by Daisy Luther, The Organic Prepper:

Do you prep every day?

A lot of people have the wrong idea about the preparedness lifestyle. They think it’s all big things, like digging a bunker, buying a year’s worth of food at a time, having an arsenal, or moving to an off-grid retreat in the mountains where you will live in conditions so austere it would seem like you took a vow of poverty.

But really, the thing that makes you truly prepared is turning it into a habit. It’s more about the little things you do each and every day that help you make the shift to a preparedness lifestyle. If you do one thing each and every day to make yourself a little bit better prepared, at the end of the year, you will likely be much further ahead than the weekend warriors who perform an occasional grand gesture.

A preparedness lifestyle is about the little ways you prep every day.

Over in our Facebook group, a few years ago we did a monthly challenge called the Take Action Challenge.

The challenge is simple. Each day, we post some small thing we did to make ourselves more prepared. It can really help you to see that these small steps really add up. 30 days of small actions beat an occasional larger action hands down.

If you aren’t a social media person, you can still start your own version of this. Get yourself a notebook and write down something you did each day that made you more prepared. These little things are unbelievably motivating because every single day you are thinking of something to add to your list. It means that you are making prepping a daily priority. It means that you have shifted from “someone with a few things put back” to someone who lives the preparedness lifestyle every single day.

Need some inspiration?

Some things may not even really seem like official “prepping” but will still lead you to be better prepared for a variety of emergencies. You have to think outside the beans-bullets-and-bandaids box to see how the tasks below take preparedness from an occasional huge project to a daily lifestyle.

The moral of the story is…choose ACTION. Every day. No matter how small it is, it all adds up to a much greater level of preparedness.

Below, you can find a list of actions inspired by ones that folks took over in the group.

1. I got two months ahead on my prescription medication.


2. While I was cleaning the kitchen I rotated stock in the pantry.


3. I bought white vinegar on sale for cleaning.


4. I bought extra gloves for each of us to keep in the car this winter.


5. I put back a whole bunch of Halloween candy for an emergency. (In case of chocolate deficit emergency break glass!)


6. I bought a huge bag of apples to turn into applesauce and apple butter.


7.  I converted my Get Home bag into a 3-Day Away From/Get Home bag by changing out seasonal clothes and adding extras, rotating meds, eliminating some comfort items.


8.  I went to a ham radio training meeting tonight.


9.  I packed up all of the leftover paper plates/disposable products from last night’s Halloween party and put it away in long-term storage for wash free emergency extras.


10. I Added 6 kg of rice, 6 kg of lentils, 6 kg of pasta, 1 kg ground coffee, 1 kg hot chocolate powder, 500g powdered milk, and 20 instant noodles to the stockpile.


11. I dehydrated some onions before they went bad.


12. I infused vinegar with lavender trimmings (to use instead of fabric softener).


13. I added a huge bag of leaves gleaned from my neighbor’s yard to our compost bin.


14. Today, I put extra money into my emergency fund.


15. I bought extra cat litter on sale.


16. Finally, put batteries in lanterns I bought on sale several weeks ago.


17. I finished my CERT class tonight!


18. I inventoried and reorganized first aid supplies.


19. Finally bought some potassium iodide pills and some N-95 masks and several other items.


20. I bought batteries on sale.


21. Paid off the home improvement loan 18 months early.


22. Switched the car emergency kit supplies to “winter mode.”


23. Bought an extra bag of food for each pet.


24. Dehydrating catnip, chocolate mint, garden sage, oregano, and sweet potato leaves from the garden.


25. Hung laundry to dry instead of using the dryer.


26. Got a porta-potty ready today, stocked with garbage bags and wipes. Will add a bag of kitty litter later.


27. Got rid of stuff we no longer need or use and to free up space for my preps.


28. Caught up on all our dirty laundry. That might not seem like a prep but after being without power AND running water from the well for 3 days after Irma I now appreciate an empty basket.


29. Today, I made salves and Fire Cider.


30. Put our raised garden beds to bed for the winter. Set up the hoops over the strawberries ready to cover them.


31. Today I washed the flannel and cut 46 squares for a start of our family cloth. (TP replacement)


32. I  made breadcrumbs from ends of bread and stored for later.

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