September is National Preparedness Month. How has the month nearly ended without me bring it up?!?!
With the job incident and being a part-time employee for a while, I was actually working through the food supplies in my preps for a while. Having all that food on hand really reduced the grocery shopping bills.
But, that is not the real point of this post (just a nice little pat on the back!).
Last month I was reading one of the prepper blogs I follow, when I learned that the plastic used for many store-bought water containers has a tendency to spring holes. Um, so not good! I didn’t even know this was a potential thing!
While I have quite a bit of food stored, water has always been the weak link in my preps: It’s heavy and it’s bulky, two big negatives when living in a one bedroom condo with two adults and two cats!
So I went out and bought a big plastic container designed for holding items under the bed. My plan was to put the plastic water bottles in that, so that way if they did leak, the water wouldn’t find its way out via my downstairs neighbor’s ceiling. When I got home and transferred my three 2 1/2 gallon containers to the plastic bin, two of the three developed pinhole leaks. Now if I didn’t know that the containers could do that, would they have done that? Why else would the problem not have developed before? Inquiring minds want to know!
Frustrated, I brought those five gallons into the kitchen, and we used those instead of the brita until they ran out.
The remaining 2 1/2 gallon container went into the new plastic bin, along with some harder plastic 1 gallon containers I’d purchased along the way.
Last weekend I purchased two more water gallons, and when I dropped them into the plastic bin, I got a big splash. The third 2 1/2 gallon container had given up. There was more than an inch of standing water along the bottom of the container.
Wow! I was so glad I’d read that article and bought the bin. Otherwise that could have been a total of seven and a half gallons of water causing damage!
I’m now a firm believer in the heavier smaller containers. They would be easier to transport, they are less likely to fail, they cost the same per gallon, and they fit better in my bin. That is an all-around win.
Would you be prepared to survive 3-7 days without utilities or other public services? or Am I the only one that finds it suspicious that the water container didn’t leak until I discovered that they might?
Grown Up, Now What? 
I KNOW the universe is arranged so that inanimate objects can hear us thinking about them. That’s how they know when is the most inconvenient moment to break. BUT you foiled the water bottle breakout, clever you. You were PREPARED!
It would be so much harder to ‘prep’ in an apartment. I am not a survivalist, but the older I get, the more I like to be ready for anything. We are planning to get a rainwater tank soon, which should take care of the water issue. We always have food and toilet paper for a couple of weeks, after that we’ll be done for! But I do have lots of candles and batteries and a first aid kit.
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Since you agree that inanimate objects can tell when we are thinking about them, that means I’m not paranoid! Thanks!!
Like you, when I was younger, I really didn’t feel the need to be ready for everything. While I was always careful with my money, I was so woefully unprepared for many things. I like to think my life experience is serving me well, and I do what I can to make life easier on my future self.
Candles, batteries and first aid kits are definitely a must! Black outs happen, why not be comfortable and in the light when they do?
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Wait, store bought water containers can spring holes? I didn’t know that. That wouldn’t make them ideal for long-term water storage.
I’m not prepared at all. If the world goes under, I’m probably going under with it. I could probably last 3-7 days without utilities, but that is only because I’ve already done some extreme things in my time and I think I could probably find some way to get by. Anything longer than that and I’m not so sure. Maybe I should look into that just in case.
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I was shocked by that, too. They definitely proved it true. It’s mainly the thinner plastic of the 2 1/2 gallon size that you need to watch out for evidently.
I started all this prepping after Southern California had the power and cell phone outage a couple years ago. I wasn’t ready. Now at least I have basic supplies on hand. Water is low, but food is good. I also have a solar/crank/battery radio which is cool. I feel better knowing I’d at least be able to get some news without having to go down and sit in my car.
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The idea of prepping for disaster makes me nervous. We have water, but that’s about it, and definitely not for 7 days. If the world ever comes to an end I will be standing in my backyard, arms to the sky, yelling, “TAKE ME, LORD!!”
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The idea used to make me anxious until we had our Southern California black out. That made it easier for me to get started. “What would have made me more comfortable?” That was a simple answer: a battery powered fan, and some easy to prepare food. That’s where I started. It was easy and non-threatening.
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