29 Items You Need To Be Prepared For Survival

I’m sharing 29 items you need to be prepared for survival, at the very least. Here’s the deal, this is just a start and you may or may not have any of this, or you may have a whole lot more in your preparedness preps. I don’t know about you, but the world is getting crazier each day.

I teach classes about food storage and emergency preparedness to churches, subdivisions, businesses, and other groups and I get booked up pretty quick. When I go teach a class, if 20 or 300 people attend and I get just one person to “get it”, I have done my job.

I really feel God has directed me to teach the world one family at a time to be prepared for the unexpected. The picture above is an empty grocery store I have seen one similar to it after a disaster, the government may take weeks, months or more to help us. Please plan on taking care of your family, no one else will.

It’s getting harder and harder for me to drag my emergency preparedness stuff to show people at the classes I teach. I hired a friend to take professional pictures of many of my critical preparedness and storage items, and she had them mounted on 18-inch by 24-inch sturdy foam boards. I’m going to show you some of the pictures and talk about each one. If you can use this information to teach others, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. So let’s get started.

29 Items I Recommend:

1. Water

In the picture above from left to right, I have the following items.

2. Blue Cans:

The best-tasting water ever, ready to drink right out of the can, and can be stored up to 145 degrees, they are engineered to last 50 years, expensive but worth it.

3. 30-Year Cans of Water:

The water lasts 30 years, and they taste like a can.

4. Lead-Free Hose to Fill Water Storage Containers:

An absolute must if you are filling your 55-gallon or barrels or any water container you need to fill outside.

5. Big Berkey:

This one purifies the water, I recommend the black filters. I quote Big Berkey Water Filter:

“Max Filtration Flow Rate:

• Configured with 2 Black Berkey Purification Elements, the Big Berkey system can purify up to 3.5 Gallons per hour.
• Configured with 4 Black Berkey Purification Elements, the Big Berkey system can purify up to 7 Gallons per hour.”

6. WaterBricks 3.5-gallons:

They weigh approximately 26-27 pounds each depending on how full you fill them with water. I use 1/2 teaspoon of Water Preserver for this size container. You can use the water to drink or for the preparation of food. Ten WaterBricks equals 35 gallons of water.

7. WaterBricks 1.6-gallons:

They weigh approximately 12-13 pounds each depending on how full you fill them. They come with a handle and I add 1/4 teaspoon of Water Preserver to this size. These can also be stacked up to four feet high. 1.6-gallon WaterBrick

8. WaterBrick spigot:

It works great for dispensing water from the WaterBricks. WaterBrick Spigot

9. Water Preserver:

I prefer this brand because it’s recommended by the EPA and I only have to rotate my water every 5 years instead of six months if bleach is what I’d used. Water Preserver

10. Berkey Sports Water Bottles:

I gave every family member one of these for Christmas one year. Berkey Sports bottles

I quote from Amazon/Berkey:

• Filters can be replaced
• Can be refilled up to 640 times using a municipal water source
• Reduces harmful microscopic pathogens: Cryptosporidium, Giardia, E-coli 99.99999% and other pathogenic bacteria
• Unpleasant taste and odors, cloudiness, silt, sediment and chlorine End of quote.

11. Food

In the picture above I have the following items to show people they do not have to have all canned food or just #10 cans.

12. Can opener:

This is certainly a must-have item in order to open any cans of food.or some water cans.

13. Canned Meat:

This one is pretty easy, buy some cans of chicken and cooked hamburger. Remember, tuna goes mushy, so be careful about stocking up too many cans of tuna.

14. Small jars of Mayonnaise:

I buy small jars of mayo and Miracle Whip since we only have two people living in our home, but also because I can use up small jars after a disaster by making sandwiches on bread or crackers for neighbors.

15. Crackers:

If you don’t want to make bread you can certainly buy crackers to spread a meat mixture or peanut butter and jam on them. Pretend like you are at Costco and giving out samples, people will love it!

16. Pancake Mix:

I love to make pancake mix from scratch, but I also love to buy big bags of pancake mix where you just add water. If we have a disaster, I will need to be prepared to cook breakfast for many people. I will need the “just add water” kind.

17. Syrup:

I love syrup, yes it has high fructose sugar, but after a disaster, we will need to fill our bellies. Maple syrup stored in glass jars is awesome. Honey is another good source that lasts forever. Molasses is another great idea from Judy: You’ll never run out of brown sugar if you keep two simple ingredients on hand: white granulated sugar and molasses. For light brown sugar use 1 Tablespoon molasses and 1 cup white sugar. For dark brown sugar, simply use 2 tablespoons of molasses for every 1 cup of white sugar.

18. Canned fruits:

It’s great to have a few cans of fruit we can just open them and eat the contents with those pancakes or sandwiches I mentioned above.

19. Canned vegetables:

Do I love fresh vegetables or canned, yep! But after a disaster, I will be serving some of these with chili, soup or adding some to a soup base.

20. Freeze-dried apples:

These are delicious eaten right out of the can.

21. Freeze-dried onions:

These are great because I don’t have to peel, chop or slice onions. I can make soup, or just about any casserole with these.

22. Freeze-dried corn:

This corn tastes good eaten right out of the can. I must admit, I look at corn a lot differently since I have been researching about saved seeds. If you know what I am talking about you understand. It’s called GMO corn.

23. Soup Base:

Now, of course, we can make our own soup base, but remember, I am teaching classes and trying to teach how easy it is to store a few food items. All you do is add water and a few veggies and you have a meal.

24. Instant milk:

All you do is add water. Hot chocolate comes to my mind after a disaster, what about you? Yep, add some instant milk to your stash.

25. Applesauce:

I wanted these because they come in a small container, do not need to be refrigerated, and who doesn’t love a little applesauce, right?

26. Jam:

I buy small jars of jam so they will not go to waste if we lose power. I love peanut butter and jelly or jam sandwiches. You can cut the sandwiches into heart shapes or spaceships, the kids will love it. Just eat the scrap, that’s what I do for my grandkids.

27. Peanut butter:

I started buying smaller jars of peanut butter because they go rancid fairly quickly at our house. Here again, who can pass up peanut butter and jelly sandwiches made on homemade freshly ground whole wheat bread?

28. Chili:

The thing that’s good about chili is just about everyone loves chili with crackers on the side. Great food storage item.

29. Soups:

I bought the soups that do not need water added to them. If we had to we could eat them cold right out of the can. Make sure you buy the kinds you will eat. You can donate all canned items to the food bank if you don’t use them and they have not expired.

Final Word

I hope this gives you 29 items or ideas for storing water and purchasing food storage. You don’t have to buy a pallet of food storage and have it delivered to your house. This list is short because I’m only talking about the items in my pictures. Thanks again for being prepared for the unexpected. May God bless this world.

Survival food storage by Linda