Getting into prepping can seem like a daunting and difficult task. It doesn’t have to be. Just start small and build up your kit and knowledge slowly. Take the task one step at a time until you have a reliable arsenal at your disposal.

When you first get started, don’t buy into the idea you “have to” buy certain products. Really, prepping is about unlimited freedom to prepare based on your own needs. You need to find things specific to your own situation. Always research what you need and buy accordingly. That’s why the most important part of all of this is…

Making an Overall Emergency Prepping Plan

For your first plan, start basic. Make a plan to last 7 days in the event of an emergency. Consider a bunch of different alternates that could happen that you want to be prepared for. For ideas, check out my article here.

You’re going to want to make a basic outline. Get some ideas of what you’ll do in any event. Have your plan detail a couple of these alternatives.

As an example: My plan includes one outline on how I’ll bug out if the government falls, nuclear strike, etc. I detail what I’ll take with, who, where, and how. Then I have a separate plan on boarding up and staying at my place for 30 days (For a beginner, start with 7). This is the best way to have an outline and to know exactly what to do if anything happens.

It’s not so much that you carry these around in the event of a crisis, but that you have this plan in place and you can better memorize/reference it as needed.

The Necessities of Prepping

Food – Water – Medicine

Every single prepping enthusiast knows these 3 main factors. As you begin in your journey to prepping, you need to focus on these 3 first. Include in your plans ways to get food, water, and medicine in the case of emergency. And start stockpiling these for if you decide to board up in your home.

I recommend having a good amount (years’ worth) of medicine, 1 gallon per person per day of water, and 1.5k calories of food a day per person. These are relatively inexpensive (besides some like medicine), and easy to get, especially for only a 7 day plan.

Self Defense Equipment

This one is pretty self explanatory. Have a firearm (or preferably firearm(s)) ready. Also, grab yourself a superb knife. I recommended my favorite one here.

KNOW HOW TO USE YOUR SELF DEFENSE TOOLS. Don’t buy a gun and leave it in your closet for five years. Get out there and practice. If you have a knife or bat, look up videos on YouTube of how to use them efficiently.

Remember to always have them geared up and maintained. That way, they are ready to go when you are. Clean out your guns regularly and ensure you sharpen your knife as the months go by.

Physical Conditioning

Make sure you’re in peak physical shape or working toward it as part of your prepping plan. It will be a lot harder for you to survive, especially while bugging out, if you aren’t in shape.

I like to do weightlifting. But I’ve taken up running to improve my cardio and improve my endurance as per my prepping outline. That way, I’ll be able to travel better on foot if the situation arises where I have to.

I also try to go camping/hiking often. It provides a great workout and often helps adapt you to a potential living situation in-case you have to bug out. It would be hell trying to survive out in the woods without prior practice (And plenty of trial and error).

Learn Basic Skills

For prepping, you need to have some specific skills to truly be prepared. The top 3 are hunting, camping, and fishing.

Hunting and fishing are pretty self-explanatory. We need to survive on our own if the government falls, so you’ll need to be able to get your own food. The easiest way to do this is through fishing, hunting, or trapping. So having a good grasp on these, with plenty of practice under your belt, would absolutely be a key to your survival.

Camping is one rarely discussed, but if you bug out, you may spend a lot of days involuntarily camping. Knowing how to start a fire, setup camp, find a secure location, avoid bugs, and generally survive the wilderness is a great skill to add to your prepping arsenal.

A few other beneficial skills to consider are the following: medical procedures, knitting/stitching, automotive work, water purification, food cleansing and cooking, skinning, and similar.

Bug-Out Specific

While planning your outline, include some bug-out specific prepping guidelines.

Emergency Routes – Have an emergency route in mind that you can travel on. Make one you take by foot and one by vehicle. It’s one idea to have a location, but the more important task is figuring out how you’re going to get there.

Contacts – Find ways to contact the people you need to contact. Whether you hope phones work, internet, or ham radios, doesn’t matter. Just know how you’ll contact others if services fall.

Whose Joining You? – Make sure your outline details who and who is not coming with on your bug-out journey. If you have a family, it will be much more imperative to have adequate food storage on your trip than if you’re going solo. When planning your prepping outline, plan for how many individuals are joining you. And also consider their age, it’s a lot harder to bug out with 3 small children than 1 other adult. Plan accordingly.

Where Are You Going? – Detail a location in your outline. At least one, I’d recommend 3. This way, if you find out the first 1 isn’t going to work you have some backup places to go. Obviously, use common sense when picking these. If society starts to fall, don’t plan to go to Southside Chicago. It won’t be in your best interest (Trust me, I lived there, I wouldn’t recommend going even now). Plan somewhere that the local population won’t immediately hate you, or a location where there aren’t many people around.

Conclusion

As we mentioned above, prepping can seem like a daunting task. But prepping can actually be really easy and cheap if you do it right!

Start slow, build up just a 7 day plan and go from there. Start learning the necessary prepping skills, have a stockpile of necessary goods, and know what to do in a variety of circumstances.

If you do all these, you’ll have a better chance at survival than 99% of the current population.