Preparedness: Why concern yourself over being prepared?

 

Why concern yourself over being prepared?

If you don’t pay attention to how prepared you are, you’re going to run out of gas in your car. 

Seriously. That’s my analogy. If you keep enough gasoline in your vehicle, you’re practicing preparedness. You’re intentional about keeping the tank filled. It can be that simple for almost everything else in your life. 

You just have to expand the way you think about having an unopened bottle of ketchup on the shelf before the current bottle runs dry. It’s not an expense. It’s using a product today at yesterday’s prices. 

Those trash bags I mentioned? The ones I stock are packaged ninety in a box and they cost me between nine and ten dollars a box when purchased. Now, a year later, that same box costs fourteen dollars to replace. Yes, I’ll pay more some future day if I restock with that same item, but between now and then I may be able to locate a different source, or a good sale, and pay between nine and ten dollars. 

You can’t stock up on everything the way you can trash bags, so pick and choose as best fits your circumstances. None of us can stop inflation, but we can prepare and blunt its impact on us. 

Being prepared is crisis management. Running out of gasoline after dark could be a crisis, especially if the weather is bad. Running out of diapers in the middle of a snowstorm isn’t a good thing, either. 

Take a moment, sit down with a cup of your beverage of choice, if you haven’t run out of it, and make a list of those items you must have on hand. 

Being intentional about being prepared takes only moments each day and will make your life a great deal easier. 

So what is the advantage of preparedness? 

I’ve touched on two of the advantages of preparedness – reducing stress and blunting the impact of inflation. But would you believe it can be something you enjoy? 

The year 2020 had a lot of people dipping their toes into having a home garden. I already had a couple of tomato and cucumber plants when the 2020 lockdown hit and it was quickly apparent I could do better. I needed to do better. I took a step back and looked at my personal situation with a critical eye. What could I realistically achieve? 

I love jigsaw puzzles and answering that question was like fitting the pieces of a huge puzzle together. I love organizing things and spreadsheets are my friend. 

So, the quick answer to what I could achieve was to develop an organized working pantry that included shelf-stable and frozen foods. How to start? Take an inventory. 

To read about my inventory practices, click Take an Inventory.

And no. It's not clickbait. This blog is not monetized. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor (The Hideaway)

Holly Tree Manor, the Hideaway, taking inventory, pantry prepping, being prepared, being intentional, home food preservation, gardening