Category: Sanitation

Introducing Your Community to Emergency Preparedness – Part 2, by A.F.

(Continued from Part 1.) The next topic is water. I begin with the low hanging fruit of having water stored at all times. It hurts my soul to thoughtlessly parrot the “one gallon per person per day minimum” tripe we have all heard so many times. My recommendation is to store no less than three gallons per person per day or ten gallons each. I follow this up by encouraging each family set a goal of having a five-gallon water jug set aside for last minute filling for each person. For those who lament storage space, I recommend the collapsible …


A Top-10 Prepping List, Multi-Tool Not Included – Part 3, by St. Funogas

(Continued from Part 2.) 5. TOILET Now that we have a warm house, food, water, and a way to defend it all, we need a workable sanitation system. Many preppers won’t have enough water to waste it flushing toilets so an outhouse or composting toilet will be necessary. Regardless of whether you have a flush toilet or something else, find a way to save the urine. Not only is it the best garden fertilizer, it will also speed up the composting process as well. Best of all, fertilizing the pile with urine allows us to add things which we can’t …


Sanitation for Preppers, by A.C.

Okay, folks. This is it: The unavoidable conversation that every prepper just pretends isn’t important; we’re going to talk about your poo. In the world of survivalism and prepping, the conversation almost always revolves around a predictable list of essentials: food, water, shelter, warmth, and weapons. These are the “sexy” parts of the apocalypse, the elements we see glamorized in movies and books. But in a real, long term grid-down situation, a far more mundane and devastating threat looms large, one that is almost never discussed and rarely planned for; sanitation. The truth is, without a proper plan for managing …


Memoirs of a Disaster Survivor – Part 1, by AppComms

I am a prepper who has survived three natural disasters. That doesn’t mean I am special by any means. I feel my experience is nothing more than a testimony of God’s Amazing Grace. As a retired Pastor and soon-to-be retired employee of North Carolina’s Prison system, I write to you as a southern Appalachian hillbilly with some prepping experience that may benefit you. This article is a firsthand account of my personal survival experience with three natural disasters that have affected me during my lifetime. To begin with, you should be familiar with the region where I live. I was …


Supplies for Staying Clean WTSHTF – Part 2, by SaraSue

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) Bars of Soap and Healing Ointment I stockpile bars of soap because there are so many uses for a good bar of soap.  I use several different kinds of soap bars, but the nice thing about them is they are compact and you can stuff them into numerous places for safekeeping.  You can grate them to make a liquid detergent for washing just about anything, yourself included.  Bars of soap are probably the cheapest, and most easily storable form of soap you can buy.  There are many, many, recipes online for making …


Supplies for Staying Clean WTSHTF – Part 1, by SaraSue

I have often thought about the things I stockpile that have come in very handy in day-to-day living. Many of these are considered quite traditional or old-fashioned.  These are things I never previously kept or used in any quantity, but now do.  I thought that I would share, so you can add it to your preps if you haven’t already.  In a WTSHTF scenario, keeping things, and yourself, clean becomes imperative.  In disasters, most people die from disease and illness after the disaster.  If you could easily and quickly attend to cleanliness, illness will be less of an issue.  I’ve …


Our Hurricane Experience in South Carolina, by K.U.

We live in a rural county about 60 miles from Augusta, Georgia. The night of September 26th, 2024 was one we never thought we’d experience so far inland. A full-blown hurricane was upon us (winds were recorded at 80-100mph in our county). We awoke early on the 27th to no power and 1 bar of very spotty cell service. We built our house on a hill and made sure that no trees were nearby, so our house had minimal damage. We had some water come in and down a wall from the chimney, but plan to fix that with a …


The Final Countdown: Last-Minute Readiness Checks – Part 2, by Michael X.

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) Water List This is an item for the first three days. This is super important and needs to be one of the first items confirmed. Check locations and condition of water sources: Bottled Water/Stored water containers Well water (power dependent) Lake water – are there containers to carry and larger containers to store lake water? Is there a rainwater collection option available? Is the Berkey/Filtered water system ready? Can the tub be successfully filled with water from the system before the power goes out or the line pressure is gone? Can I …


The Final Countdown: Last-Minute Readiness Checks – Part 1, by Michael X.

Hypothetically, (of course), assume for a moment that the proverbial fan has been hit. Now you have three days….or two weeks….or two months…until the consequences of the event hit where you are. Good luck guessing how long it takes to hit you. Are you as ready as you can be? Are you sure? How do you know? How and when it hits you, whatever it may be, may be based on three key things: the type/cause of disaster, your proximity to the disaster or populated areas, and the stability of your systems (electricity, water, fuel, and human support systems). THE …


Life Without Running Water – Part 2, by E. Homesteader

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) Collection Frequency and Usage Amounts Living in such a dry environment for so many years in Colorado instilled a natural water conservancy in us. Now that we live next to a lake and have abundant rainfall throughout the year, we feel very fortunate to have so much water “at our fingertips.” Currently, our water usage is very low since we don’t have a flush toilet, washing machine, or plants/garden that need watering. Until recently, we didn’t have an indoor shower, either. Laundry and car washing are done in our nearby small town. …


Cowboy Hot Tubs, by A Bielski Brother

Hygiene and clean clothes.  When you first hear those words, they sound boring.  Hygiene and clean clothes are not sexy like, “30-round magazines”, “Bug-Out-Bags”, or LP/OPs (listening posts/observation posts).  They are not sexy. They are something more.  They are essential. When, not if, the grid goes down, you will want to wash your clothes and stay clean.  I spent three years in Afghanistan and two years in Iraq as a military contractor.  Having hot showers was a mini-vacation for us.  When you’re outside in the elements continuously, it wears you down.  When the grid goes down, the elderly and young …


A Well-Stocked Pantry, by Hollyberry

The crazy Covid lock downs taught us many lessons. One of the biggest take a ways was just how fragile the supply chain is. Most people I know are somewhat prepared with basics as our nearest grocery store is 20 minutes away. The big box stores are an hour away. When the covid lock down was announced, our little grocery store had it’s shelves stripped in hours, followed by the dollar stores. We are stocked up but were still surprised at how fast this occurred. As we are rural, we learned years ago that our stores get whatever is left …


Separett Waterless Composting Toilet, by OhioGalt

Not the most comfortable topic to discuss but closing up the cabin last week I realized that our toilet has been problem-free for many years and worthy of a brief review to share with the readers of SurvivalBlog. I did not receive any compensation for this review, and we purchased this unit four years ago and have been using it regularly. We installed a composting toilet in our cabin several years ago for those times we didn’t want to trudge 300′ through the snow to the outhouse. My wife and I watched numerous video reviews of different composting toilets in …


The Bible, For Preppers, by K.D.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a Bible for preppers, a comprehensive book that contains useful information that we really need to know? Well, there is such a book! And it is The Bible. For those of you who are neither Jewish nor Christian, I ask you to look at the following examples that I’ve compiled, and decide for yourself whether the Bible is a worthwhile source of information, regardless of who you think wrote it. Aspects of Biblical wisdom are often hidden from the readers. We’re told to do something, or not to do something, but we’re rarely …


How to Grow and Process Luffah Sponges, by St. Funogas

There are three types of people when it comes to luffah sponges: those who have no idea what they are, those who know what they are but think they’re for the kind of ladies who frequent health spas, and those who know they’re one of nature’s best all-around cleaning tools and natural scrub brushes. I’ve personally progressed through all three stages, and hopefully this article can get you straight to stage three. In a grid-down world, after all our sponges and scrub brushes have worn out, luffah sponges can take their place. They can also do the same before the …