Feeling anxious… want to prepare

[Needanewnamey]

I am terrified of the state of the world at the moment. I have never been a “prepper “ but now I feel I need to do something to prepare to keep my family safe. What are the essentials I need to think about?

Prepping is a very big rabbit hole.
Realistically there is little you can really do to ‘keep your family safe’ if it all goes horribly wrong.
There are some things you can do to make sure your house is better prepared for a short term issue.
Have a stock of shelf stable food.
Have a stock of bottled water or a system for purifying water.
Have a plan for how you would cook if the gas or electricity goes down.
Have a plan for how you would heat at least part of your home if needed.
How would you wash yourself?
Have power banks that are always charged.
Have torches.
Batteries
Matches and candles.
Have a fully functioning first aid kit.
Get first aid trained and training in more useful skills of you’re really into it.

You can do a basic water, food, light and heat prep fairly easily, and I think everyone should have this level of preparedness if they are able. What you do in addition to that depends on what the risks are where you live.

I think a good place to start is to identify exactly what you are prepping for and take it from there. Is it civil unrest, power outages, flooding, epidemics, cyber attacks? or do you just want to be able to cope well at home if you are snowed in for a couple of days?

Then identify what you and your family's vulnerabilities are, do you need medication, or a really good snow shovel? Do you need a van to evacuate the family in? do you have maps and a good local knowledge of alternative routes?

Prepping can mean anything from having a few tins in and a couple of candles, to a fully equipped bunker that you could live in for years.

Thank you! I definitely think I need to get some canned foods and bottles of water. Candles and matches I can do, too. Not sure about heating though 🤔 Medications too would need to be considered.

I’m in an area that doesn’t get much snow, so not so worried about that. I’m more worried about civil unrest and warfare.

Maybe it would also be an idea to have some cash?

Start with how you can survive 3 days without power. So food, water, staying warm, light, activities (board games and puzzles are useful).

Then consider longer periods, how would you do washing, how would you cope without a functioning toilet (sewers backed up so grey water down the loo is no longer an option).

I live in a flat, all electric, so no gas or wood burner. How to heat is a big issue.

In the event of civil unrest you’re looking at how you can shelter in place at your home. So food and water a priority. Alongside energy needs.
In the event of actual warfare I’m not entirely sure that many of us could do all that much. You’re either evacuated- so that’s thinking about being prepared to leave your home in a hurry- look up bug out bags on YouTube. Or you’re sheltering in place again!

Thank you for your helpful comments. What sort of food is best? Are there canned foods that you can eat without having to cook?

Most tinned foods can be eaten cold. Might not be that appetising. All tinned veg, beans, soups etc. things like corned beef and tuna can be eaten straight out the can.
UHT milk
oats
dried fruit
I am not a pepper but do Have some things in that just make me feel better. The chances of using them are slim and the chances of it actually making much difference in the eventually of societal collapse but it’s psychological!
I make sure there is always a decent food buffer in our house.

Tined items

Custard, rice pudding
Pineapple, orange, apple, strawberry, raspberry, cherry
Tined milk
Peas, carrots, mushrooms, potato
Beans, bakes beans, spaghetti
Tuna, salmon, spam, corn beef
Tined meats
Soups
Ravioli

Pies in tins (these would need to be cooked)

Thank you both for all your suggestions!

Cash would be useful in the event of a power cut or if the banking systems go down. In the event of civil unrest cash would be less useful and potentially items to barter would become more important, during warfare things could go back to rationing, but again bartering could work. As others have said, food, water and ways to filter it and a good first aid kit and medication supplies are worth having. A small stove or a barbeque for heating food or boiling water, hot water bottles for ways to warm people, old fashioned wool blankets are good but sought after and expensive in charity shops now. Have warm clothes and good footwear, water proofs. Batteries, torches, headlamps and candles or oil lamps for light. Do think about a first aid course and learn to read a map.

For me, prepping is all about risk. When we assess risk we are looking at two things: probability and severity. The probability of civil unrest is still really very low but the consequence is severe. As humans we tend to worry more about risks like those.

In reality, the things that are most likely to cause us problems are the high probability, lower consequence things. Bad weather. Banking apps not working. Power cuts. Boiler breaking down. Water getting cut off.

Maybe it would be helpful to approach your prepping by being prepared for the most likely things, rather than the scariest ones.

In addition to the fantastic advice above...

Think about reducing your spending and building up savings. At least 6 months income.

You are wanting to become more resilient

So consider:
first aid course.
A good first aid kit including tourniquet, CPR masks etc.

A good DIY tool kit and learning some of those skills.

Gardening and growing your own food.

Being able to preserve food both with a freezer and without power (pickles, bottling, dehydrating, salting?) supermarket stuff initially, lots of food lasts ages.

Both my mum and dad could catch and prep rabbits but didn't pass that skill on. (War time kids) Mum had ferrets as a kid. But learning about old country skills maybe? Or a forest school type thing? Whatever interests you.

Perhaps having a passport ready, or applying for a passport for any countries you are entitled to? (Would be useful for a lot of Americans and Ukrainians right now for example)

I have gone with most likely scenarios here:

fire (we've had four flat fires in our area in the last couple of years)

Illness and disability or ending up in hospital/A and E

Heat waves.

Car trouble.

No water

Power cuts

Cold (flat with only electricity)

Wind.

Weather becoming more variable and unreliable and extreme.

Unrest/crime (urban area)

We don't need to worry about flooding . If we flood most of the England will be flooded! We live on a hill in a second floor flat!

Food:

go with eat cold: tinned fish, meats, tinned fruit. Dried fruit packets, olives,pickled cabbage, beetroot, onions,sun-dried tomato in a jar. Seeds, nuts, chocolate

Just add boiling water:
Cous cous (add tinned beans/chick peas, spices, dried fruit,seeds) sachets of cous cous)
Cup soups
Mug shots
Noodles.
Pot noodles.

Just heat through:
Tinned curries and chillies or other meals with mixed in veg,
Baked beans
Custard, rice pudding
Soups
Tinned beans
Microwave rice
Jars of pasta sauce

Buy stuff you already use/like don't mind donating to a food bank when it is getting short dated.

i live in a place that suffers natural disasters somewhat regularly. We just had to be prepared for potentially a week without power or able to get out due to flooding. We have a small petrol generator which will run our water pump and fridge, and a gas stove which runs on gas bottles. Others in my area bought camping stoves with those gas canisters. I bought long life milk, and had plenty of pasta and stuff in the cupboard. I also had some torches. They recommended portable radio too but I didn’t bother as we don’t get radio signal anyway. But lots of people did lose internet, phone coverage and power. The flood warnings and the moving to higher ground messages came via text but obviously those people didn’t get them so would have only be able to hear it on the radio.

at the first sign of the disaster the shops were stripped bare. No toilet paper no milk ect. It was crazy. All generators were sold out. Petrol prices skyrocketed. It’s quite funny now Facebook marketplace is now flooded with generators that people didn’t need or only used a few days.

Here is a very useful list of how you can prepare.

rib.msb.se/filer/pdf/30874.pdf

If you are thinking about food and heating water, you may already have options you don’t think of:
BBQ - for grilling, cooking in tin foil packets or disposable tin foil trays, light weight pots (more solid pots also work but take more energy to get hot so you’ll burn more coals/gas).

so put a water-filled pot or kettle for the cooker (not the electric one) on the bbq while it’s heating up, and use all the space on the grill to cook things you want now, heat water and cook things to eat cold later (like using up the raw chicken to have with salad or in sandwiches later…). Just leave enough air getting to the coals/gas so it still burns. And once you’ve cooked what you want, especially if coals, put pots of water on for washing up, flannel washes and to fill kettles for later use.

A one ring camping stove also works well.

if you have sunny days, make a solar cooker with a bowl, tin foil and cling film.

And it’s easy to build a little campfire in the back garden (on a patio or patch of bare earth) if really needed

Totally get how you feel – I was never into prepping either, but the world lately really pushed me to start. I focused first on water, shelf-stable food, a way to cook without power, and some basic first aid – most of it easy to find at a good outdoor store. Once you’ve got those covered, you feel way less overwhelmed and more in control.

Totally get where you're coming from – a lot of people are feeling the same way lately. You don't need to go full-on prepper, but it’s smart to have the basics: a few days' worth of water and non-perishable food, a first aid kit with meds, a flashlight with spare batteries, a power bank, a hand-crank or battery-powered radio, basic tools, and some cash on hand. It also helps to have an emergency plan – where to meet loved ones and what to grab if you need to leave fast. It’s all about peace of mind, even if nothing happens.

That’s exactly it - just knowing you’ve got a few key things sorted already takes the edge off. I’ve been jotting down a rough “leave fast” checklist too, so I’m not second‑guessing under pressure. Might look into a more durable grab bag next - something low-profile but tough enough for weather and quick exits.
Out of curiosity, do you keep your kit packed and ready in one place, or do you spread things around the house a bit? Still figuring out what works best here.

In theory, a grab bag packed and ready to go.

I have a hospital bag that lives in the car. Stress tested it by living 3 days out of it with a relative in hospital.

Also got my holiday bag by the door with meds, I am looking at investing in a more user friendly easier to carry bag.

Multiple redundancies is the latest task.