Just in Case (3 page)

CLOSET RECLAMATION: BEFORE AND AFTER

The benefit of getting organized is that it creates both space and order. You’ll be able to fill your home with those things that you really love or actually use, while at the same time making the best use of all the storage space available in your house.

CLEARING OUT: PURGING OLD STORAGE

Purging your home of the stuff you don’t want or don’t use will give you the space you’ll need for the equipment and goods that will sustain your family in a time of crisis. Tackle one room or space at a time. Pull everything out of the cabinets, drawers, and closets. Pay special attention to stored clothing, books, toys, sports equipment, and small electric gadgets and appliances, especially broken ones waiting to be fixed (someday). Be ruthless! If you haven’t used it, fixed it, worn it, read it, or played with it in the last year, you probably don’t really want it or need it. It’s junk! Get rid of it!

When I began looking for storage space, I found that by eliminating our stock of rusty bicycles, twenty-year-old skis and boots, and boxes of baby clothes (the baby was four!), I picked up enough space to stock a two-month supply of canned fruits and vegetables, one hundred pounds of wheat, and some camping gear. I also discovered places we were wasting space and money every day. While organizing the bathroom I found six almost-but-not-quite-empty bottles of shampoo, three half-used tubes of toothpaste, and an embarrassment of outdated bath salts and lotions. Tossing that stuff out and organizing what I actually used freed up enough space to store all of our daily needs plus a well-stocked first-aid kit.

We made a new family rule: No one may open a new bottle or box of anything until the old one has been used up and the container has been discarded or recycled. This one commitment freed up more space than you might imagine.

As you clear out and organize your storage, pay special attention to the kitchen. It is truly the heart of the home and command central in a crisis. A well-stocked kitchen can mean the difference between comfort and misery, abundance and want. You want as much of your stored food to stay in the kitchen as you can. Rotating your stock, the key to reducing waste, is much harder if everything is in a difficult-to-access space.

KEEP FOOD WHERE YOU’LL USE IT

All too often, emergency food supplies are stored in out-of-the-way places like attics and sheds. Unless you are really diligent, it will lie there, forgotten, until it becomes, at best, fodder for the compost heap or, at worst, mouse McDonald’s. It is far better to dedicate space for food storage in the living area of your home whenever possible and to restrict inconvenient spaces for items that you seldom use or that don’t need to be rotated. Even odd places, like under beds and behind furniture, will often be better used than more traditional spots that you don’t get to very often, such as cabinets in the back of the garage. For example, I purchased bed risers (for less than ten dollars each) that elevate my bed by six inches, and that under-bed storage has turned out to be both easy to use and surprisingly spacious.

RISERS UNDER A BED

Most kitchens are a breeding ground for useless stuff. I got rid of three fondue pots that had never been out of the boxes they came in and found space for eighteen quarts of spaghetti sauce. Donating an old high chair to our community house left a corner of the kitchen empty that was just right for a freestanding corner cupboard that now holds all of our pickled vegetables. Purging my cookbook collection (it was out of control) left me with all of the cookbooks I really use and two bare cabinet shelves that now hold a threemonth supply of bulk peanut butter. Do you use that cappuccino machine, the pasta maker, and the bread machine? If you do, great! Use and enjoy. If they are just taking up valuable kitchen real estate, consider donating them to a thrift store, selling them at a tag sale, or giving them to a friend. If your resolve starts to crumble when you think of the wasted money, jut think about how many boxes of pasta you could store in your newly acquired space.

I can hear the question now: “Won’t I be glad I kept the [fill in the blank] in an emergency? After all, our grandparents never threw anything out. You never know what might come in handy.” I can pretty much promise that twenty-five used margarine tubs and the three-foot stack of outdated
Reader’s Digests
you got from your mother-in-law will not be as handy as a case of canned beans.

Beware the lure of the “antique mystique.” Just because something worked in the last century doesn’t necessarily make it the best bet for an emergency. For example, it is better to invest in a new, well-engineered pressure cooker than to waste time and energy on an old model of questionable safety and efficiency, no matter how much your grandmother loved it.

THINKING AHEAD: CREATING NEW STORAGE

While you are purging and organizing, be on the lookout for space where an extra cabinet or cupboard might fit. Bruce hung a cabinet over the freezer in our mudroom, and now I have enough space for a six-month supply of jam. Not everyone is fortunate enough to have a pantry, but a small closet can be converted into one with the addition of inexpensive shelving. As I type this, I am eyeing a corner of the kitchen that is occupied by a very tall, very ugly plant and picturing a freestanding, antique cupboard that would be just right for storing my jars of dried fruits and vegetables. Hmmmm.

CELLAR PANTRY

EVALUATING HOME SAFETY

While you’re assessing storage possibilities and your family’s needs, take a look at your home from the standpoint of safety. Are there obvious hazards such as blocked doorways or broken steps that need to be repaired? Have you planned two means of egress from each room? Does everyone know your evacuation plan? Do you have a fire extinguisher on each floor of the home, and one in the kitchen? If you have a home shelter, such as a safe room or tornado shelter, is it secure and easy to get to?

If there are any obstacles to quick action and secure refuge in your home, take care of them as soon as possible.

Most garages, cellars, and attics are treasure troves of untapped space. Although the temperature extremes and moisture problems in these locations may make them unsuitable for the storage of some foods, they can work well for dry goods like toilet paper and soap. The petroleum and exhaust fumes in many garages make it the wrong place to store water but just right for your lanterns, fuel, and canning supplies.

Look hard at recreational spaces like dens, spare bedrooms, and family rooms. Can some portion of that space be converted to storage? A blank wall along one end can provide room for simple shelving. It’s a question of priorities. Is a six-foot length of wall space better devoted to collectible beer steins or powdered milk? If the aesthetics bother you, curtains can partition off a wall of shelves and doors can be added to bookcases.

ASSESSING NEEDS

W
HILE YOU ARE ORGANIZING
your space you can also be looking at your assets and assessing your needs. What supplies does your family need? How much food and water should you keep on hand? What equipment might you need to keep your family comfortable in an emergency? What sort of skills would you like to learn in order to feel confident in your ability to handle a crisis?

To answer these questions, you must begin by looking at the crises your family and community are most vulnerable to. Plans for evacuation must be foremost if you live in hurricane territory. If you live in an area of major winter storms, priority must be given to emergency heating and cooking supplies. A flu pandemic or power grid failure could affect any of us, and drastically, since transportation of people and goods, communication, banking, medical care, and other societal systems all rely on electronic networks and databanks. Today, a computer virus is potentially more devastating than a biological virus.

THE PREPAREDNESS NOTEBOOK

The most valuable tool you can have for assessing your needs is a dedicated preparedness notebook. My notebook is a three-ring binder, divided into categories such as food, home systems (including lighting, heating, and cooking), first aid, car supplies, and evacuation kits. Each section contains a list of items my family needs; the lists make up an inventory of what I have on hand and what I need to locate. I also have a section dedicated to skills I want to have, such as canning food, CPR, and cutting firewood.

As you organize and clear out storage, you can take inventory of your own state of preparedness. Maybe you already have a couple of kerosene lanterns but you need to figure out how to bake bread without an electric oven. Perhaps you have a four-week supply of pasta but no pasta sauce. Beginning an inventory of such things in your preparedness notebook is the first step toward being prepared for a crisis.

THE PREPAREDNESS NOTEBOOK

SUPPLIES

As part of your assessment of your family’s needs, keep track of what your family eats. Keep a log of daily meals and snacks for a two-week period. This exercise will show you the foods and beverages that your family typically enjoys. There is no point in buying a case of pineapple, no matter how good the price, if everyone in the house hates pineapple. On the other hand, recognizing that your kids don’t consider the meal complete without potatoes means that it is worth the expense to purchase a supply of good-quality dehydrated potatoes.

Be sure to make note of any special dietary needs and plan for them. My youngest child requires a special formula, so I have made it a point to put aside a case every few weeks for the past year, and I now have a stockpile that can last several months.

Do the same for health-care products, soap and shampoo, and other nonfood supplies. (See page 41 for the basic essentials of these “other necessities” of life.) If you have a child in diapers, for example, you must have either a large supply of disposable diapers or a way to launder cloth ones.

HOW MUCH SHOULD YOU STORE?