Prepping Beyond The Pantry: Be Prepared, Not Scared

True prepping isn’t about fear. It’s about freedom. Learn how to prepare your home, mind, and family with the essential tools and skills that create lasting resilience.

Is there a storm on your horizon? It could be an actual, material storm, or it could represent danger ahead for you and your family, your community, or humanity. Are you prepped and ready to take on the coming storm?

Let’s Play What If?

Pause for a moment and think about your home, your family, your homestead, and your community. What might happen that would cause you to either leave or hunker down for the long haul? And what would you need to prepare for those situations?

• What if a hurricane delivers substantial rainfall to your region, stressing the dam system of a nearby river?

• What if a careless camper fails to properly extinguish his campfire, and that sparks a sweeping forest fire near your home during a drought?

• What if a stranger to your community threatens the local school system? Or someone decides to poison the local municipal water system?

• What if the electricity goes out for weeks or months, not hours or days?

• What if world governing bodies determine that a virus will cause great calamity to all nations and people?

Unfortunately, there’s no end to the fear-mongering. Many events — known and unknowable — have the potential to lead to catastrophe. While we should not worry or live in fear, we can get to work preparing for something that, honestly, may never come to pass.

This article provides suggestions and ideas to get you started on the prepping path, so you can be closer to ready — mentally, physically, and emotionally — for any unexpected emergencies that arise.

Last month, we looked at prepping food for the long-term. Things like honey, which lasts indefinitely in the right conditions, provide energy and trace nutrients while being easy to stockpile.

Now, it’s about the best tools, like portable solar panels and Starlink technology.

Here are some things to consider before you set aside that first box of matches.

Part 1 – Preparation & Planning Steps

The first step to true preparation begins with thought, not action, and definitely not reaction. If you are reacting to events as they unfold, then you may miss opportunities for well-being. Here are foundational actions you should take before putting gear on a shelf. They help make your prepping meaningful and effective.

1. Assess Your Risks

Take a few minutes to picture what would actually fail first — electricity, running water, transportation, communication. Then ask, “What do I need to stay safe and comfortable if that stops working?” This simple thought exercise reveals the weak spots to fix before an emergency hits.

Consider daily activities and the needs of your family. In times of stress, small children rely on comforting surroundings and may even see a short disruption to “normal” as fun and exciting. What needs will family members and pets have in a 3-day, 7-day, or 14-day event?

Will you need to work or communicate frequently with the office?

Take a walk outside and think about your property. Is there anything in your yard that could block water, causing it to pool, or catch fire easily? Maybe branches and brush will come in handy if you need to build your own fire. Just be sure to stow yard materials securely and with easy access.

Mental prep matters, too. Know how you might respond in a stressful scenario, thinking through decisions calmly and with purpose. Adversity can strengthen communal bonds, and being mentally and spiritually prepared is as vital as physical readiness.

2. Get Your Health, Finances, and Mindset Ready

Before heavy gear-buying, make sure you (and your household) are in a baseline of good health, manageable finances, and some mental resilience.

First, strengthen your inner foundation. Get your health checked, determine what prescriptions, if any, are essential over the long term. Move. Building strength and stamina slowly through strength training and brisk walks will help you be physically ready to face any hardships.

Next, good nutrition is also critical. But so is knowing that you don’t have to eat all the time to stay healthy. If you’ve never done a cleanse or limited the amount of food you eat in a day, you may want to work that muscle, too. Fasting comes from discipline, yet it’s also an experience that you can work up to. It is much harder to go without food for a few days if you’ve been eating 3 meals a day for decades.

Lastly, clean up your finances. Having your finances in order (as much as possible) gives you freedom to devote resources to prepping rather than being caught by surprise. This way, you can invest wisely in supplies over time. Also, if you are still able to access your funds, then you will have resources during the storm as well as in the aftermath.

Most of all, cultivate a calm mindset — the most valuable survival tool of all.

3. Make A Plan

Everyone in the house needs to be on the same page and know what to do in an emergency. So develop a family emergency plan that everyone knows and has access to — since it’s harder to remember things when under stress!

Tips to keep in mind:

• Establish a code word for emergency situations — something random that couldn’t be misunderstood as anything but “it’s an emergency!”

• Plan for ways to exit the house to meet at a pre-determined spot nearby.

• If not everyone is together, plan for how you communicate. What if communications are down? Then decide on a place for everyone to meet (like “come home”) and wait for everyone before taking next steps.

• Will you “shelter in place” (stay at home) or “bug out” (evacuate) or both, depending on the scenario?

• Plan for how you’ll stay informed (alerts, weather, local authorities) and how you’ll communicate if typical channels fail.

4. Learn and Practice Core Skills

Having gear is only half the equation. You need to know how to use it. Practicing a few different scenarios will give you more confidence under pressure.

Skills to consider:

• First Aid / CPR

• Navigation with map & compass

• Starting a fire or alternative lighting

• Collecting and filtering water

• Building a shelter or cover (especially if you lose power or heat)

Practice your emergency plan with your household. Run different drills — maybe simulate a power outage or communications failure, or take a road trip with a map and compass.

5. Build Community Resources

“You’re stronger together” isn’t just a tagline. It’s a survival strategy. In most emergencies, being prepared means being ready to help your neighbor and counting on that person to help you if needed. You shouldn’t be alone if disaster strikes, so involve family, neighbors, and local groups now, as part of your prepping process.

Likewise, identify trusted information sources: local emergency management, weather alert systems, and government agencies, such as FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Even if you’re allergic to government assistance, it’s important to know their potential interactions with your state and community. If you want to shelter in place and not go to a FEMA camp, then being well-informed will help you stay ahead of their intentions.

If, on the other hand, you need assistance that only FEMA or your state-level emergency management agencies can provide, then be sure to know what information they will need from you and keep it in a safe, accessible place.