Daily Bread wrote an article about hygiene and sanitation that really caught our eye. We wanted to add to their list of basic hygiene and sanitation practices with five more steps that you can take to stay healthy, clean, and safe during an emergency. Below is the original article by Daily Bread.
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Prioritizing hygiene and sanitation are vital to you and your family’s survival in an emergency situation. Contracting a sickness and/or disease will extremely lower your chances of survival. Failing to practice these basic hygiene and sanitation steps could cost you and your family.
1. Keep your hands clean
• Wash your hands after handling any material that may carry harmful bacteria. This could be activities like carrying sticks or going to a cat hole. Always wash your hands before handling any food or water. Hand sanitizer is a great alternative in emergency situations.
2. Keep your hair clean
• Human hair can become a lair for parasites, fleas, and bacteria which could cause infection and diseases. Keeping your hair trimmed, clean, combed, and tied away, perhaps in a ponytail, in emergency situations will help keep dangerous parasites and bacteria away.
3. Keep your clothing clean
• Parasites and bacteria also infect and inhabit your clothing, which could be very dangerous and fatal as our clothing covers our body and sensitive organs. Keeping your clothing clean will also help keep unwanted parasites and bacteria from causing skin infection and disease. Clothing should be kept clean, dry, and in good condition as much as possible to retain better insulating quality. A very fast and easy way to do this is to have a hand-operated washing machine. For more information on a hand-operated washing machine, click here.
4. Keep your teeth clean
• Take care of your mouth and teeth at least once each day to keep it clean and free from bacteria. If you don’t have a toothbrush you can use a chewing stick chewing on both ends to separate the fiber and use it to brush your teeth thoroughly.
5. Take care of your feet
• Taking care of your feet is one of the most important things you have to keep in mind when in a survival situation. Your feet may be your only means of transportation during emergencies, so you need to take good care of them.
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Here are our five extra steps you can take to stay healthy, clean, and safe during an emergency.
6. Get sufficient rest
• Getting proper rest is important to keep yourself going. Try to have regular rest periods and learn to be comfortable under less than ideal conditions, so you won’t have a hard time adjusting and getting enough rest.
7. Avoiding illness
• The dangers of contracting a disease will substantially increase when you are in a survival situation. Always purify your water obtained from natural sources before consumption.
8. Keep campsite clean
• Do not soil the ground in the campsite area with urine or feces. Use latrines, if available. When latrines are not available, dig “cat holes” and cover the waste. Collect drinking water upstream from the campsite. Purify all water.
9. Keep your water clean
• Never place a dirty hand, utensil, or soap into a storage container of clean water. Always dip or slowly pour the clean water over the dirty object, catching the waste in a different container. This waste water can rinse off soil or other grime from dirty hands or utensils before doing the final wash. Using this method gives you the maximum use of clean water.
10. Keep a positive attitude
• Cleanliness also greatly impacts our emotions. A big enemy in a survival situation is depression or hopelessness. Dirt can have a negative impact on our emotions whereas, cleanliness gives us an emotional boost and strengthens our resolve to press on.
Sources:
http://www.dailybread.com/blog/why-hygiene-and-sanitation-is-important-for-prepping/
http://www.livereadynow.com/cleanliness-for-survival/
One of the most difficult things a prepper has to figure out is where they should hide their valuables. A safe or vault is a good way to lock away valuables, but some burglars will just steal the entire safe or vault leaving you with nothing. This is the reason why Q-Line Design has done a fantastic job with their furniture. Here is one example of Q-Line’s SafeGuard Shelving System. It’s a great way to hide your valuables in plain sight.
As you can see from the video, the bookshelf blends in without alerting anyone that it has extra shelves or valuables inside. Furniture that blends in, but has hidden amenities, is essential to prepping. If you would like to learn more about Q-Line Designs, click here.
The number one rule that all preppers should know is to never talk about your prepping to anyone. There are many reasons for this rule that are obvious and can be life-threatening, which is why it is very important a prepper does not talk about their supplies or strategies. But, let’s say, someone does find out you are a prepper, what do you do?
You do not want to be the first person someone thinks about when a disaster strikes. To avoid this at all cost, even if someone knows you are a prepper is to change the subject as fast as you can. The less they know, the better.
If you do have someone asking about prepping and starts asking about your supplies, downplay as much as you can. Tell them you only have a few things stashed away for blackouts and a small emergency. You want them to think that you would be just as much in need of help as they would be to keep them off your radar.
Hiding your supplies is very important, especially when you have a lot of it. They know you have some supplies so having a few days’ worth sitting out will not look suspicious to those looking in.
If you have any suspicion of people counting on retreating to your house after disaster strikes, it might be best to bug out before they get to you. You can wait it out and return when things start to calm down. If you would like a list of things you can use to make your own Bug-Out Bag, check out this infographic.
When people become desperate for supplies and food, they are prepared to do anything it takes to save themselves. If they make it through your protection strategies it will turn into an all-out fight for your supplies. You need to be ready to protect what is rightfully yours.
This list can be avoided as long as you follow the number one rule: Don’t talk about prepping!
Sources:
http:// urbansurvivalsite.com/things-you-can-do-if-people-find-out-youre-a-prepper/
