In December 2022, I watched my neighbor Mark trudge through two feet of snow to ask if I had any extra propane. His family had been without power for three days during that brutal winter storm, and the hardware stores were cleaned out within the first six hours. I handed him a spare 20-pound tank from my garage, watched the relief wash over his face, and thought about how different his situation could have been with just a little preparation.
That propane tank cost me about $20 when I bought it. During those three days when the grid was down and temperatures dropped to single digits, it was worth more than a hundred times that amount. Not because I would have charged my neighbor—that’s not who I am—but because the value of any item fundamentally changes when supply chains collapse and desperation sets in.
I’ve been prepping since 2012. Back then, I was making every mistake you can imagine. I bought the wrong food, stored water incorrectly, and spent too much money on gear that looked tactical but turned out to be useless. My wife thought I’d lost my mind. Maybe I had, a little. But over the past twelve years, through real-world testing, studying historical collapses from Bosnia to Venezuela, and talking with people who actually survived extended grid-down situations, I’ve learned what matters and what doesn’t.
Here’s what nobody tells you about collapse economics: it’s not about having the most stuff. It’s about having the right stuff. The things that become genuinely priceless aren’t always what you’d expect. Some of them cost pennies today. Others require no money at all—just knowledge and foresight.
This isn’t a fear-mongering piece about the apocalypse. I don’t do hype. What I’m going to share with you are the 35 items, skills, and resources that every prepper with real-world experience knows will become incredibly valuable when normal supply chains break down—whether that’s for three days during a winter storm or three months during something much worse.
Some of these will seem obvious. Others might surprise you. All of them are based on what I’ve tested personally, what history has repeatedly shown us, and what people who’ve lived through actual societal breakdowns say mattered most.
Let’s get into it.
Water Purification: The Non-Negotiable Foundation
You can survive weeks without food. You’ll last about three days without water. This isn’t theory—it’s biology.
During Hurricane Katrina in 2005, bottled water prices in affected areas reportedly jumped to $10 or more per gallon in some locations. During the Texas freeze of 2021, residents were melting snow in bathtubs and boiling creek water. These were temporary disruptions lasting days, not weeks.
What preppers know: It’s not about stockpiling enough water—it’s about the ability to produce clean water indefinitely.
I learned this lesson the hard way in 2016 when I calculated how much stored water my family of four would need for a three-month scenario. The answer was over 700 gallons at a bare minimum. I live in a 1,400 square foot house. The math didn’t work.
The Three-Tier Water System
The first tier is storage—having at least 30 days of drinking water on hand (one gallon per person per day minimum). Food-grade containers, properly stored away from light and chemicals.
The second tier is filtration. A quality gravity-fed filter like a Berkey can process thousands of gallons before the elements need replacing. I’ve been running the same system since 2017, processing questionable water from camping trips as practice. It works.
The third tier—and this is where most preppers stop too early—is chemical treatment and boiling capability. Filters can break. Having pool shock (calcium hypochlorite) gives you the ability to treat thousands of gallons of water for less than $10. Learn the ratios. Write them down. Keep them with your supplies.
What becomes priceless: Not the water itself, but the means to make any water source safe. A $25 bottle of pool shock could treat enough water for an entire neighborhood for months. Water purification tablets, which you can buy today for pennies each, become worth their weight in gold when the faucets run dry.
Shelf-Stable Food That Actually Sustains
Here’s where I have to admit one of my biggest early mistakes. In 2013, I spent nearly $800 on freeze-dried “survival food” from one of those companies advertising to preppers. You know the ones—25-year shelf life, astronaut-quality meals, everything you need to survive.
What I got was a three-month supply of food that would barely keep one person alive, tasted like cardboard mixed with salt, and provided nowhere near the calories needed for any kind of physical labor. Expensive lesson learned.
What Actually Works
Rice and beans form the backbone of any serious food storage program. Not because they’re exciting—they’re not—but because they’re calorie-dense, store for years when properly packaged, complement each other nutritionally, and cost almost nothing. A 50-pound bag of rice runs about $25 and provides roughly 80,000 calories. That’s roughly 40 days of survival-level eating for one person, or substantial meal supplementation for much longer.
Canned goods are underrated by the tactical crowd but beloved by anyone who’s actually lived off stored food. Canned meats, vegetables, fruits, and soups require no preparation beyond heating. They last years beyond their “best by” dates (which are about quality, not safety). During a crisis, the ability to eat food directly from the container without water or fuel is invaluable.
Cooking oils and fats become critical for several reasons. They’re calorie-dense, improve the palatability of repetitive foods, and are essential for cooking methods that preserve fuel. A single bottle of vegetable oil contains thousands of calories. In Venezuela’s economic collapse, cooking oil became one of the most sought-after commodities—people were trading valuable goods just to be able to fry food.
What becomes priceless: Not the fancy freeze-dried meals, but bulk staples, salt, sugar, honey, and the items that transform basic ingredients into sustainable nutrition. Spices and seasonings sound like luxury items until you’re facing month two of rice and beans. Then they become mental health necessities.
Medical Supplies: When Pharmacies Are Closed
Let me tell you about a conversation that changed how I think about medical preparedness. In 2019, I met a man at a preparedness conference who had lived through the Siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s. For nearly four years, normal medical care was essentially unavailable to civilians. Pharmacies were empty. Hospitals were overwhelmed and under-supplied.
What he told me was sobering: “People died from things that should have been nothing. An infected cut. A tooth that went bad. Diarrhea that led to dehydration. We had doctors, but they had nothing to work with.”
The Basics That Become Essential
Antibiotics and prescription medications are complicated in a preparedness context. I’m not giving medical advice, and I’m not suggesting anything illegal. What I will say is that anyone dependent on daily medications should have the maximum supply their prescription allows and should talk to their doctor about emergency contingencies. Many doctors understand the reasoning when you explain it honestly.
Over-the-counter medications are something you can stockpile legally and should. Pain relievers (both acetaminophen and ibuprofen), antihistamines, anti-diarrheal medications, antacids, and basic cold remedies. These things are cheap now and practically unavailable during supply chain disruptions. During COVID-19’s early months, basic fever reducers were impossible to find in many areas.
Wound care supplies go beyond the standard first aid kit. Butterfly closures, surgical tape, sterile gauze in quantity, antiseptic solutions, and topical antibiotic ointments. A $5 tube of Neosporin today could prevent a life-threatening infection tomorrow.
What becomes priceless: The things we don’t think about because we can always get them. Dental supplies—temporary fillings, clove oil for pain. Reading glasses. Vitamins. Feminine hygiene products. The minor medical products that prevent minor problems from becoming major crises.
I keep a specific medical reference book in my supplies: Where There Is No Doctor by David Werner. It was written for developing-world medical situations where professional care isn’t available. The same principles apply to grid-down scenarios.
Fuel and Energy: The Modern Oxygen
During the Texas freeze of 2021, natural gas prices spiked from around $3 per MMBtu to over $1,000 per MMBtu in some spot markets. People who had propane tanks and gasoline stored were comfortable. People who didn’t were burning furniture to stay warm.
This isn’t speculation about what might happen. It already happened, in the United States, in the 21st century.
Diversified Fuel Storage
Propane is the gold standard for long-term fuel storage. It doesn’t degrade like gasoline. It stores safely in proper containers for decades. A hundred-pound tank holds roughly 24 gallons and can run a heater for days or a cooking stove for weeks. The infrastructure for refilling exists at virtually every gas station and hardware store.
Stabilized gasoline has its place despite the storage challenges. With proper stabilizer (like Sta-Bil), gasoline can last up to two years. I rotate my supply annually—using the stored gas in my vehicles and replacing it fresh. Yes, it’s a hassle. But when the gas stations have three-hour lines or no power to pump, having 20 gallons in your garage is a significant advantage.
Firewood for those with wood-burning capability shouldn’t be overlooked. Seasoned hardwood stacked properly stores for years and produces substantial heat. During extended power outages, people with wood stoves become very popular with their neighbors.
Renewable Options
Solar charging capacity has become remarkably affordable. A 100-watt portable solar panel and a quality power station can keep communications devices charged, run small appliances, and provide lighting indefinitely. I bought my setup in 2020 for about $400 total. The peace of mind is worth far more than that.
What becomes priceless: Not just fuel itself, but the knowledge of how to use it efficiently and the containers to store it safely. Proper fuel cans, propane adapters, and siphon pumps become impossible to find after the need becomes apparent.
Hand Tools: When Electricity Is Gone
I grew up watching my grandfather fix virtually everything with a basic set of hand tools. No power. No pneumatics. Just well-made tools, knowledge, and patience. His generation understood something we’ve largely forgotten: the less a tool depends on, the more dependable it becomes.
In 2018, I deliberately went a month using only non-powered tools for home projects. It was slower, but everything got done. More importantly, I learned what tools actually matter when the outlets are dead.
The Essential Non-Powered Toolkit
Quality hand saws can do most of what a circular saw accomplishes, just slower. A crosscut saw for dimensional lumber, a pruning saw for outdoor work, and a coping saw for detail cuts cover 90% of cutting needs.
Hammers and pry bars are obvious but often overlooked in variety. A framing hammer, a finishing hammer, a rubber mallet, and a good pry bar handle different tasks that can’t all be done with one tool.
Hand drills and braces existed long before electricity. A quality brace and bit set can drill holes in wood all day without batteries or cords. I picked mine up at an estate sale for $15.
Axes, hatchets, and mauls become primary tools for heating fuel processing when the chainsaw runs dry. A quality splitting maul and a sharp axe can process enough firewood to heat a home through winter—but it’s hard work, and you need to practice before you need it.
What becomes priceless: High-quality hand tools that will last generations, sharpening equipment to maintain them, and the knowledge to use them effectively. The YouTube tutorials won’t be available when you actually need them.
Communication: Knowing What’s Happening
During every major disaster I’ve studied, one of the biggest challenges survivors report is the information vacuum. When cell towers go down and the internet disappears, people have no idea what’s happening—even just miles away. This uncertainty creates fear, leads to bad decisions, and prevents coordinated response.
Your Communications Strategy
Battery-powered or hand-crank radios provide one-way communication but critical awareness. AM radio especially travels long distances and reaches areas where FM can’t penetrate. NOAA weather radio alerts can provide official emergency information when other systems fail.
HAM radio capability opens two-way communication over vast distances without any infrastructure. The Technician license is relatively easy to obtain and allows access to local repeaters that often stay operational during emergencies. I got my license in 2017 and have used it during several regional power outages to understand what was happening in surrounding areas.
Family communication plans that don’t rely on technology matter more than equipment. Predetermined meeting points, contact schedules, and physical message locations sound old-fashioned because they are. They also work when nothing else does.
What becomes priceless: Working radios with charged batteries, knowledge of local frequencies, and established communication networks with neighbors and family. The equipment is useless without the relationships and protocols to use it effectively.
Security: The Uncomfortable Reality
Here’s a conversation that most preparedness content avoids, and I understand why. It’s uncomfortable. But ignoring it doesn’t make the reality disappear.
In extended crisis situations—we’re talking weeks or months, not days—security becomes a primary concern. This isn’t paranoid fantasy. It’s what happens. Look at any prolonged societal disruption throughout history. When people become desperate enough, some of them make desperate choices.
A Balanced Approach
Defensive capability means different things to different people, and I’m not going to tell you what’s right for your situation. What I will say is that whatever approach you choose, you need to be competent with it. A firearm you don’t know how to use safely and effectively is a liability, not an asset. The same is true for other defensive tools.
Physical security improvements often matter more than weapons. Reinforced door frames. Security film on windows. Motion-activated lighting. Clear sight lines around your property. These passive measures deter problems before they escalate.
Community relationships are your most effective security measure. A neighborhood where people know each other, look out for each other, and have established communication is dramatically safer than isolated individuals trying to defend themselves alone. This is historically proven across virtually every crisis scenario.
**OPSEC—operational security—**means not advertising what you have. The Instagram posts about your food storage and gun collection might feel good now, but they’re essentially a shopping list for desperate people later. The gray man approach isn’t sexy, but it works.
What becomes priceless: Not specific equipment, but the combination of capability, preparation, relationships, and discretion that allows you to protect what you’ve worked to build without making yourself a target.
Hygiene and Sanitation: The Forgotten Crisis
Let me share something that changed my perspective on what really matters in extended emergencies. A nurse I know who deployed to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria told me that in the first month, more people came to emergency services with infections from lack of sanitation than from the storm itself.
When modern sanitation disappears, disease follows. This happened in New Orleans after Katrina. It happened in Puerto Rico after Maria. It happens everywhere the normal systems break down for more than a few days.
Planning for What Nobody Wants to Discuss
Waste management without functioning toilets is a problem everyone faces but few plan for. A five-gallon bucket toilet with proper bags and treatment chemicals is a basic solution. Heavy-duty garbage bags, kitty litter or sawdust for absorption, and the ability to dispose of waste properly prevent your home from becoming a health hazard.
Cleaning supplies become critical when running water isn’t available. Stored water for hand washing, bleach for surface disinfection, and antibacterial supplies for personal hygiene prevent the disease spread that historically kills more people in disasters than the disasters themselves.
Personal hygiene basics—soap, toothpaste, deodorant, feminine products—seem trivial until you can’t get them. Beyond comfort, maintaining basic hygiene preserves health and morale when both are under stress.
Pest control supplies become important quickly when garbage pickup stops and food waste accumulates. Mouse traps, roach bait, and fly management prevent infestations that create disease vectors.
What becomes priceless: Toilet paper. Soap. Bleach. Feminine hygiene products. The mundane daily items we never think about because they’re always available. In every extended crisis, these basic supplies disappear first and matter most to daily quality of life.
Skills Over Stuff: The True Currency
I’ve been writing about things—items you can buy and store. But the preppers who’ve actually been through extended crises, and I’ve talked with more than a few, consistently say the same thing: skills matter more than stuff.
Things can be lost, stolen, damaged, or used up. Knowledge stays with you.
The Skills That Become Irreplaceable
Medical knowledge appropriate to your training level saves lives. Basic first aid, CPR, wound care, and recognizing serious conditions. You don’t need to be a doctor. You need to be more capable than doing nothing.
Food production and preservation—gardening, canning, drying, smoking, fermting—turn short-term supplies into long-term sustainability. I started gardening seriously in 2014, failed miserably for two years, and finally started producing meaningful harvests by 2017. The learning curve is steep. Start now.
Mechanical repair for the systems you depend on. Can you fix your heating system? Your vehicle? Your water pump? Understanding the basics of how things work and how to troubleshoot them extends the life of critical equipment when replacement parts aren’t available.
Construction and fabrication skills let you build what you need from materials at hand. Basic carpentry, welding if you can learn it, even knowing how to properly patch a roof—these abilities become valuable in communities where nothing new is being manufactured.
What becomes priceless: The people who can do things, not just the people who have things. In historical collapses, skilled individuals become community assets protected and supported by groups who recognize their value. Knowledge is the only prep that can’t be taken from you.
Comfort and Morale: The Survival Nobody Discusses
In 2017, I participated in a 72-hour grid-down drill with a group of preparedness-minded friends. We disconnected from utilities, avoided stores, and lived from our supplies and skills for a long weekend.
The physical survival part was manageable. We had food, water, shelter, and heat. What surprised all of us was how quickly boredom, stress, and interpersonal tension became the dominant challenges.
By hour 36, we were irritable with each other. By hour 60, one couple was barely speaking. This was a planned drill with an end date we all knew was coming. Imagine that psychology extending for weeks or months without any certain endpoint.
The Morale Force Multipliers
Entertainment without electricity matters more than most preppers acknowledge. Books—actual physical books. Card games and board games. Musical instruments if anyone plays. Art supplies. We’ve become so dependent on screens for entertainment that many people literally don’t know how to occupy themselves without electricity.
Comfort foods and treats stockpiled in small quantities provide mental breaks from the stress of crisis living. Hard candy lasts essentially forever. Coffee for those who depend on it. Chocolate. Whatever your family’s particular comfort foods are—having some stored preserves normalcy when everything else is abnormal.
Alcohol and tobacco are delicate topics, but historically they’re valuable barter items and morale boosters even for people who don’t regularly use them. I’m not advocating anything; I’m acknowledging reality. During the Siege of Sarajevo, cigarettes became informal currency.
Familiar routines maintained as much as possible—family meals, regular sleep schedules, division of responsibilities—provide psychological structure when external structure disappears. This costs nothing to plan but requires deliberate effort to maintain.
What becomes priceless: The things that make life worth living when basic survival is assured. Preppers who focus exclusively on beans, bullets, and bandages miss that human beings need more than calories and shelter to maintain mental health through extended crises.
Barter Items: The Post-Collapse Economy
Money has value because we collectively agree it does. When supply chains collapse and stores close, that agreement weakens. Barter economies emerge naturally in their place.
I’m not suggesting you prepare primarily for barter—your supplies should first meet your own needs. But understanding what becomes valuable in crisis economies helps you prioritize what to store and recognizes opportunities when they arise.
High-Value Barter Categories
Consumables that are hard to produce: Salt has been currency throughout human history for good reason. You cannot make it easily, and you cannot live long without it. Soap, candles, matches, batteries—the things that get used up and can’t be replaced.
Vices: History consistently shows that people will trade necessities for alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine during crises. Whether you consider this rational or not, it’s predictable. Mini bottles of liquor, packs of cigarettes, instant coffee—these store well and trade high.
Ammunition: Controversial but true. In every modern societal breakdown I’ve studied, ammunition becomes currency among those who have firearms. Standard calibers (9mm, .22LR, 12 gauge) trade most readily. Store what you’ll use first, but recognize surplus has exchange value.
Medical supplies: Pain relievers, antibiotic ointments, bandages, children’s medications—anyone with dependents will trade significantly for these when pharmacies are closed.
Seeds: For extended collapses, heirloom seeds that can be saved and replanted become enormously valuable. A $3 packet of tomato seeds today could trade for substantial goods when growing your own food becomes necessary.
What becomes priceless: Items that are simultaneously useful to you and valuable to others. Diversified small quantities beat specialized large quantities for barter flexibility. Don’t become known as “the guy with all the alcohol”—that makes you a target, not a trading partner.
Clothing and Footwear: Protection Beyond Shelter
I made a significant mistake in my early prepping years by focusing almost exclusively on food and gear while ignoring clothing. Then, in 2015, a friend challenged me: “If you had to wear only what you own right now for the next two years, with no way to buy more, would you be okay?”
I wasn’t. I had plenty of tactical-looking cargo pants and outdoor shirts, but I was short on socks, underwear, basic work clothing, and—critically—footwear that would hold up under heavy daily use.
The Clothing Essentials
Durable footwear for actual work, not fashion. Quality work boots or hiking boots that are already broken in, plus spare laces and the knowledge (or supplies) to resole them when the originals wear through. Footwear is one of the hardest items to improvise or replace.
Layering basics for temperature regulation. Base layers that wick moisture, insulating mid-layers, and weatherproof outer layers. The ability to add or remove layers as conditions and activity levels change keeps you comfortable across a wide range of situations with minimal gear.
Work clothing that can handle hard use. When manual labor becomes necessary, the office casual wardrobe doesn’t cut it. Jeans or canvas pants, sturdy long-sleeve shirts, work gloves.
Socks and underwear in quantity. These wear out faster than outer clothing and directly affect your comfort and health. Cotton kills the saying goes because wet cotton loses all insulation value. Wool or synthetic alternatives for socks, especially.
What becomes priceless: Shoes that fit and function when the shoe stores are closed. Clothing that protects against the elements when you’re outside more than you’re used to. Needle and thread and the ability to repair what you have.
Documentation and Knowledge: The Offline Library
In 2019, I did an experiment: I tried to go one week using no internet-connected devices for information. No phone searches, no YouTube tutorials, no online troubleshooting. Just books, printed references, and what I had in my head.
It was humbling. I’d become dependent on instant information access without realizing how thoroughly that dependency had eroded my actual retained knowledge.
Building Your Knowledge Base
Printed reference materials on the topics that matter. First aid and medical references. Gardening and food preservation. Repair manuals for your vehicles and major equipment. Local plant identification. Navigation and map reading. The knowledge that exists only online disappears when the internet does.
Physical maps of your local area and potential travel routes. GPS is wonderful until it isn’t. Knowing how to read a topographic map and navigate with a compass might seem antiquated, but they don’t require batteries, cell towers, or satellites.
Personal documents secured and accessible. Copies of identification, property documents, insurance policies, financial records. In post-disaster scenarios, proving who you are and what you own becomes critically important—and difficult if all your records existed only as digital files.
Family records and photos that you want to preserve. This isn’t practical preparedness, but it’s human preparedness. The things that matter to you personally, secured against loss.
What becomes priceless: Knowledge that doesn’t require electricity to access. How-to books become genuinely valuable when how-to videos disappear. Reference materials that answer questions when search engines can’t.
Community and Relationships: Your True Survival Network
I saved this topic for late in the article deliberately, because everything before it means less without it.
The lone wolf prepper is a fantasy. Study any extended crisis—the Siege of Sarajevo, Argentina’s economic collapse, Venezuela’s ongoing disaster, or even localized events like Katrina—and you find the same pattern. The people who do best are not the individuals with the most supplies. They’re the people with the strongest community networks.
Building Your Survival Community
Start with your immediate neighbors. Do you know the people on your street? Do they know you? A neighborhood that watches out for each other is dramatically more resilient than isolated households—and this isn’t just for disasters. It’s for daily life.
Identify complementary skills. The ideal survival community includes diverse capabilities. Medical knowledge. Mechanical skills. Agricultural experience. Security background. Construction ability. You don’t need to possess all skills yourself if you’re part of a network that collectively covers them.
Practice mutual aid now. Help your neighbors with projects. Borrow and lend tools. Share garden surplus. Build the relationships and patterns of reciprocity during normal times so they exist during abnormal times.
Have honest conversations. Not everyone is interested in preparedness, and that’s their choice. But you might be surprised how many people share your concerns when you open the dialogue respectfully. The extremist prepper stereotype prevents reasonable people from discussing reasonable preparations.
What becomes priceless: Trust, built over years of demonstrated reliability. Friendships that involve practical mutual support, not just social pleasantries. A network of people who will actually show up for each other when showing up is difficult.
Lighting and Vision: When the Lights Go Out
The first time we lost power for more than 24 hours, the thing that surprised me most wasn’t the cold or the inconvenience. It was how completely dark nighttime becomes without any electrical lighting. We’re so accustomed to ambient light pollution and always-available switches that true darkness feels almost oppressive.
Sustainable Lighting Solutions
LED headlamps and flashlights provide the best ratio of light output to battery consumption. Modern LEDs are dramatically more efficient than older incandescent technology. A quality headlamp with lithium batteries can run for days of actual use.
Battery management means having both rechargeable and disposable options. Rechargeable batteries paired with solar charging provide indefinite capability. Lithium disposables provide reliable backup with long shelf life.
Oil lamps and candles offer non-electric lighting that works indefinitely with stored fuel. Kerosene lamps provide meaningful light and some heat. Candles are compact and multi-functional. Both require proper ventilation and fire awareness, but they’ve lit humanity for millennia before electricity existed.
Solar pathway lights can be used indoors during outages—charge outside during the day, bring inside at night. They’re cheap, require no batteries, and provide enough light to navigate safely.
What becomes priceless: Any reliable light source when none is commercially available. The batteries to run them. The lamp oil to fuel them. Night-vision capability if you can afford it. Being able to see when everyone around you is in darkness.
Thermal Regulation: Managing Hot and Cold
Temperature control is so automated in modern life that we’ve largely forgotten how to live without it. Heating systems maintain our homes in winter; air conditioning keeps us comfortable in summer. But what happens when those systems depend on electricity you no longer have, or gas that no longer flows?
Staying Warm Without the Grid
Insulation improvements to your home pay dividends constantly, not just during emergencies. Sealing air leaks, adding weatherstripping, improving attic insulation—these reduce your heating needs whether or not the grid is functioning.
Zone heating means focusing resources on keeping one area warm rather than your entire home. During the Texas freeze, families who retreated to a single room with the doors closed and multiple bodies generating heat fared better than those trying to maintain their whole house.
Layered bedding allows sleeping in cold conditions that would be dangerous without shelter. A sleeping bag rated for cold temperatures, plus additional blankets, makes cold-room sleeping sustainable.
Backup heating sources appropriate to your situation and safety awareness. Propane heaters rated for indoor use, wood stoves with proper installation, kerosene heaters with adequate ventilation. Each has tradeoffs, and any combustion heating requires carbon monoxide awareness.
Staying Cool Without Air Conditioning
Ventilation strategy using natural airflow—opening windows at night when it’s cooler, creating cross-breezes, using shade strategically. These techniques were how humans survived hot climates for most of history.
Evaporative cooling in dry climates using wet cloths or simple swamp cooler designs. Hanging wet towels in a breeze can drop temperatures noticeably.
Activity scheduling means doing physical work during cooler parts of the day and resting during peak heat. This is common sense that our climate-controlled world has allowed us to ignore.
What becomes priceless: The knowledge and equipment to manage your body temperature in conditions you can’t currently imagine being stuck in. A single cold-rated sleeping bag could save your life.
Transportation: Mobility When Everything Changes
During the gas shortages of the 1970s, people waited in line for hours to fill their tanks. During Katrina’s evacuation, highways became parking lots of immobile vehicles. During any infrastructure disruption, the ability to move yourself and your supplies becomes a serious constraint.
Sustainable Transportation Options
Bicycles are the most fuel-efficient mechanical transportation ever invented. They’re quiet, maintainable with basic tools, don’t require fuel, and can carry meaningful cargo with the right setup. I keep two in working condition with spare tires, tubes, and patch kits.
Vehicle fuel efficiency and range matter more than off-road capability for most scenarios. The lifted truck with big tires looks prepared, but it’ll drain your stored fuel twice as fast as an economical sedan covering the same distance.
Walking capability sounds basic but requires conditioning most people don’t have. Can you walk ten miles carrying a pack? How about for consecutive days? The answer for most modern Americans is no—and that’s a vulnerability when vehicles can’t move.
Navigation without GPS using physical maps and a compass. Cell towers don’t work without power. GPS requires satellites and battery power. Paper maps require nothing but the ability to read them.
What becomes priceless: Fuel when everyone needs it and no one has it. Bicycles and the supplies to maintain them. Working vehicles with parts and knowledge to keep them running. The physical conditioning to move on foot when you must.
Financial Resilience: Cash and Hard Assets
In 2008, I watched people unable to access their money when banks restricted withdrawals and ATMs went offline. In 2021, I saw businesses refuse credit cards during the Texas freeze because their payment systems required internet they didn’t have. In 2023, the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank reminded us how quickly financial institutions can become inaccessible.
Financial Preparedness Basics
Cash on hand in small denominations allows transactions when electronic systems fail. Not your entire savings—that creates its own security risk—but enough to cover essential purchases for several weeks. Hidden securely in your home, not in a bank.
Precious metals are a contentious topic in preparedness circles. My position: they’re not useful in immediate emergencies (you’re not buying groceries with silver coins), but they preserve value through currency disruptions over longer timeframes. Small denominations are more practical than large bars.
Reduced debt and financial margin provide resilience that no amount of stored supplies can match. The prepper who’s maxed out on credit cards buying gear is more vulnerable than the minimally-equipped person with savings and no debt.
Diversified assets mean not keeping everything in one system, institution, or form. Some cash, some savings, some hard assets, some useful goods—spread across locations and formats.
What becomes priceless: Small-denomination cash when electronic payment systems are down. Financial cushion that allows you to act when others are frozen by their circumstances.
Seeds and Growing Capability: The Long Game
I mentioned seeds in the barter section, but they deserve their own discussion. Any disruption lasting more than a few months makes food production—not just storage—absolutely essential. And food production requires seeds.
Building Your Seed Stock
Heirloom varieties that produce seeds you can save and replant are essential for sustainability. Hybrid seeds are fine for a single growing season but don’t reproduce true. Long-term food independence requires seed saving capability, which requires heirloom genetics.
Regional appropriateness matters enormously. Seeds adapted to your climate, soil conditions, and growing season will dramatically outperform generic options. Connect with local seed libraries or gardening networks to source locally-proven varieties.
Storage conditions determine seed viability over time. Cool, dry, dark storage extends seed life significantly. Properly stored seeds can remain viable for years; improperly stored seeds fail in months.
Practice growing now. I cannot emphasize this enough. The time to learn gardening is not when your food supplies are running low. Start with a small plot or containers. Fail. Learn. Improve. Develop the skills while the stakes are low.
What becomes priceless: Viable seeds of food-producing plants appropriate to your region. The knowledge to plant them, tend them, and save seeds for next season. Established perennial food plants—fruit trees, berry bushes, asparagus beds—that produce year after year.
Mindset: The Foundation of Everything
After twelve years of preparedness practice, thousands of dollars spent, hundreds of hours invested in learning skills, and countless conversations with people who’ve actually survived crises, I’ve concluded that the single most valuable asset is neither a thing nor a skill.
It’s mindset.
The ability to remain calm when everything around you is chaos. The capacity to assess situations clearly and make good decisions under pressure. The mental flexibility to adapt when your plans don’t survive contact with reality. The emotional resilience to maintain function when things are difficult for extended periods.
Developing Preparedness Mindset
Stress inoculation through controlled discomfort. Camping in difficult conditions. Fasting occasionally. Cold exposure. Physical challenges. Not to suffer for its own sake, but to expand your zone of tolerance so that discomfort doesn’t disable your thinking.
Decision-making practice through scenarios and simulations. Walking through “what would you do if” situations mentally. Running actual drills with your family. Identifying the decisions you might face and thinking through your options before you’re forced to decide under pressure.
Emotional management through honest assessment of your fears, tendencies, and limitations. What triggers panic in you? What causes you to shut down? Where are your blind spots? Self-knowledge is the foundation of self-regulation.
Spiritual or philosophical grounding that provides meaning beyond immediate circumstances. Whatever your belief system, having a framework that makes sense of difficulty and provides purpose beyond survival sustains people through hardships that break those without it.
What becomes priceless: The ability to function when others can’t. The calm that allows clear thinking. The perspective that prevents despair. The determination that sustains effort when the situation is hard and the timeline is unknown.
Final Thoughts: Starting Where You Are
I’ve covered a lot of ground in this article—35 categories of things, skills, and mindsets that become genuinely valuable when normal systems fail. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, that’s a reasonable response. No one prepares for everything at once.
Here’s my advice: Pick three things from this article and address them this month.
Maybe it’s adding a few extra cans of food each time you shop until you’ve built a two-week buffer. Maybe it’s finally taking that first aid class you’ve been meaning to attend. Maybe it’s introducing yourself to the neighbor you’ve never spoken with.
Small steps compound. The family that adds a little preparedness each month for a year ends up dramatically more resilient than the family that plans to “get serious about prepping eventually” but never starts.
I’ve been doing this since 2012, and I’m still learning. I still discover things I’ve overlooked, skills I need to develop, and areas where my preparations are thinner than I realized. That’s okay. The goal isn’t perfection—it’s progress.
The best time to prepare was yesterday. The second best time is right now.
Start somewhere. Build steadily. Focus on what actually matters rather than what looks impressive. Test your preparations before you depend on them. Build community because no one makes it through serious disruption alone.
Stay calm. Stay steady. Take care of your family.
That’s what this is really about.