These Common Items Will Become a Luxury When SHTF

Source: https://www.askaprepper.com/

When the grid goes down you will find that there are a plethora of items that we take for granted in our everyday lives but that you will suddenly find renewed value in.

While stockpiling the items we’re about to cover may not seem as ‘exciting’ or as important as stockpiling necessities such as food and water, they will be badly missed in a future SHTF scenario.

That’s why you need to start stockpiling these items now, because when disaster strikes, having plenty of these items on hand will help make your survival efforts significantly easier and more comfortable.

What are these items that you need to start stockpiling? That’s what we’re going to talk about today.

Here are common items that will become luxuries when SHTF:

Batteries

Most people have a drawer or a cabinet in their home stockpiled with several kinds of batteries. If you are one of these people, consider adding more batteries to your collection.

Make a list of all battery-powered items you’ll use in a future disaster scenario (such as flashlights, GPS devices, and so on), and plan on stockpiling at least a year’s worth of batteries for each one.

Propane

You can use propane to fuel your lanterns, gas grills, and camping stoves. Propane will become in very short supply following a grid-down disaster so you’ll want to make sure you stockpile as much of it as you can.

The lightweight and portable propane canisters are relatively inexpensive to purchase and easy to stockpile.

Candles

If the lights ever go out from a power grid down scenario you’ll start using candles a lot more than you’re used to.

In addition to stockpiling candles, learn how to make them and stockpile the necessary ‘ingredients’ as well.

Related: DIY Tallow Emergency Candles

Vehicle Fuels

Gasoline and diesel will become two of the most valuable commodities in a post-grid down world, especially since the pumps at fuel stations will no longer be working.

Be sure to stockpile as much gasoline and diesel as you can, but be extremely cautious about how you go about storing it.

Coffee

Who doesn’t like their morning coffee?

If you’re a coffee person coffee will surely be something you’ll miss in a grid-down disaster scenario.

Besides coffee, be sure to set aside coffee-making materials such as coffee filters, a pot, and the ability to heat water.

Salt

Salt serves many more purposes beyond adding flavor to certain dishes. It can also be used to help preserve food and to clean open wounds.

This is why salt was so highly valued before the modern era in which we live. You can store large quantities of salt in plastic containers that you can stack over one another.

First Aid Items

Most people have a few first-aid items stashed away in a bathroom or kitchen cabinet, but it’s always wise to continually add more so you have a surplus. This includes adhesive tapes, antibiotic ointments, bandages, and gauze pads.

In a grid-down disaster, you may not have access to professional medical help.

Even the smallest cut or scrape can result in a serious infection. 

Hygiene Items

This includes deodorant, feminine hygiene products, kitchen cleaning items, laundry detergent, soap, shampoo, and toothpaste.

Ensuring proper hygiene and sanitation is one of the most overlooked and yet important aspects of disaster preparedness. Make sure you have a surplus of hygiene items just like with the first aid items we just discussed.

Matches

Matches (along with other fire-starting items) are truly something you can’t have enough of.

They will become badly needed following a grid-down disaster for lighting your candles, lighting fire to your indoor wooden stove to heat up your home, or getting campfires going outside to cook food and stay warm.

Razors and Shaving Cream

Assuming you don’t want to shave using a knife, you’re going to need to make sure you stockpile plenty of razors and shaving cream.

This is one luxury that you’ll be very happy you didn’t forget following a major grid down disaster.

Pet Food

Don’t forget about your furry four-legged animals.

While most dogs and cats can eat ‘people food’ safely, by stockpiling plenty of their normal pet food you’ll ensure that their nutritional requirements are being met. This is especially important if any of your pets are on a special diet.

Seeds

You’ll no longer be able to resupply yourself with food when the grocery stores become stripped of looters following the start of a disaster. The solution here is to grow your food.

You also won’t be able to get basic medicine, so you will have to rely on home made remedies from your own medicinal plants to treat your ailments. 

You can buy packets of seed for cheap, but they will pay dividends and become invaluable following a grid-down disaster when you start planting them in your garden outside.

Following a disaster, seed packets may even turn into a form of currency that people trade and barter with one another.

Sugar

Sugar may not be a necessity, but it is something that will be nice to have to help keep your morale up (assuming you like the flavor).

Sugar is also likely to become a precious commodity in a post-grid-down disaster world and will be a highly in-demand bartering item.

Toilet Paper

Toilet paper is a prime example of an item we use almost every day and yet don’t think about.

If you don’t have very much toilet paper stockpiled following a major disaster, you’ll be forced to turn to other means to do your business.

Assuming you don’t want to do that, you’ll want to make sure you stockpile as much toilet paper as you possibly can.

Keep in mind as well that each of the above items will become very highly in-demand on the bartering and trading market in the event of an economic collapse.

This is why it could be a wise idea to build two stockpiles: a larger stockpile for yourself and your family, and then a smaller stockpile for your trading with others.

Start including each of the above items in your disaster stockpile if you haven’t already. You’ll be very glad you did when the time comes.