Prepping goals for 2024?

[NoelleNameChange]

I am a beginner / wannabe prepper, so looking for inspiration!

My goals at the moment are:

1. Build up more pantry stock
2. get some wind up lanterns
3. install some raised beds in my garden to grow veg

Good start, but don't neglect the other things.

Such as you have plenty food but do you have a means to cook it?

I had my Scout group making solar powered lights in a jam jar before Christmas Not really bright enough as a work light, but enough to find your way around the house etc.

Thanks - I'll look into the things you've mentioned too!

I need to repack my grab bag. I need a new bag for it too at some point.

Just resorted grab bag as realised dc have grown. Will pop that in the car boot later.

Did a quick check today as am still off on the following

• torches with batteries in all bedrooms
• 6 pack of water bottles under the stairs
• fire lighters, woodpile and coal all sorted
• medical kits all checked, have a list of meds that have annoying gone out of date so need to replace.
• found wind up radio
• charged solar power charging packs and will put back in the window
• checked tin stash,need to refresh a whole load
• pet food stash is nil!!

Few other bits and pieces to review but feel a bit better for having had a bit of space to check everything.

Heard an interesting thing on the radio earlier about Margaret Thatcher (politics aside), that during the Brighton bombing she'd really struggled with trying to find her way out in the pitch black and forever after carried a mini torch in her handbag.

I need to set up new systems when I move into an apartment in the middle of the month.

DH and I had "the talk" as he's worried about me in the new city and the potential for trouble (there were riots in our city before Christmas but he's worried about terrorism stuff ...not entirely without cause but it's a modern EU capital). So I need to pack a grab bag properly but have talked through what should be in it.

Would he do one for himself?! Not on your life!

I have camping gear with me so have a 1 ring gas cooker to use on the balcony. I have a 10l water barrel. I have a hand powered washing machine. I have a solar panel and power bank.

I will need to restock pantry from scratch. I want to get a decent solar "generator" (large panel and quite large power bank). And I want to get using my exercise bike and get fit. I know I will need to do a big inventory and organising job as well.

I need to build my food store back up.. I also need to renew the First Aid kit. I'm not going overboard because I think the threat of power cuts is a lot less than this time last year. That was my main fear last year because I live in an all electric flat with no garden of my own.

Goals:
Repack grab bag. (Buy new bag?) Swap to rucksack?

Sort out spare food. (I stopped cooking for a year and a bit after mum died quite a bit went out of date)

Finish sorting paperwork.

Reassess home for fire safety.

Recharge power banks in car

MOT car. Car service.

Also renew first aid kits and top up and gather new supplies to the right place. Distribute the bulk buys between two cars and two houses.

I need to feed my tomato plants and start a new pot as this one is getting old. I need to buy some spring onions and start a new pot of those.

I need to weed my mum's garden and dig out the veg patch.

Actually my first goal for 2024 is to get furniture and move into an apartment (lease signed, goods arrive next week).

So today is a trip to IKEA to buy basic furniture and arrange for it to be delivered to the warehouse where my goods from home are currently stored. (Bed, dining table, couch, double wardrobe, storage racking).

Tomorrow I should get the keys from surveyor after a bank trip to arrange insurance and pay security deposit (1st month rent and charges paid). Surveyor will also give me contact details to set up electricity and water accounts.

If I have time tomorrow, or else Saturday, I will get a kettle, toaster, vacuum cleaner (need European plugs) and some extension cables. (And probably more adaptors for UK plugs).

I will move what's temporarily in my office at work on Saturday as well, and the airbed I brought from home (deflated in sitcase in hotel). So I can start to get that much in order.

I will probably get a basic grocery shop on Sunday while it's quiet.

I need to leave the hotel Monday morning so it's an airbed for 2 nights (although I have funds aside if I feel I need to go back until I get a proper bed).

I'm taking Wednesday and Thursday off - truck arrives Wednesday so I need to get everything checked first and initial furniture built, but then organise myself...all new systems will be needed for everyday organisation and the "what if's...?"

I’ve just stocked up on more tinned food and loads of bottled water.

this year I would really like to build raised beds and grow my own veg but honestly I’ve no idea where to start.

We all have a grab bag but have really no idea where we would go in the event that we really had too.

Medical/First aid training and kits upto date. Cars are both in good working order and always filled with fuel.

Any other suggestions?

Can I join? I'm partly prepping and partly trying to get more self-sufficient in general.

My goals:

1. Get our housing sorted. Renting ATM but looking to buy this year for better security and autonomy e.g. being able to turn the garden over to veg.
2. Audit my food stores and see what's left after all the times in 2023 that we opened a mylar bag of rice or used up a packet of pasta because we had run out.
3. Build up my stock of toothpaste and toothbrushes. I was reading a book about a society in a state of economic despair recently and realised a major oversight in my prepping is a long-term supply of toothpaste in case anything happens to the toothpaste supply.
4. Change my long-term stockpiled protein source for something that actually cooks better. I have several kg of moong dhal lentils and in the past they've always cooked up easily but I've opened a pack in December and tried cooking them twice in two different ways and I can't get them to soften at all.
5. Build up my offline library of books, CDs and DVDs for power cuts.
6. Organise my wool yarn store and ensure it's all stored in a way that will ensure long-term preservation.
7. Find a way to store my sewing patterns for long-term.

Can I suggest getting a large road atlas and marking;
a) known hazards moving out from your location in all directions (makes it easer to decided which direction to move if say there was a chemical spill and you know wind direction.
b) bottle necks to movement (both vehicle and foot).
c) useful places you could shelter, meet up at if separated etc.

So for example I live on the NE coast (moving east is out of the question). I am north of Newcastle, so if want to go south I have to head towards Hexham before I try to cross the Tyne. I have marked camping locations we have used in the past.

@K9medic2 actually that’s a fantastic suggestion. I think I have an upto date one stored away somewhere, I’ll try and get that done at the weekend. Thinking on it further, I would probably be able to go to my aunts Farm which isn’t that far away but secluded enough if required.

@K9medic2 This is great info. Following on from that, what's the best thing to do about 1:50,000 or 1:25,000 maps these days for walking-level detail of the local area? Are OS still being updated in the era of Google Maps? I have a little collection of OS but we're moving out of area soon and will need to start again. I found it very useful to know local streams, railway tunnels, rights of way, woodland etc.

Google maps have a place, but i still rely on paper maps and my Suunto compass once i step of the road.

I do pay OS so i can print maps off (A4 and A3). Its worth it because i run a Scout group. But it also means i can print maps i want, so northeast say, and laminate them.

@K9medic2 Oh, thanks, I didn't know their subscription let you do that! It might work out cheaper than buying more maps, as I always seem to want the bit where one map (or more) ends and another begins!

Good progress on initial moves - have my keys and managed to get almost all the furniture I wanted sent to the removal company warehouse (missing 1 seating/bed section of the couch but can get that in a week or 2 - there is another seating part already there).

Today is about moving things from my office and trying to get cleaning things - and tomorrow will be a big cleaning day (shops and office all closed here on Sundays).

Additional note to self: do not post about calmly prepping on any other boards than this. People really do react strangely to the notion that some people might want to be sure their family have warmth, food, light and medicine just in case something happens.

Its not that you are prepping, but more you plant a seed of doubt in their comfortable thought pattern that the world, or rather, their part of the world is safe and only other people have to cope with disasters, after why do they tax if its not to cover "they" coming to save them.

It’s funny that. I’m not in the UK and our Government has told us that it’s not that we should prep, we have a responsibility to prep. So if you don’t you are rather looked upon by some people as a bit of a lazy user. Like you expect someone else to help you out. It’s not just about war, it’s about cyber attacks and everything else as well.

Thanks for the sanity check both. I work with a bunch of swiss colleagues and they tell me its a requirement to have a place to shelter, water, food and candles etc. They think we're a bit naive thinking 'someone' will turn up with these items if something happens. Strange the difference isn't it?

@Cellotapedispenser it’s the same where I am. I know exactly where all my nearest shelters are, my neigbour down the road has one. It’s common sense, and we’ve been told that we will be on our own so it’s an requirement not to take unnecessary resources just because you couldn’t be bothered to prepare yourself.

Couldn’t agree more with you on this, I never tell anyone now because they think “crazy”

My stocks kept us going through the first lockdown and we didn’t need to venture out to shops much at all. I was glad of my preparations.

on a side note, I’ve been thinking about starting a collection of knives so that I can begin wood carving. They might also be useful for when we go mushroom “hunting” which is basically me and the kids in the woods identifying fungi.

Other countries have prepping documents like this from Sweden rib.msb.se/filer/pdf/30307.pdf

Looking at that, an issue I have is how I would heat water/food if there was no electricity. I live in a flat, all electric. I cannot store gas cylinder in the flat. I do wonder if I could hide a box somewhere in the grounds and have a small gas burner and supplies in that.
Are there any solid fuel burners that may be safer to store than gas?