Prepper Recon

Sponsored Post-What to Hoard for When It Hits the Fan

If you have decided that it is high time for you to start saving up for the end of the world and the coming apocalypse, congratulations are in order. You are joining a very exclusive club of preppers the world over.

When you start preparing for this eventuality, you may be inclined to buy gold and silver to barter with when it all goes to hell. This is actually a great idea, but there are plenty of other thinks that you can stock up on. The list can range into the thousands, and nobody can afford to buy that many items, much less find storage space for them.

To avoid getting lost in the enormous list of things to store, you can try going back to the bare essentials for survival. This way you can make sure that the checklist of basic survival and barter items are ticked off.

After this is done, you can dedicate your time to stockpiling the non-essentials. Here is a list of some items you should give priority to, after you have gone through the basics such as non-perishable food, water filters and a couple of weapons and ammo.

The basics of bartering

Not sure what it means to barter? The barter/bartering system is actually quite easy to understand. It involves the purchase of particular items or goods / services from another person without using money. Instead, you exchange the good or service that you want with one that you are offering of similar value.

A great example, if you were to have many crops in your garden and your neighbor has a ton of chickens in theirs, you could trade some tomatoes for some eggs every morning. Money wouldn’t be changing hands but the goods would. This is a prime example of the barter system in action.

Below are three things you might not think about when saving up things to barter.

Non-Perishable Food

Canned food is a good example of this. Any food items that can be kept for years without an expiry date fall into this category too. You need to make sure that you have the right items to help you get through the experience in one piece. Make sure that you also stack a can opener or two in there. The last thing you want is to be surrounded by cans of food without a way to open them up.

Soap

Speaking of disinfectant, soap is going to be incredibly useful when the world goes up in flames. It is integral to basic personal hygiene. In addition to smelling like a skunk, you are going to be more vulnerable to infection and disease if you aren’t cleaning yourself properly.

Remember that there isn’t going to be any new medicine coming in, which means that you are going to have to ration all that Tylenol and Aspirin for a real emergency. When going out and buying that soap, get something that is anti-germ such as Lysol or Dettol.

Can opener

You need to have this in your stockpile at all costs. If you don’t, you are basically going to be stuck in a bunker surrounded by canned foods, fruits and meat, without a way to open them up and eat.

Starving to death in a bunker full of food is tragically romantic, but you aren’t Shakespeare, so get yourself a good quality can opener immediately.

You don’t want something cheap that will rust and break in no time. Think about getting more than one, and make sure that they are stainless steel and of a good brand.

Of course, there are plenty of other items to stock up on. These are just three out of a thousand that should probably be higher on your list than the rest. Have fun and stay prepared!