Prepping in an inner city flat or tiny terrace house.

[BlackeyedSusan]

What can we do in limited space?
Especially on a tiny budget?
Or with health issues?

I live in an urban two bed flat, which, being purpose built 60 years ago has a decent amount of storage, but there are three of us living here and we have a lot of crap stuff. I only have west facing windows so it can get hot in summer but lovely and warm in winter.

I have access to a rented garage which is in the block adjacent to the flats but the car has to go in it every night.

The kids' dad lives in a small urban terrace with a small yard.

I thought it would be interesting to see what we have done or can do to prep for urban living or if there is anything specific for living in a flat or town.

Apart from an enormous amount of crap: in the garage I keep:

Two disposable BBQs a BBQ stand and a bag of charcoal. (Bought discounted at the end of summer)

A bag of smart price cat litter for ice/ temporary toilet.

Bags of cheap salt for scattering outside the garage in winter as it is shady and it's too easy to go arse over tits.

Car oil and screen wash.

Winter bag:blankets and thick Aldi ski gloves for the car boot.

A shopping trolley with seat, a folding camping stool and folding camping chair.

Some chopped up sticks for the Kelly kettle.

Assorted DIY part used paints etc.

Compost (commercial)

I would be interested to know this we live in a flat above a shop - its not that small we have 4 bedrooms plus one of the shop spaces that my husband has been working from home from in since covid BUT there are 8 of us here so space is used up really. We have only a tiny amount of outside space enough for a chair and a few pots thats it.

I've been a secret admirer of the website for some considerable time and I am also a male of the species (not that this has any real relevance). I have been actively prepping, on an off, since before the time of Y2K (does anyone actually even remember that?). I live in an urban environment here in the UK. My best advice I could give regarding this particular subject is invest some time and energy into learning how to forage. There is a vast untapped wealth of edible plants within an urban environment and, whilst this may not be an immediate requirement, having knowledge and the ability to determine the difference between a chestnut and a conker, for example, may in time provide you with a valuable resource that you can take full advantage of.

Small yard:
We are attempting to grow raspberries in a pot.

We have been successful with runner beans in pots.

We invested in a compost bin (£30) we tried a smaller compost bag but it fell over a lot but has made compost but took ages. It got eaten by rats as well and did not have enough capacity. Also the bottom was closed so not many worms to get in. You can compost on slabs but you need a layer of compost or soil in the bottom.

Storage in a flat:under/ on top of /,behind furniture eg:
Behind the sofa.
Under the bed:
Behind the books on a bookshelf.
Behind kitchen kick boards)
(Ideas taken from Brexit threads years ago)

I need to get rid of a lot of crap to make room for storage though!

I need to update the fire or flood plan. Repack the grab bag. Store precious photos etc low in the room.

The City Prepping channel on YouTube has a few vids on prepping when you live in an apartment. Search "city prepping" and "apartment"

excellent I will look it up.

I got too grumpy watching the country side one as it is an impossible dream. and annoying.

Sorry Blackeyed, country life does look idyllic but not if it's completely unobtainable.

City prepper is another good one - he's US based and a bit gloomy but quite practical. (A lot less gloomy than Canadian Prepper...where everything has already fallen apart in his eyes).

Do you have any wall space outdoors? I grow hanging baskets of bush type cherry tomatoes (tumbler or Tom Thumb are good varieties). Or some pots on a stand with shelves for herbs and salad leaves and strawberries - they can stack as none get too tall. I have seen trailing cucumber and courgette and dwarf peas that might also work on window ledges/shelves in pots.

nah, it's fine. It just triggers a sore spot.

we don't own the walls or fences as ex's house is rented and mine is a flat. stands do not work with the kids disabilities. but both are great ideas for small spaces. It's all about thinking differently about your space.

I have filled a grape container with compost, it is now standing in a mushroom container and at some point i will experiment with growing salad leaves on the windowsil. It might be too hot for them. it might work later in the year.

my main thing should be getting rid of the crap we do not want and making room for useful stuff and storing it properly.

@Allthesocksintheworld

You may have more space than you think, as in you probably have to be well organised and think ahead and probably have got a lot of stuff already for the more likely, less end of the world stuff... which you probably could not do much about anyway.

EG: a well stocked medicine cabinet and decent first aid kit.
between you you probably have spare chargers, and more than one phone possibly on different networks.
DIY tools to mend stuff.

some preps are tiny and cheapish: eg water purifying tablets

some preps are knowledge/skills based.

some preps are relationship based, building a support network with friends neighbours, knowing who you can trust and who you can trade skills and resources with. (having a live in bloke who I hope would be useful/practrical/emotional support )

what are the likely issues you could have?
house/shop fire, flooding? (from below and above, such as leaks in roof and pipes) illness, covid isolation. (if you are feeling shit you are not going to want to go to the chemist for paracetamol.) weather and climate: such as heat waves keeping cool and keeping warm in winter, price rises, supply chain disruption industrial action, (extra bin bags in case the bin workers go on strike?) accident

Things that have happened to us/locally/next town/city (basically our county) since I have lived here which may have caused more significant problems:

gas leaks and a big gas explosion (there but for the grace of God, and a neighbours son breaking into a flat and turning the gas off, go our whole block)
flat fires
arson attack
ww2 bomb and needing to evacuate
car accident/car repairs
bin strikes,
covid
water leaks turning the water off
snow (beast from the east and that really cold snap of down to -12 about 12 years ago)
lots of heat waves
localised flooding due to rainstorms.
accidents (you do not want to be sat in a and e with no money and no food and no entertainment for 6-12 hours)
road closures
break ins
disability
aging,
white goods breaking/out of action
leaking pipe
powerrcuts. (big chunks of England went off while we were going on holiday)
food "shortages" due to covid and other supply chain issues
price rises
fuel crises
rail strikes
ambulance service going into near meltdown.
breaking down in car

Bellini had moorland fires near her. (plus several of the above)

There are loads of things you can prep for so that these things are easier to deal with or life is more comfortable.

Things that have happened here in past five years (apart from the moorland fires)
3 day long power cut in winter
Snowed in - regular occurrence here in suburbs
Obviously the pandemic
Mains water interrupted
Ill health
Petrol supply shortage

What happened with the three day power cut. How did you manage?
@bellinisurge

Luckily we have a wood burning stove and our hob is gas. Obviously we lost everything in the freezer. We cooked what we could from it on the hob. We also have wool duvets (Baavet) so we were warm enough in bed.
For lighting we used head torches facing inwards on bottles of water.
I've since got some solar powered garden lamps from Aldi. Not brilliant but they would be a bit of extra light without draining batteries if we had it again.

A small house may do better but cooking in a flat with no balcony is trickier.

It would have to be outside somewhere. (BBQ or Kelly kettle)

The flat is quite warm so warm enough, but no hot water.

Being prepped with a grab bag for a rest centre or staying with relatives might be the way to go.