, faucets, and so on.
Keep the place as clean as possible, even if just using a broom on both flat and carpeted floors, and a sponge type mop for hard floors. Wipe things down with disinfecting solutions often. Bag trash immediately and secure it tightly for later disposal. There are some great cleaning products out there, but do not discount the basics like plain bleach, vinegar, ammonia, lemon juice, and the other staples that can be found in any good house cleaning hints book. Stock up the ingredients needed to make your own soaps, detergents, and other cleaners, and the equipment, and recipes to produce them
Have plenty of effective surface cleansers on hand, and use them often, especially the areas one might not think of too often, that people do touch regularly, such as those already listed and others.
Keep the kitchen area, whether it be in your home or out in the field, all of it, clean to the point some might think you have OCD.
Store large amounts of simple homemade cleaner ingredients. Baking soda, vinegar, rubbing alcohol, washing soda, Borax, mild dish detergent [castile soap], cream of tartar, hydrogen peroxide, lemon juice, sodium percarbonate, salt, corn starch, calcium hypochlorite (to make bleach), and olive oil.
If the sewer and drain systems are not working, alternative means must be found to dispose of what water is used for cleaning. Do not just dump it willy nilly outside. Determine an area where the water can spread out and soak into the ground at all possible, without pooling up. Try to find several alternate areas meeting the same criteria and rotate their use.
Remember that some of this water will have some fairly harsh chemicals in it and might need to be disposed of in yet another location where it cannot damage plants and animals, or contaminate water sources. It might come down to actually digging a pit and putting the water in it to contain it in a smaller area.
This is a good place to address some creepy crawly type pests. Disposing of water on the surface can draw several types of insects, many of them detrimental to human health and wellbeing. Wasps, yellow jackets, bees, and mosquitos are just some of them. So be prepared with traps and other means to eliminate and otherwise control these bugs both outside and inside the house.
Solid waste and trash can draw larger pests such as mice, rats, squirrels, raccoons, feral cats and dogs, and wild animals such as coyotes can become a serious problem. It is not just the sanitation factor with mice and rat dropping, it includes the diseases that some of the animals carry, including flea and tick borne diseases.
Keep empty cans and other containers separated and contained in animal and insect proof containers. Your basic trash bag will not cut it on its own. You need to be able to dispose of those bags of things in larger containers that are rodent and pest proof, or burn, or bury them.
The burning can draw some attention, you might not want. Just pinpointing your location for one, giving away what and how much you have been eating is another.
Burning, crushing, and burying cans and such is probably the best way. Especially if you are set up for it. Not just to reduce the chance of a fire spreading, but the use of a purpose built incinerator can quicken the burn process, and since accelerants can be safely used, the fire can burn hotter and therefor reduce smoke and smells coming from the vent stack.
If you have the means to then crush the metal, break the glass, and still contain it someway, it can be buried without taking up nearly as much space. In any case, keep these bulkier items away from the living quarters.
So traps, snares, appropriate chemicals, sound and vibration systems, and other means can be used to control the bigger beasties. Try to find natural ways to eliminate them if at all possible. There are several books available on the subject.
Now, to the nitty gritty. Human waste sanitation. This is vital to health and wellbeing, especially during a disaster of some type. Whether you can bug-in at home, or have to bug out to the field, you will need to address this. Even if bugging-out to a place with facilities, you still have to get there, and unless it is a very short trip, and no delays en-route, chances are someone will have to go to the bathroom.
All the cautions already stated apply, even in this difficult situation. Cleanliness is paramount. But how do you do that?
Well, if you can bug in, but the sewer system is not functional, there are several pretty decent alternatives. My preferred one is a more or less standard camper’s chemical flush toilet, with a waste tote or two to store the waste if more than one filling is needed. Lay in large stocks of the toilet chemicals.
Second, that I know many people plan on using, is a bucket toilet, with a homemade or commercial toilet seat on it. These require materials to cover the waste after each use, and some type of odor control.
If the possibility exists, installing an outhouse now could be an option. Even if not, if there is space, having the materials ready to assemble one, if it looks like it could be a long event, should be considered. An outhouse does not need to be dirty, cold/hot, and nasty. I have seen some as nice (or nicer in a couple of instances) as some indoor bathrooms. With solar energy and good batteries, LED lighting, and battery fans they can be well lit, and well ventilated. Small propane heaters can be added, and ventilation fans for summer. (Yes, the one outhouse was air conditioned.)
Push comes to shove, an outdoor latrine might need to be dug or created. This is way down on my list of options, for a variety of reasons.
If you can find quicklime, it will help with odors. But it is dangerous stuff. You do not want children handling it.
A very effective, but rather costly, method of urine capture is liquid absorbent travel urinals. Most are designed for both men and women, and several are set up so children can use them effectively. The urine gels, and the bag is sealed and disposed of later. These are especially good for travel.
But, when you gotta go, you gotta go. And that means solid wastes. Well, there are the same type of absorbent bags for solid waste. These are much bulkier and much more expensive. The particular brand I have can be used with a regular toilet bowl, a bucket, or a purpose built commode chair. Again, due to the expense, some of the other methods are preferable to these, but for travel, they are a very good choice. And those that are pretty squeamish about human waste and prefer not to deal with it much, these are a good choice as you do your business, zip up the bag, and put it in the waste container for later disposal.
Which brings me to the disposal part. First, some cautions and a tool list. Be extremely careful when you are handling human waste. It is nasty in and of itself. And the diseases it can harbor are truly horrific. So. When it comes time to handle any human waste, for any reason, make sure you have some sort of lightweight coverall on, have hair covered or tied back, wear goggles, wear a dust mask, wear durable exam gloves, plus a pair of inexpensive jersey gloves to wear over the exam gloves, that can be sanitized.
The dust mask will not do much for the odors, but if you do not have a respirator and plenty of cartridges, it is better than nothing. Its main purpose is to keep any splash or spill from coming into contact with the mouth. Same with the goggles. You do not want that stuff in your eyes. Or regular clothes. Rubber boots would be nice, but your ordinary boots can be cleaned if need be.
A latrine is just filled a little bit at a time during use, and when it is time to be abandoned, it is completely filled.
Some of the other methods, where human waste is accumulated, that waste must be disposed of properly. And that does not mean emptying the chamber pot out the second story window.
This is very important to keep disease down. If you do not do it properly yourself, it could easily come back to haunt you. So, if there happens to be a working sewer in the area, an RV dump station, or a pit toilet in a campground fairly close by, the liquefied wastes can be disposed of in them. The dry-bag, or even just doubled trash bags that have been used as toilet receptacles should not be put in these. They need to be buried. Deep. Animals will dig up human waste. And they can smell it through a double layer of plastic and twelve inches of earth.
So dig deep, preferably twenty-four inches or more. Make sure you are not digging in a spot that could contaminate water sources. Those might be desperately needed for yourself or others.
If at all possible, after filling the hole back up, put some large rocks, some boards, sheet metal, anything handy, to help prevent animals from digging there.
In this area, you will probably need both a pick and a shovel to dig a latrine, outhouse pit, or burial chamber. Sometimes, for small amounts of waste, a post hole digger can be used. If a person knows they will probably need to bury some waste, it is not a bad idea to pre-dig some holes when time and power tools are available, and fill them up with clean mortar sand so they can be quickly dug back out when needed, and the dirt used in raised beds for gardening.
While regular buckets with lids can be used to store and transport human waste, it is much more sanitary and safe to use wheeled totes specifically produced for this purpose. I will have a list of sources at the end of this article. They have a pour spout and can use regular RV sewer hoses to direct the flow, and with the wheeled ones, they are much easier to move around than carrying buckets.
Keep in mind that all of these sanitation recommendations will help keep you safe and sound and healthy. Also keep in mind that other people might not, probably will not, be doing the same things, so it is not just your own activities you are protecting against, it is anyone and everyone anywhere close to you. To me, that makes stressing sanitation an extremely high priority. What other people do, or do not do, can impact you. It is like defensive driving. Practice defensive sanitation.
If you are part of a close knit group, having the standards high, and maintaining them, is doubly important.
A question now. Not paper or plastic? But disposable or reusable? Which do you chose as your primary method of cleaning up? You should have both, but most people will prefer one or the other. On one hand, if you can burn safely and securely, paper towels, paper plates, and other disposables to make clean up easier are a good choice. You just have to stock up on them, and still have some non-disposable alternatives.
There is a left hand matching that right hand. If you can be fairly sure of being able to wash dishes and fabrics effectively and economically, using cleaning cloths, reusable (preferably sanitizable) eating dishes and utensils and such, using them will lessen the need for stocking large amounts of disposables. But some disposables will be required for those times when you just are not in a position to clean the reusable items after use.
I recommend you do both, of course, but it really is easier to set up for one or the other as primary use.
Part sanitation, part grooming, for men, shaving can be a way to stay clean, and to feel good if you do not normally wear a beard/mustache. If you are an electric shaver person, and are in a situation where you cannot use it, be extremely careful switching to a manual blade razor. It is a good idea to practice from time to time with a manual blade razor simply to keep in practice. The last thing you want is open cuts and scratches on the face while doing dirty, nasty work, and/or handling dirty, nasty stuff.
Obtain and store alternatives that do not rely on electrical power. And stock up on the consumables required for shaving. That will often include disposable shavers or blades. If you decide to go with a straight razor, have someone that knows what they are doing teach you to use it. You can literally cut your throat if you do not know what you are doing, and do not use an appropriate shaving soap, and do not keep the razor… well… razor sharp.
If push comes to shove, let the beard and mustache grow and keep them neatly trimmed with the much easier to use comb and scissors designed for that purpose. Keep both methods available.
A few words on women’s specific sanitation needs. Difficult times can bring on menstrual problems. Sometimes stopping it for a time, other times making it very irregular, and often heavier. So women need to stock whatever they normally use in large quantities, and at the very least consider some of the reusable alternatives.
Take particular care to avoid any infections, by choice of diet and cleanliness, and if one does occur, have the means to eliminate it. (Some UTI products: Pyridium/powdered cranberry juice or pills/apple cider vinegar, Acidophilus pills (for women before taking antibiotics that could cause yeast infections), Miconazole (for yeast infections)
And while this can be an issue for anyone, having the means to maintain as much privacy as possible during some sanitary activities, it can mean a great deal to some women, adversely affecting them without it. If at all possible have curtains, enclosures, screens, etc. and some personal space such as a personal closet or dresser or a bag in the field for feminine needs.
Whether disposable or reusable items are used, it is a good idea to use a stainless steel step waste can with liner to hold the used items until they can be disposed of or sanitized in the case of the reusable items. With some of the alternative solid waste systems listed it will not matter too much. Others it will. If you think you might not be able to dispose of them normally, have the alternative.
If bugging out on the road or in the wild, or where sanitary facilities are not sanitary any more, there are now WSUUDs (Women’s Stand Up Urination Devices) that allow a woman to urinate without having to disrobe nearly as much as normal, or squat all the way down. This can be a simply a privacy thing on the side of the road, or rather critical in extreme cold weather; where there are many bugs, snakes, or brambles; or there is a lot of windblown dust and debris in the air; or where a woman has back, hip, leg, or knee problems and has problems getting up and down.
Now, for those that might be in the market for a new home or BOL, that will not have city sewer, a few words about septic systems.
Nearly as important as adequate water supply, is a reliable waste disposal system. If you are on a city sewer, you probably cannot legally have a septic system. But if you can have your own septic system, I have a few thoughts on that, as well.
A well designed, properly installed, and regularly serviced septic system is very reliable. The key factors being not burying the septic tank too deep, installing a large enough tank, having an adequate amount of field tile, and most importantly, installing the field tile properly.
I have seen several septic systems with a large tank buried at the correct depth, and with plenty of drain field. But the drain field was not properly installed and the people had trouble constantly.
Starting at the inlet, here are a few recommendations for the installation of a conventional septic system.
The closest point of the septic tank should be at least five feet, but not more than ten feet from the house. It should have enough earth cover to allow good grass growth. Four to ten inches is adequate. A tank of at least five-hundred gallons for two people is adequate, but for a family a tank of one-thousand to two-thousand gallons is best. I prefer concrete tanks as they last longer than steel, and usually have one or more cleanout holes built in. Fiberglass tanks are also a good choice.
No matter which tank material you choose, be sure that access holes are installed to allow routine maintenance. The inlet should have a tee installed inside the tank with a pipe extending approximately halfway down the sidewall. The tee is not necessary if the tank has a built in baffle. A tee should also be placed on the outlet, which is two to four inches lower than the inlet hole. A solid pipe should go from the outlet to a distribution box. The lines of perforated pipe or tile, run from this distribution box. A short section of solid pipe should be used on each field line to prevent the waste water from getting around the outside of the distribution box.
A trench not less than two feet wide, or more than three feet wide, should be dug deep enough to allow a four to six inch layer of washed gravel, not rock, beneath the pipe. Lay the pipe, and cover with more gravel to within six to twelve inches of the surface. The pipe should be level. Do not slope it at all. Place a permeable barrier over the gravel to prevent earth settling down into the gravel. Tar paper is not permeable. It prevents water from going up. The best choice is uncoated felt building paper, but you may have to use a layer of straw or similar substance. Fabric goods are now available specifically for disposal fields. Fill the rest of the way with loamy soil.
Probably the two major mistakes people make is to have the field tile too deep, (usually the result of a septic tank too deep), and putting tarpaper over the gravel. This prevents the upward movement of the water. In a properly installed system, a large percentage of the moisture evaporates or is used by the grass growing above the line.
There are now some alternatives for the disposal field not available just a few years ago. Polymer chambers, such as the Infiltrator, are placed in an appropriately sized trench and simply backfilled without the need for gravel or permeable barrier. Much easier, and just as effective, if not more so, than conventional perforated pipe and gravel systems, the chamber system are usually competitive in price.
For special circumstances, such as poor soils, hilly areas, or high water tables, see a septic system specialist or contact your county extension agent. The government has several very good pamphlets on alternate sewage disposal systems.
Feel free to ask question, make comments, or expand on any of the above. If you want a link to something I mentioned that I do not include below, let me know and I will find one. I will have a couple of the items I mentioned at the April 2014 group meeting.
Oh. You might notice I did not really mention toilet paper. I did not figure I needed to.
Some links:
Waste totes:
http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aportable%20rv%20waste%20tanksTwo highly informative sites for modern septic systems:
https://www.thenaturalhome.com/index.htmlhttp://septicsolutions.com/InfiltratorChambers/InfiltratorQuick4.htmlMobile Washer hand clothes washer:
http://beprepared.com/mobile-washer-hand-operated-washing-machine.htmlMobile washer and a wringer:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=rapid+washer&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Arapid+washerA couple of examples of chemical toilets and chemicals:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=chemical+toilets&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Achemical+toiletsThe Travel John waste collection bags I mentioned:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=travel+johnSome Women’s Stand Up Urination Devices (For what it is worth, I have it on good authority that the pStyle reusable is an excellent one.):
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=women's%20stand%20up%20urination%20deviceJust my opinion.
Lastly, as part of the sanitation discussion that continued after the net was closed, a couple of us discussed sanitation, among other things, in a post disaster time that takes place after a devastating event that brings about the collapse of civilization as we know it, with almost total destruction of various parts of the modern infrastructure.
Though the discussion started with human waste sanitation, we drifted into another aspect of that. Not only do we have to worry about dealing with our own production of human waste, but other, nearby, and not so near, survivors. . If they are not handling their waste safely, their actions could have a serious impact on ourselves.
So, it came about we discussed, for a short time, the fact that people will need to cooperate in a post event scenario, in order to not only keep up, or replace, critical infrastructures, but make sure they are safe, and do not impact others negatively. This could require a combination of technologies, both old and new; combination of materials used, old tech and new tech; and different approaches and methods to achieve the same end result, using similar combinations.
But having key infrastructures going are not just niceties, but could very well be required to keep other survivors, as well as yourself and yours, alive and well for long term.
So think about some of the critical infrastructures that could be dangerous if inoperable. Air first, of course. Then water, soon food, and then sanitation, because where you have water and food, you are going to need sanitation in the worst way.
There are many ways to get the same end result that we require now: potable water, on hand, ready to be used in moderate quantities, and the means to get rid of used water and human waste.
If it needs to be pumped, there may not be enough electricity to run a conventional water pump. And while modern water pumps are highly efficient, they do require the appropriate motive force, which probably will not be available without electricity or liquid/gaseous fuels. But manual power, wind power, and the power of moving water itself can be harnessed with older or alternative methods to pump water from one place to another. The same goes for handling human wastes, though pumping is usually less an issue than simply holding, decomposing, and then disposing of the remaining product, be it dry solids or black water liquids.
Although not all that complicated, this is not the forum to discuss it. I just wanted to mention the need, for future reference and discussion.
Just my opinion.
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