Commercial Storage

One compromise approach is to leave you retreat house unoccupied and rent a commercial storage space in the town nearest your retreat. I have one friend who leaves his retreat cabin virtually empty. All that he keeps stored there is some second-hand furniture, four cords of firewood (in a locked shed) and a pair of underground gas and diesel tanks, which have their filler and dispenser necks camouflaged by a rusting clothes dryer and water heater–part of a junk pile. He rents a 12 foot x 25 foot commercial storage space that is crammed full of all of his gear. His plan is to bug out at the 11th hour, and then use his 4WD pickup and his 5 foot x10 foot box trailer to hastily move his gear to his retreat. This constitutes pitiful operational security (OPSEC), but it is better than leaving his valuable gear unattended and vulnerable to burglary. I should also mention that it makes it difficult to practice using his gear, or to rotate his storage food or to establish a garden and livestock between now and TEOTWAWKI. I just hope that he gets to his house before some armed squatters do!