Some people regard survival and preparedness as one’s ability to stay alive with almost no possessions. Food, water, shelter, these can all be procured as long as you’re in good fit and you have the right skills and training.
However, you don’t have to be an ace in bushcraft, because preparedness has its own hacks that you can try to be more prepared. In this article I’m only going to share a few survival tips, but rest assured there’re plenty more, you just have to look for them.
Use pouches to organize the items inside your bug out bag.
Though they will weigh you down a little and take up a little more space, they have their benefits. No more items scattered across your backpack. From now on you’ll know where everything is. Plus, in the event you need to abandon your backpack, you can take one or two of these pouches with you and continue your journey.
Have a few inflatable items on hand.
You never know when you’ll land in a body of water, or when you need to help someone who did. Plus, you might need to cross a river with the BOB on your back. To make sure you stay afloat, it would be nice if you had a few things like condoms or Ziploc bags or plastic bags to use as flotation devices.
You’ve got more survival items than you think.
The fact of the matter is, every little thing can be of use to you in a post-collapse world. Many people have a lot of “junk” in their attic or garage; maybe it’s time to go through it and see what you can find. Things like old clothes should be reconditioned and properly stored away from moths and other pests, old books can be kept in plastic bags for when the lights go out, or can even be sold and then use that money to buy more preps.
Word of the day: Prepare! And do it the old fashion way, like our fore-fathers did it and succeed long before us, because what lies ahead of us will require all the help we can get. Watch this video and learn the 3 skills that ensured our ancestors survival in hard times of famine and war.
Do this and you’ll gain valuable place inside your attic to store things like toilet paper, gardening tools and so on.
Have a bike in the trunk of your bug out vehicle.
If you have to abandon your car for whatever reason (downed trees, the road narrows), a bike could help you continue your journey faster than if you walked. You can find folding bikes on Amazon so you still have room in the trunk for your preps.
Don’t pack canned food in your bug out bag.
Not unless you’re planning for a long bug out and you’re confident you can carry the extra weight. Instead, focus on freeze-dried food, energy bars, hard candy, maybe even some pemmican. Freeze-dried requires boiling water to cook it but I’m sure you’re already prepped for that.
Don’t put only one type of food in your plastic food buckets.
Say you have to bug out. You only have a few minutes to load as much stuff in your car before you take off. As long as you’re only going to get a few buckets of food, wouldn’t it be nice if they had an assortment of things to eat as opposed to just beans?
Don’t throw away your lighter once it stops working.
The trick is to use a small pry bar to remove the metal part to get a few more seconds of light. This guy on YouTube shows how easy it is to do it:
If your BOB is not waterproof…
You can make it! Don’t worry, most backpacks are NOT water proof but, what you can do is use plastic backpack liners or even a large trash bag to keep everything inside waterproof. Of course, you should still keep things like your first aid supplies and electronics inside other airtight containers, but “lining your bag” will make sure the rest of your gear stays dry.
Speaking of trash bags…
They’ve got a lot more survival uses. For example, you can fill one with leaves to make a nice pillow. Useful if camping in the wilderness.
Some of the other uses: as socks (for keeping your feet dry), as hats, to make a solar water still to help condense drinkable water from air, to gather water from perspiring (non-toxic) tree branches and many more.
Be creative when it comes to collecting rainwater.
To gather as much rain water as possible, you’re going to need a bigger surface. Pots and pans just won’t do, so how about you use a tarp or even a trash bag? A clean one, of course. Though, if you have means to filter and purify that water, it won’t matter.
Get used to wearing heavy backpack.
No, you don’t have to go hiking. Simply take an empty backpack the next time you go shopping, load all your groceries in it and walk back home. This will get you accustomed to carrying a heavy load on your back, as well as save money on gas, by the way.
Related: You Had Plenty Of Chances To Prepare For Yourself. You Can’t Come To My Place When SHTF
Stealth way to remember your cached locations.
If you’re not sure you can remember the exact places you’ve cached your preps, why not take a photo of yourself or your family right above the ground you’re supposed to dig? This way, you won’t have to mark them on a map and then worry that it might fall into the wrong hands.
Final Words
These were just a few simple tips and tricks but there’re a lot more, because survival and preparedness are such vast topics. I wrote an article not long ago titled 53 survival hacks, and each of these hacks has a youtube video that shows how to do it. Highly recommended.
By Dan F Sullivan of Survival Sullivan
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Want to break up a long friendship? Move closer together! I think most people will hit the point of no mental return no matter what shape ones in – knowledge & know how to implement it will be superior – anyone who believes they’ll be able to bugout to the places they’ve prepared are delusional – I’ve been there – these recent shows (on discovery etc/what a joke) on tv is pure entertainment & laughable – c/out Kosovo! O, almost forgot, half cals are small arms!
*interesting tekky zips – 100 yds? no problem! always keep’m in the 10 range!