Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve McDonald
I wouldn't be surprised if the so-called "preppers" weren't just as frantic as many others, trying to stock up on even more goods. The behavioral traits that drive them to be preppers or hoarders in the first place, might be magnified.
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If other preppers are like the ones I know, you're wrong.
I know quite a few preppers. How much they lay aside varies from about 6 weeks to 6 months, mostly depending on how much storage space they have.
The stuff they keep in stock varies, but there are always some basic categories; foodstuffs, cleaning and hygiene, sudden emergency items, and spare clothing.
Most typically, the food is what is most consumed regularly by the family. A family with young kids, for example, will buy a lot of dry cereal or whatever the kids eat the most regularly, and once a box is gone, another replaces it. Freezers are full, and there's always some canned and/or dried alternatives that are stored, in case of a prolonged power outage. Things like canned milk, dried foods, and long-term stuff that doesn't degrade.
The same goes with the cleaning supplies. When one is used up, it's replaced. Same with personal hygiene items. The stuff can vary from brand to brand, but instead of having one bottle of detergent, there are 4 in the stash. One might be the wife's fave, and another might be the one that was on sale and a good bargain.
The sudden emergency stuff tends to lack the need for continual replacement in much of it. A tent, tarps, and other fast shelter stuff doesn't need replacement, but things like candles, batteries, fuel, etc. are all used and replaced regularly. Light bulbs.
The spare clothing is always the essentials. Underwear, socks, fleece outerwear.
There are always a few preppers who go overboard and prepare a bug-out kit, but most of them have enough stuff stashed in orderly fashion that a sudden emergency has to be very sudden to demand abandoning the stash.
Orderliness is almost universal. Once a family gets into the routine, keeping their stash in order is both easy and a necessity.
Really, it's nothing but keeping to the old ways almost all households once practiced. When everyone had a garden and canned, and when the nation was mostly farms, everyone could have been considered to be a prepper. Harvesting and then laying up until the next harvest is ancient.
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