When it comes to preparedness, it’s easy to get caught up in chasing something new. The latest and greatest piece of gear. Yet one more unique skill to learn. That’s all well and good. It’s important to continue developing your plans as well as your abilities. However, it’s even more important not to lose sight of the fundamentals.
Focus on the Fundamentals
One of the very best things you can do is revisit the basics on a regular basis. This will go a long way toward ensuring your success if a crisis hits.
Inventory Supplies
While we try to keep tabs on what gets used and replaced, we’re only human. Things are going to fall through the cracks. This applies to food as well as other supplies. Food gets eaten without being restocked. Some items might go bad, whether through package deterioration, pest contamination, or just plain rot.
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The way to combat this is through inventorying your supplies on a regular basis. Come up with a workable schedule where you spend an afternoon checking every shelf, every box, every tote, and making sure what’s supposed to be there is still present and accounted for. I’d suggest this happen at least twice a year, but quarterly would be better. Set a reminder on your phone or use an old-fashioned paper calendar on the refrigerator so you don’t forget.
Gear Shakedown
Most of us are guilty of snitching a piece of gear from a kit to use elsewhere and then not returning it. Unpack and inspect every single kit you’ve carefully curated. Check to make sure the contents are there, but also that they’re in good condition. Batteries deserve close attention to ensure they have not leaked. I’ve had them leak right in their original packaging on occasion. Even shelf-stable items can go bad after a while.
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Part of revisiting the fundamentals should involve testing things like radios, flashlights, and similar equipment. Check to make sure everything still works the way it is supposed to work. A weekend camping trip is a great trial run.
Refine Skills
Buying gear, putting it together in kits, even carrying it around, all of that is easy. Practicing its use is very important. Skills are perishable. They will deteriorate over time with disuse. If you’re going to carry a weapon for self-defense, it’s critical that you know how to use it effectively. That only happens with regular practice.
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Not only that, but fundamental skills like fire starting, first aid, off-grid cooking, and navigation should be practiced, honed, and refined often. There’s a tendency to forget about these types of skills until we’re camping or hiking. If that’s something you do often, that’s great! But for a lot of people, it’s just a once-a-year family campout or some such. That’s nowhere near often enough to build in muscle memory as well as develop the experience necessary to rely on the skills in a crisis.
Survival is rarely about heroic efforts, despite what movies and novels would have you believe. Focus on the fundamentals, and you’ll be in a good position, no matter what life brings your way.
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