What will you do to prepare for any future lockdown?

[AwkwardAsAllGetout]

I’m assuming that even when this one is eased, we’ll be locked down again at some point in the next year. I’m wondering what I can do to make that easier and avoid the inevitable second round of panic buying. I was well prepared for this one as I’ve been a long time reader of the prepper threads and could see what was coming, so I had plenty of nappies, toiletries, loo roll and groceries long before we needed them. What I hadn’t anticipated was how much I’d long for some decent outside play equipment for the dc, which seems sold out everywhere. I’d thought ahead to my 2 dcs birthdays in April, and had all presents bought and wrapped, and made sure I had enough for their birthday cakes and party teas. Can’t say the same for the two I’ve got coming up in summer! Will you be preparing early for Christmas? What things are you likely to keep in stock now? I totally underestimated how much my dc would eat with us all being at home all day, so while I have plenty of staples like pasta and flour, my teen could eat super noodles for every meal and the amount of biscuits they’ve eaten is unreal. I think I’m going to keep up our local veg delivery as I’ve been really impressed by that. I think the thing I’m struggling with is how to plan to keep them all occupied over a possible winter lockdown, the weather is gorgeous at the minute which has made the whole thing a lot easier.

Stamps!!!!

I need stamps

I’m a prepper, so I’m using this time to consider what worked well, what was unnecessary and what could be improved

Yep me as well. Stuff like compost I underestimated, I apparently use a lot of the stuff this time of year and couldn't plant the way I wanted to.

I'm ignoring the goady prepper posts. Sometimes people are just dim when they can't grasp something so clear.

Like the ones who still think council houses are free

I think subsequent lockdowns will be much easier to get hold of things. Shops will be more geared up for deliveries and click and collect.
A winter lockdown could be much harder though. Outdoor exercise will be more difficult so probably need to think about that. Good outdoor wear and things to do in the home. Might get a keyboard and teach the kids piano basics or buy a games console for Christmas presents etc

Surely people have learnt from this time that it’s not necessary to do anything different, unless you are vulnerable with no/little help. If supermarkets are still open there’s no need to strip the shelves!

Paint, to decorate would be my suggestion. It gives you something to do during Aut/winter.

Sellotape and xmas wrapping/cards.
Any small presents you can hide from kids, like stocking fillers.

Foods that you only buy at xmas that are available now with a long date.
Some biscuits/chocolates have long dates.
Jams and preservatives.

Get a new mattress. I can buy one at the moment and get it delivered fairly quickly but have no way of getting rid of the old one. No firms will dispose of and the local council has stopped bulk collection for the time being. So waiting for a while.
There must be a lot of people waiting for tips to reopen.

You are right, there’s still a number of people too thick to tell the difference between preppers and panic-buyers stripping the shelves.

*There must be a lot of people waiting for tips to reopen£

Yeah, someone just flytipped a settee and 2 mattresses in my street during the night. Fuckers

There was no issue with supply at all until all the so-called "preppers" decided to stock pile them!!

Not the preppers. The preppers were all at home not buying stuff and not taking up room in the supermarket and clearing the shelves.

I'm not a prepper but I usually keep about 4 week worth of food in stock.

I think next time I would make sure I had enough flour in, I let my stock run low and I was baking more than usual.

Hair dye, because the hairdressers would be closed again.
I'd get more toiletries this time, and more san pro, although we have been fine up to now.

I haven't been at all since shutdown but I'll be going to all the cheaper toiletry and household shops like B&M, Pound shops, Savers, Home Bargains etc. I miss these, even though some are still open I can't face them i case of lack of social distancing.

We are a hot spot here, atm so not going out at all.

Have more DIY tools/products around the house to ease the boredom. We haven't had any trouble getting food or toiletries so dont feel the need to stock up/panic buy on that, will just keep on top of it.

Our tips are open, they did close but opened on Sunday, of all days.
Check your council website, yours may have opened again. We are in Greater Manchester.

I'm planning on buying a couple of birthday/Christmas presents a month and storing them. I do this anyway but was caught out for Easter gifts and I didn't like it so it's strengthened my resolve to do this.

I'm a low level prepper anyway so had lots of pasta and stuff (was surprised that a lot of people didn't know you could freeze fresh pasta) and jars which I rotate, so will keep doing that.

We're planning on/are sorting out my parents house so that if there is a second lock down then we can all move in together comfortably.

We’re all crafters here, in different media so we’ll just make stuff throughout the winter and enjoy the time we have for textiles, enamelling, woodwork, painting, carving, music etc. I’ve got some tapestry and quilting plans.
Likewise, as we’re an all-adult household, the stresses are different. It’s working well so far.

I lived through war and post war rationing where there was not a chance in hell of prepping because it started when stocks were short and went on for years. I'm really interested in reading how younger people are dealing with stuff. Shows that there are not really as many differences among the generations as we sometimes think.

Sanitary towels
Meds
Painkillers
Paint and a brush
Picture hooks
Antibac spray
Compost and plant pots
Fabric for sewing
Coffee pods

Moving house. I do not wanna be stuck with 3 kids in a 2 bed house again. Fortunately we just sent the solicitor the paperwork for our new place.

Nothing

Jesus Christ.

STILL people can't get their heads around the difference between 'preppers' and 'stockpilers'.

Practical stuff like uptodate dental appointments, smear test.

And a spare pair of glasses for all the glasses wearers in our family. DH stepped on his early on in lockdown and is having to wear his prescription sunglasses all the time!

Nobody needs to be prepping or panic buying! Never once have I not gotten food or anything that I needed during the lockdown ! The only thing hard to get was flour - but I got some after q few days - it seems to be back now anyway!

I think subsequent lockdowns will be much easier to get hold of things. Shops will be more geared up for deliveries and click and collect.

Trouble is that shops no longer have large stock rooms due to the "just in time" model of the supply chain and warehouses are more of a transit hub where deliveries come in, split up, and distributed almost same day.

It's why we ran out of toilet roll so quickly, why we don't have PPE for the care workers, etc.

Doesn't matter how many delivery slots or click & collect pickers you have if the stock can't be got to the shops quick enough to replenish what's being sold.

There'll have to be a massive change to just in time delivery models and the entire logistics industry to avoid shortages next time around. I don't think that's possible in just a few months. Shops can't move to bigger premises or extend to build stock rooms so the whole supply chain will be relying on bigger warehouses for storage and that doesn't happen quickly, especially when that capacity won't be needed once we have a vaccination of Covid mutates to be harmless.

There was a time when shops had huge storerooms. Your typical High Street supermarket in the 70s (my father was a manager of Redmans) had a basement and 1 or 2 floors above, all the same size as the shop floor itself, usually full of goods. That was because they'd usually only get a delivery from each supplier once a week or even maybe less than that. Now most huge supermarkets have little more than a corridor at the back next to the loading bay where they can barely fit a lorry full and that needs moving to the shop floor before more lorries can be unloaded.

The entire just in time model is flawed when it comes to panic buying and times of exceptional demand.

happydays00. Ffs, how many times do you need to be told it’s not the fault of preppers? Some people are a bit dim (hint; not anyone prepping....)

Practical stuff like uptodate dental appointments, smear test.

Trouble is the demand will be huge, so there'll be very long waiting lists, and the next lock down might happen before everyone has been seen.

I think the NHS etc are going to have to massively ramp up the number of slots etc to try to get through as much as the backlog as possible before the second closure.

Gosh I wish we only had Brexit to worry about