Ok, so I’ve seen this list come up over and over, I wrote some thoughts on it years ago and I want to update the post for all the shortages we saw during Covid, the Texas snowstorm 2021, and the war in Ukraine. This entry is still under revision and expansion, but there’s enough meat here for folks to dig into.
The Story – 100 Items to Disappear First in a Disaster
This list was supposedly written by a Prepper before Y2K, which was 22 years ago, not only has off-grid equipment gotten a lot better, but some of the brands have changed. I get the distinct impression somebody really wanted this list to have 100 items on it, I don’t get the idea that these items disappear so much as they would be good things to have on hand in a disaster. I assume the title changed for the same reason you see all of the 37, 42, and 53 items to Horde lists these days because it gets you to click on the link.
I am leaving the original items in big bold letters and my comments will be in smaller text.
1. Generators (Good ones cost dearly. Gas storage, risky. Noisy…target of thieves; maintenance etc.)
It has been 22 years since the list came out, so where are the solar panels and wind turbines, and where are the phone chargers and emergency radios? People are building great big battery power walls in their homes, battery-powered “generators” can run some essential devices for a short period of time and are not only quiet but easily portable. If you’re worried about noisy generators then you probably also want blackout curtains if operational security is part of your concern.
Whole house Generators like a Generac can run off propane or natural gas, natural gas pipelines are susceptible to power outages since the gas pressure needs pumps to maintain. Locally stored propane may not provide adequate gas pressure in extremely cold weather.
Shortage Check: Generators don’t often totally disappear from shelves, but Gasoline shortages are frequent in emergencies. If the power is out gas pumps don’t work and you can’t fill your containers even if you have the cash to pay for it. This happened a lot in the northeast after Snowmageddon and Hurricane Sandy.
2. Water Filters/Purifiers
I need to link to pages on building sand and coal filters, SODIS methods, what the differences are between filtration and purification, as well as how to store water. Knowing how to make a water filter from available materials will help you more than having a few filters in a go-bag.
Shortage Check: I’ve never seen a shortage of water filters, but people will horde bottled water so shortages in this space do happen.
3. Portable Toilets or bucket kits or a shovel.
You can buy a 5-gallon bucket at any hardware store, likewise, shovels are pretty easy to shop for, you don’t need a large shovel for this, many solo hikers use a small gardening trowel but you will want an army entrenching tool or something bigger if you’re digging latrines for multiple people.
Hikers will also use a bidet bottle cap and water bottle to rinse instead of packing lots of toilet paper. You may want to consider this for a go-bag if into the woods is part of your bug-out plan.
Shortage Check: I’ve only ever seen a shortage of snow shovels.
4. Seasoned Firewood. Wood takes about 6 – 12 months to become dried, for home uses.
A dear friend of mine sent me a chart on the kinds of woods you burn for what fires, and I have another firewood chart that gives the approximate burning temperatures for each kind of wood.
Shortage Check: I’ve never seen a firewood shortage, but if you are snowed in for an extended period of time it might take weeks for rescuers to get to you or for normal services to be restored. The firewood you already have when the snow starts falling or the bridge gets washed out is the only wood you’re going to have for the duration.
5. Lamp Oil, Wicks, Lamps (First Choice: Buy CLEAR oil. If scarce, stockpile ANY!)
So I spent some time comparing Dietz lanterns with all of the different statistics from their website. They actually made a Y2K model that puts off heat, and light and has an optional cup for cooking on top of the lantern. With my chart, you can determine which lanterns use the least amount of oil, which ones put off the most amount of heat, or which one will last for the longest time on a single filling of oil.
I firmly believe that alkaline or rechargeable batteries will last might longer in an LED lantern than any amount of oil you could stockpile so unless you need oil lanterns for part of your heating and cooking, you might want to skip them altogether. The Dietz Lantern Cooker gives off 9 candlepower or 113 Lumens, that’s one of the brightest oil lanterns, but not very bright in LED or propane lantern terms. The small pot for boiling water on this 1,200 BTU lantern will not be as efficient as a 7,500 10,000 or 15,000 BTU propane burner with normal cooking pots.
Coleman Propane Lanterns often throw off 1,000 Lumens but can burn through a 1-pound propane tank in 8 hours or less. Per ounce of fuel, oil is more efficient than propane, we’d have to make a comparison of Lumen-hour created per ounce of fuel or weight in batteries to be really telling.
I tried comparing 16oz of lantern oil in a 1-gallon container from Hardware and outdoor stores to 16oz propane tanks from Target. Despite the gallon being much cheaper than the pound or propane I had to add extra decimal places to see how cheap the propane tanks were per lumen hour because the longer bringing oil produces so much weaker light. They both rely on fire inside fragile glass globes that can set your house on fire.
6. Coleman Fuel. Impossible to stockpile too much.
Coleman fuel also known as White Gas is of limited use. Propane in 20 lb or more containers is better than Coleman 1 lb tanks for long-term emergencies. There are converter valves to run Coleman devices off of a 20lb propane tank as well as devices to refill 1pb containers from a 20lb source. If you want a cheap 20lb tank check Craigslist and similar services at the start and end of grilling seasons, you can sometimes get an empty tank for $5 or free for just hauling it away. Then go find someplace to get a swap refill for a brand new tank.
Shortage Check: I’ve never seen these as a shortage item, but the shelves aren’t always stocked either.
7. Guns, Ammunition, Pepper Spray, Knives, Clubs, Bats & Slingshots.
Pellet and Air Guns, as well as slingshots, might be helpful for bringing in birds and squirrels for the cookpot. In the last 20 years, Bear Spray got very popular as a deterrent. Knives should be in their own section with how to pick them and how to maintain them.
Guns, Ammo, Clubs, and Bats probably have better forums than anything I’d write up here. Maybe join a gym and take some self-defense classes. If you’re going to buy a gun, take a basic safety course. During Covid, lots of people bought guns and lots of self-inflicted gunshot wounds also happened.
Shortage Check: Are there gun or ammo shortages? There were times when you could not find guns or certain kinds of ammo for a reasonable price, some reliable brand-name vendors could not meet demand.
8. Hand-can openers, & hand egg beaters, whisks.
Are there any more hand tools at Lehman’s that would fit here? During the Texas snowstorm and power outage, there were some soft-core prepper types that couldn’t run their electric can opener and their food preps were inaccessible.
Shortage Check: People didn’t have things when they needed them, there’s never been a can opener and cooking utensil shortage. During WWII bakeries stopped slicing bread to save the saw blade metal for the war effort. It’s not impossible we’ll ever see that happen again, but it’s more likely somebody will forget to have a good hand can opener on hand due to poor planning.
9. Honey/Syrups/white, brown sugar
Honey lasts forever, honey from the Pyramids was still good after thousands of years.
Shortage Check: Canada and Vermont both have strategic Maple syrup reserves and there are both shortages and people that smuggle illegal maple syrup.
Brazil devoted more of its sugarcane harvest to Ethanol production which will affect their exports making sugar more expensive on the open market.
10. Rice – Beans – Wheat
Another Covid casualty, people stockpiled white rice because it’s cheap, but had no idea how to cook it. Obviously, they weren’t eating or rotating their preps which is bad, but typically rice needs a two-to-one ratio where one cup of rice is boiled in two cups of water. A rice cooker will do this for you if you get the mix right, you can make rice on a stovetop.
Beans, some people soak beans overnight to make them softer and take less boiling, thus less fuel to cook. There’s a procedure that’s proveably the best order to do this. Inspect the dry beans on a flat surface for stones, and put the beans in a large pot or dutch oven with a lid. Put one pound of dry beans, 3 tablespoons salt, and a gallon of water in the pot to soak overnight. You can use half the water in a smaller pot. Some people vary on changing the water before cooking, with the overnight brine, you want to rinse the beans before cooking.
Wheat is why #15 says you need a grain grinder or mill.
Shortage Check: I don’t remember a rice or beans shortage in the US, but other countries have had shortages of rice and other grains. Drought, wildfires, war, sanctions, and supply chain issues have all led to these shortages.
11. Vegetable Oil (for cooking) Without it food burns/must be boiled etc.,)
You may want different kinds of cooking oils with different smoke points for different kinds of cooking. Extra virgin olive oils and other fragrant oils noted for their taste should not be used as cooking oil because the flavor disappears during the cooking process. Use neutral-flavored oils for cooking and add flavored oils at the end of the recipe before serving.
You can also cook with butter and if fresh isn’t available Ghee a clarified butter will last for some time on the shelf in an unopened container. Red Feather is a brand of Canned Butter from New Zealand, they also sell canned cheese. The University of Washington also sells canned cheese called Cougar Gold.
Shortage Check: Closely related to the same issues that lead to grain shortages, counterfeiting, and smuggling of olive oil have been going on since Ancient Greece.
12. Charcoal, Lighter Fluid (Will become scarce suddenly)
I have to completely disagree with Lighter Fluid in the context of Charcoal grills, you need to buy a chimney starter. With a little wadded paper and some cooking oil, you can start a fire that will get you a bed of hot coals quickly and won’t make your food taste like Lighter Fluid. Linking to a page on how to make charcoal and other kinds of char products will also be helpful for long-term survival.
Shortage Check: Never saw a charcoal or lighter fluid shortage.
13. Water Containers (Urgent Item to obtain.) Any size.
I am replacing the Hard Clear Plastic only warning from the original since it is completely bogus based on the BPA scares of the last decade. So buy BPA-free, Stainless, Glass, or Ceramic and possibly a good bottle brush. With larger containers, you can seek out the barrels everyone is using for Rain Barrels, but remember to only buy the food-grade if you are using it for drinking. The 200+ Gallon Totes people are using for Aquaponics systems will probably be impossible to move around, at least a rain barrel can be moved with a hand truck.
Shortage Check: While people aren’t stripping large water containers off the shelves, they do horde bottled water and gallons of bottled water in emergencies. If you need a specific kind of bottled water to make your baby formula or use distilled water in your CPAP machine, there may be shortages or supply chain disruptions.
14. Mini Heater head (Propane) (Without this item, propane won’t heat a room.)
Catalytic Heater heads are nice to go tailgating or hunting when it gets cold, but we have Indoor Safe Propane Heaters now with Low Oxygen safety shut-offs and tip-over safety shuts-offs. You could also look into something like a Wood pellet stove, or a Kimberly Wood stove that burns very efficiently and produces very little ash.
Shortage Check: I have seen empty shelves during emergencies we had no power and freezing weather and depended on a propane heater with a safety shutoff to keep us warm until power was restored 10 hours later.
15. Grain Grinder (Non-electric)
Hey kids, why isn’t this up there with the other hand-operated Kitchen equipment in #8? So why would you want a grain grinder, whole wheat can stay fresh longer than flour will. If you have flour in #10 cans or sealed retort pouches, maybe the math changes, but wheat can last for years if left intact.
16. Propane Cylinders (Urgent: Definite shortages will occur.)
I don’t know whether to combine this with #6 or # 14. I need to talk to you about 1 lb and 20 lb tanks, basically, I can refill my 20 lb tank for $20, I am lucky when I can still find the 2 packs of the 1 lb tanks for $5. You might be thinking that I had to pay $60 for that first tank, well I didn’t I got it with a Grill off Craigslist, which is a great place to buy empty tanks. But you need to think how much 20 1 lb Coleman tanks will cost you which is about $50 if you’re lucky and you’re probably going to pay $60 or more for that many and they aren’t as easy to refill. If you get a tank off Craigslist for $5-20 and refill it for $20 you come out ahead of the 1 lb tanks by a lot. You can get a kit to run most Coleman gear off of a 5 or 20 lb propane tank.
Shortage Check: Never saw a propane tank shortage, however the recent snowstorm in Texas temperatures were so cold that natural gas would not flow. Natural gas pipelines and generators were not winterized inside Texas and power was out for days. We also see supply chain disruptions with natural gas from Russia to Europe, but not propane tanks.
17. Survival Guide Book.
Well, that’s useless, hang out in some forums see what books folks recommend, read some reviews on Amazon find out which books people like best then buy one, read it and try some things out. You need to familiarize yourself with the book you choose, it will not do you any good sitting on the shelf when disaster strikes, and watching Bear/Les/Cody/Dave on TV or YouTube is not the same as trying things yourself.
Shortage Check: Has anyone ever seen empty bookstore shelves or Amazon sold out of survival books? No, probably not, but when the emergency starts is not the time to go shopping for a survival guide, when the internet and power grid goes down is not the time to google how to start a fire.
18. Mantles: Aladdin, Coleman, etc. (Without this item, longer-term lighting is difficult.)
Why can’t we collapse this to item #5? So I have one item telling me to buy Oil and Lanterns, then another one telling me to stockpile Propane Cylinders, but then I need a separate item to tell me to buy Propane Lanterns? Coleman makes a lot of devices that use their cylinders, so any devices you have, like the propane lanterns, do need mantles. Coleman now makes LED lanterns that need an optional rechargeable battery or D-cell batteries in an adapter. There are a lot of cheap battery-powered LED lanterns that could replace a lot of these suggestions and 70 hours of light from 4AA batteries takes up less space and weight than a bottle of propane or lamp oil.
Shortage Check: Whenever I’m in the camping section of a local store there might be a few sets of mantles hanging on the shelf. If suddenly we all need lantern mantles there aren’t going got be enough. American Gas Lamp Works recommends replacing mantles once per year. Having a few packages per lantern should be sufficient for most emergencies. LED bulbs are advertised with multi-year lifespans. Coleman’s LED lantern lasts 175 hours on 4D-cell batteries, and a 1-pound propane cylinder on a 2 mantle lantern lasts for 8 hours or less.
19. Baby Supplies: Diapers/formula. ointments/aspirin, etc.
Shortage Check: Covid and the war in Ukraine saw diapers and baby formula go missing in some places. Before the formula shortage, people using powdered formula ran out of the type of bottled water needed to make formula at home due to people hoarding bottled water.
20. Washboards, Mop Bucket w/wringer (for Laundry)
There is a store online named Lehmans that has lots of products in this space, seriously not just the washboard, but a hot water steam-operated washing machine you kind of tumble with a hand crank too. Although I would be looking for 12 volt RV stuff and Solar Panels and a Turbine and Batteries. But we’ve said how we wash our clothes right, how are we going to dry them? We go 13 more items down the list to talk about Clothespins and a Clothesline?
21. Cookstoves (Propane, Coleman & Kerosene)
Why else did we stockpile fuel in number #6 to run little space heaters? Ok so a little Coleman one-burner grill will work wonders here, hikers and campers can go on about their Jetboil and Rocket stoves, but long term those won’t cut it. You need something that has a ready source of fuel. This is where I would be remiss if I didn’t mention something like the Biolite, not just the expensive one that charges your cell phone, but the rocket stove you build-out of a #10 can and a soup can that burns hot on just twigs. The aluminum can alcohol stove brigade can chime in but I think twigs are going to be more plentiful long term than the kind of alcohol in the ultralight can stoves. Like everything else pick a stove, try to cook on one, and don’t burn your hands.
22. Vitamins
Not all food storage covers all vitamins and minerals, augment your food storage with multivitamins and any specific vitamins such as D or B12.
23. Propane Cylinder Handle-Holder (Urgent: Small canister use is dangerous without this item)
I looked around on forums for this one, I think he meant the Coleman cylinder base that comes with certain Lanterns and one burner grills. I was thinking maybe I can create a 3D model of this in case anyone loses theirs or a tutorial on how to make a tripod support for one.
The lantern base is available on eBay and sporting goods stores online, there are also some 3D printer models out there. Be careful the model base you choose matches the style of propane tanks that you have.
24. Feminine Hygiene/Haircare/Skin products.
25. Thermal underwear (Tops & Bottoms)
26. Bow saws, axes and hatchets, Wedges (also, honing oil)
If we’re honing things don’t we need a stone?
27. Aluminum Foil Reg. & Heavy Duty (Great Cooking and Barter Item)
28. Gasoline Containers (Plastic & Metal)
29. Garbage Bags (Impossible To Have Too Many).
30. Toilet Paper, Kleenex, Paper Towels
Amazon sells reusable napkins, paper towels, and Swedish dishcloths made of plant fibers. I’ve bought cloth handkerchiefs, but just can’t get in the habit of carrying them.
31. Milk – Powdered & Condensed (Shake Liquid every 3 to 4 months)
Update for the last decade, we need to add Aseptic boxes to this mix. The boxes you buy chicken stock in also keep milk good for up to a year, not just the juice box size kids take to school, but they make them in Pints and Quarts. Also, Trader Joe’s sells Whipping Cream in 8-ounce Aseptic boxes.
Shortage Check: We had milk disappear from store shelves during Covid due to supply chain shocks and farmers were dumping milk that could not get to market. Milk was sold on a limited basis by stores to prevent shelves from going empty.
32. Garden Seeds (Non-Hybrid) (A MUST)
Know when to plant different seeds by their growing and hardiness zones or planting zones and know what zones are in your areas throughout the year. Print out a copy of the USDA map and keep it with your seeds in case Google is one of the things that goes down in an emergency.
Shortage Check: I’ve never seen a shortage of seeds at the garden center or online, but when the emergency starts and you can’t find food is not the time to decide to start a garden. You may suck at it, you may not have the land for it, you might want to look into container gardening or countertop hydroponic appliances but waiting until the emergency happens is not a good plan.
33. Clothes pins/line/hangers (A MUST)
Look for something called an Amish Clothes Drying Rack for indoor drying, because sometimes it rains. I have a drying rack that folds up very flat and can lean up against the wall taking up very little space when not in use.
34. Coleman’s Pump Repair Kit
Maybe Coleman gear needs its own page or something instead of being spread throughout the list.
Shortage Check: You probably need one kit of your plans are very Coleman heavy. The local sporting goods store will not have enough for every person that wanders in on the day of the emergency.
35. Tuna Fish (in oil)
Why only tuna? Why in oil? Retort pouches have come a long way, somebody needs to survey the state of the art since Y2K. If you eat Tuna they say to look for Skipjack which is a smaller Tuna because they haven’t had time to accumulate so much Mercury.
I was watching a YouTube video of someone who eats MREs and he was sampling an Israeli 24-hour meal kit that contained a can of oily tuna, he’d gotten a tip from a viewer to wad a clean paper towel or napkin into a wick, stick it in the can and light it to burn off the oil and heat up the tuna while giving it a smoky flavor.
Shortage Check: We have had shortages in all kinds of canned proteins, Covid had shut down a lot of processing plants and disrupted the transportation supply chain. Stores sold canned meats on a limited basis to keep supplies on the shelves. This also later impacted the cat food supply chain.
36. Fire Extinguishers (or..large box of Baking Soda in every room)
37. First aid kits
My only real advice here is to pick up a First Aid book, not the pamphlet that comes with your kit, and look at it at least once. Make sure your First Aid kit has some of the stuff you need to do the things in the book like if it is just Band-aids and Tylenol, you need to upgrade.
The most used first-aid supplies in our house are fabric band-aids, Neosporin, and pain killers. Following close behind are fabric tape and large gauze pads. A thermometer, rubbing alcohol, alcohol wipes, hydrogen peroxide, and iodine are all helpful.
38. Batteries (all sizes…buy furthest-out for Expiration Dates)
Again the list shows its age, I have a battery charger for AA and AAA batteries and about a dozen rechargeable batteries, you connect the charger a cheap inverter a 12-volt battery, and some solar panels. I have one of those 12-volt battery jump-start kits with a cigarette lighter socket I can plug a USB charger into that kept my phone charged through a big storm last year.
39. Garlic, spices & vinegar, baking supplies
40. Big Dogs (and plenty of dog food)
41. Flour, yeast & salt
Since Flour, yeast, and salt are three of the four ingredients for baking bread I have to ask why these aren’t considered baking supplies and if they shouldn’t be combined with #39 just 2 items ago? If you want to bake bread in an emergency you might want to get a dutch oven.
At the start of Covid, so many people started baking at home that yeast became hard to find. A biologist put up a tutorial on how to make your own sourdough starter from wild yeast. In this case, a technique might trump a large supply. However, if you do make a no-knead bread recipe with a long rise time, a cheap jar of yeast could make 400 loaves of bread.
42. Matches. (“Strike Anywhere” preferred.) Boxed, wooden matches will go first
For one, why aren’t these fire starters? I mean a Zippo lighter will do most of the jobs a match will, and with flints and fuel will outlast a big box of matches. It’s worth noting people in Europe can’t even buy Strike Anywhere matches. When lighting campfires, jar candles, propane grills, or fireplaces many times you’ll want to have long wooden matches, but in a pinch, one piece of spaghetti will do for a long match. For outdoor use magnesium blocks, magnifying glasses, and fire steel are all handy and will outlast the equivalent size box of matches. Long neck lighters, refillable with butane are a fantastic prep, but you need the refillable ones.
43. Writing paper/pads/pencils, solar calculators
44. Insulated ice chests (good for keeping items from freezing in Wintertime.)
Twenty years later we have lots of really good coolers, cheap styrofoam coolers, and soft-sided cloth insulated cooler bags that can be used for this.
45. Workboots, belts, Levis & durable shirts
46. Flashlights/LIGHTSTICKS & torches, “No. 76 Dietz” lantern.
Lanterns Lots of LED stuff out there now, move the Deitz up to #5. Hanging lantern hooks in your house, even just for my little 70-hour LED Darcy lantern. If you have old flashlights or 6volt lanterns with incandescent bulbs, you should look into replacing those with LED bulbs that are brighter and last longer on the same batteries.
47. Journals, Diaries & Scrapbooks (jot down ideas, feelings, experience; Historic Times)
move up to #43.
48. Garbage cans Plastic (great for storage, water, transporting – if with wheels)
maybe a hand truck or wheelbarrow should be in here. Check craigslist for rain barrels and how to identify food-grade barrels, but if we are talking water why isn’t this #13?
49. Men’s Hygiene: Shampoo, Toothbrush/paste, Mouthwash/floss, nail clippers, etc
50. Cast iron cookware (sturdy, efficient)
Add grills, trivets all you need to cook in the fireplace, firepit, charcoal grill, etc. You’re going to need recipes here too, how to cook with charcoal for temp control, or hardwood heat guides for campfire temps.
51. Fishing supplies/tools
52. Mosquito coils/repellent, sprays/creams
53. Duct Tape
We love the universal fixing material, but does it deserve its own category over rope, super glue, or bungee cord?
54. Tarps/stakes/twine/nails/rope/spikes
55. Candles and candle-making supplies?
You need to know now how to do this stuff, is there any reason to have the supplies as opposed to the finished work taking up less room? Know the wax, wicks, and when to use each type.
56. Laundry Detergent (liquid)
There are dozens of DIY recipes for this, so why buy it?
57. Backpacks, Duffel Bags
58. Garden tools & supplies
59. Scissors, fabrics & sewing supplies
You’re probably not going to be sewing new clothes during an emergency, but basic sewing supplies can repair torn clothes, sew buttons, and extend the life of clothing and cloth-based items like backpacks and sleeping bags.
60. Canned Fruits, Veggies, Soups, stews, etc.
Remember you need to have a can opener, I like the safety can openers you can reuse the lids and are less likely to cut yourself on the lid. There are a lot of soups that have pop-top cans, but not all of your veggies will.
Red Feather is a brand of canned butter from New Zealand, they also sell canned cheese. The University of Washington also sells canned cheese called Cougar Gold.
Shortage Check: Canned goods — like canned vegetables and soups, soda, teas, and other beverages — may be less plentiful due to aluminum availability.
61. Bleach (plain, NOT scented: 4 to 6% sodium hypochlorite)
Scented bleach isn’t used in water purification.
Shortage Check: A problem in a Louisiana processing plant created a Chlorine shortage.
62. Canning supplies, (Jars/lids/wax)
Water bath canner, jar lifters, funnels, the magnetic tools for getting lids out of boiling water.
63. Knives & Sharpening tools: files, stones, steel
#26 calls for saws, axes, and honing oil, but not files and stones so all the cutting tools and maintenance tools could be in one place. The best thing to add here would be a decent article on how to choose a knife for what you want it to do. If you take a heavy knife instead of an axe, can you baton the knife to cut wood if necessary?
64. Bicycles…Tires/tubes/pumps/chains, etc
65. Sleeping Bags & blankets/pillows/mats
66. Carbon Monoxide Alarm (battery powered)
They make these with ten-year batteries now.
67. Board Games, Cards, Dice
68. d-con Rat poison, MOUSE PRUFE II, Roach Killer
69. Mousetraps, Ant traps & cockroach magnets
70. Paper plates/cups/utensils (stock up, folks)
Wouldn’t sturdy reusable sets be better? Every bundle of disposable paper goods is space and weight competing against food, tools, and filters.
71. Baby wipes, oils, waterless & Antibacterial soap (saves a lot of water)
You may as well include hand sanitizer which is also good for starting fires. Explain how you need a certain temp to make wood catch fire.
Shortage Check: Hand Sanitizer disappeared from store shelves due to demand, but also due to hoarding and people scalping it to resell on eBay. Fake hand sanitizer showed up, bad batches of hand sanitizer showed up, breweries and distilleries started making hand sanitizer to meet demand.
72. Rain gear, rubberized boots, etc.
73. Shaving supplies (razors & creams, talc, after shave) not part of #49?
74. Hand pumps & siphons (for water and for fuels)
The siphons are good for any large water container. There are also frames that will hold a jerry can or scepter water container at an angle making it easier to get water or gas out of them.
75. Soysauce, vinegar, bullions/gravy/soupbase
Vinegar is cheap, lasts a long time, and is useful to bring an acidic component to foods as well as its uses in cleaning.
Better than Bullion has a decent shelf life and is a lot more portable than stock. Gravy is easy to make if you have bullion and flour or another thickening agent.
76. Reading glasses
77. Chocolate/Cocoa/Tang/Punch (water enhancers)
Tang was 8 cents a glass as part of a 6 pack from Amazon for $12 which makes 36 quarts, with 100% RDA vitamin C. Country Time Lemonade was 4 cents a glass at $6.34 for the 136 serving size can, with 10% RDA vitamin C. Kool-Aid at 2 8 quart containers for $5 works out to 8 cents per serving. If you can get the 10-quart containers 2 for $5 then it falls to 6 cents per serving. Walmart Cocoa was $2.48 for 16 servings or about 15 cents per serving, and Wegmans 50-count Hot Cocoa mix was $5.99 or about 12 cents per serving.
There are a lot of bottled and packet water enhancers, find one you like.
78. “Survival-in-a-Can” make your own cheaper.
Link to Instructables writeups on building your own Altoids Tin Survival Kit and the Field and Stream 5 things you need to have in a survival kit. Light Source, Signal Whistle, Signal Mirror,
79. Woolen clothing, scarves/ear-muffs/mittens.
Shouldn’t these be collapsed with Thermal Underwear #25 or Workboots, Levi’s, and durable shirts #45? Why do people care about Wool, because it keeps you warm even when it’s wet.
80. Boy Scout Handbook, / also Leaders Catalog
Why not combine with #17 survival book?
Shortage Check: Just like survival books, the time to buy the book is not after the emergency has started.
81. Roll-on Window Insulation Kit (MANCO)
I bought a roll of Gila film, I was unable to find any MANCO so we should probably list some other modern brands.
82. Graham crackers, saltines, pretzels, Trail mix/Jerky
Looking at crackers from countries without electricity or limited air conditioning, I see a lot of crackers sealed in boxes and sealed again in plastic packets or sealed in tin cans. During Covid peanut butter crackers that we didn’t eat quickly enough went stale and tasted terrible, these come in flimsy plastic packaging and are not the same as the sealed mylar packets of crackers from the Philippines.
Shortage Check: Was there a cracker shortage? Did stores limit how many you could buy?
83. Popcorn, Peanut Butter, Nuts
Popcorn and peanut butter are shelf-stable for a long time, and nuts are a survival food with a history going back thousands of years.
Shortage Check: Periodically peanut butter will have contamination recalls, sometimes which creates a shortage when a major processor and copacker is the source of the recall.
84. Socks, Underwear, T-shirts, etc. (extras)
85. Lumber (all types)
Shortage Check: With Covid, whether it was lumberjacks not cutting down trees and lumbermills not processing lumber, homebuilding supplies got very expensive.
86. Wagons & carts (for transport to and from)
Coolers, suitcases, and other kinds of rolling containers with long handles can move a decent amount of weight. A dolly or cart can help you move things you can’t lift or drag otherwise.
87. Cots & Inflatable mattress’s
This beats sleeping on a hard floor or the ground. Also getting your body off the ground slows down conducting heat away from your body into the ground.
88. Gloves: Work/warming/gardening, etc.
This has to overlap with #45 or #79.
89. Lantern Hangers
This is genius dammit, no seriously I had a bad storm in my area and we were without power and while my 70-hour LED lanterns worked flawlessly, they worked even better hanging from my ceiling by plant hanger hooks with about a one-foot-long extension to keep them reachable, but still above everything for better lighting. I only had one extension so I ended up unraveling some wire coat hangers and making my own extensions for other rooms.
You can buy S-hooks at garden supply stores.
90. Screen Patches, glue, nails, screws, nuts & bolts
If you have a mesh screen door or mesh screens over your windows, you may want to have a mesh patch test kit to fix tiny holes in those screens. Different glues, such as superglue, wood glue, and duct tape all help with improvised repairs.
91. Teas
How is this not a water enhancer #77? Lipton Black Tea in the 100-count box of tea bags is $3.29 or just over 3 cents a cup. Buy 2 boxes of teabags and a 5lb bag of sugar which has enough sugar in it to have 2 teaspoons of sugar in each cup of tea from the two boxes.
92. Coffee
How is this not a water enhancer #77? Anyways the Large Red bucket of Folgers coffee was 240 6-ounce servings for $9 which puts it at just under 4 cents a cup, black no cream no sugar. A 5lb bag of sugar has enough sugar in it to have 2 teaspoons of sugar in each cup of coffee.
Shortage Check: Weather patterns are currently pointing toward a poor coffee bean harvest and experts expect a coffee shortage in 2022. Coffee is susceptible to the same problems as grains and other commercial crops only there are fewer countries that can grow coffee.
93. Cigarettes
94. Wine/Liquors (for bribes, medicinal, etc,)
Shortage Check: Due to weather and production issues, 2020 had reduced demand so the trade association lowered its production cap and was then unable to meet demand when it returned in 2021, Champagne had shortages. Due to glass and aluminum shortages, there are also shortages of beer and wine.
95. Paraffin wax
Name me one good reason to use this wax over soy or beeswax? Why is this not Candle making supplies #55?
96. Glue, nails, nuts, bolts, screws, etc.
Seriously isn’t this just #90 in a different order?
97. Chewing gum/candies
Candies are good for a short burst of energy, and sometimes an improvement in mood.
98. Atomizers (for cooling/bathing)
Cooling Towels are one means of turning water into evaporative cooling.
99. Hats & cotton neckerchiefs
Handkerchiefs have many uses in survival situations.
100. Goats/chickens
What else disappears in a crisis?
At the start of Covid, Masks weren’t available worldwide in the numbers that medical professionals needed them, not enough were available for consumer demand on top of increased healthcare needs.
Baby formula, there are only 3 manufacturing plants in the US that make baby formula, closing just one of them created a nationwide shortage.
Blood, if folks are not able to leave their homes blood drives are impacted and blood supplies fall to their lowest levels in decades.
Canned goods, like canned vegetables and soups, soda, teas, and other beverages may be less plentiful due to aluminum availability. Pet food and Beer are also part of this problem.
Chicken, shortages due to processing plant closures as well as diseased chickens killed due to bird flu cases in supplier populations.
Computer Chips, over the last two decades computer fabrication sites, were moved overseas to Asia. Disruptions to the production at those Fabs and then impacts on the shipping and supply chains affected the availability of chips in many industries.
Cream Cheese
Meat, meat processing plants in the US were closed down and reopened at reduced capacity during Covid. Meat disappeared from store shelves, meat was sold on a limited basis when supplies did become available.
Potassium Iodide tablets disappeared from store shelves and online sites after Fukushima as well as when the Russians shelled a Ukrainian nuclear power plant with artillery. After Fukushima, fake potassium Iodide tablets flooded the market.
Potatoes
Saline bags, for the US we get all of our Saline bags from Puerto Rico. When storms hit Puerto Rico and the emergency response and recovery effort were underwhelming this led to a Saline bag shortage in the US.
Toilet Paper, during Covid there were shortages due to people hoarding it, like bottled water, bread, eggs, and milk shortages that are more psychological than related to needs or problems in the supply chain.
Ventilators were both not kept maintained in stockpiles and in serious demand more than manufacturers could meet nor could they ramp up capacity to make more medical devices quickly.
From a Sarajevo War Survivor:
Experiencing horrible things that can happen in a war – the death of parents and friends, hunger and malnutrition, endless freezing cold, fear, sniper attacks.
1. Stockpiling helps. but you never know how long trouble will last, so locate near renewable food sources.
2. Living near a well with a manual pump is like being in Eden.
3. After a while, even gold can lose its luster. But there is no luxury in war quite like toilet paper. Its surplus value is greater than gold.
4. If you had to go without one utility, lose electricity – it’s the easiest to do without (unless you’re in a very nice climate with no need for heat.)
5. Canned foods are awesome, especially if their contents are tasty without heating. One of the best things to stockpile is canned gravy – it makes a lot of the dry unappetizing things you find to eat in war somewhat edible. Only needs enough heat to “warm”, not to cook. It’s cheap too, especially if you buy it in bulk.
Gravy is made with water, fat, and flour. Here is another place where knowing the proper technique can be better than having a supply.
6. Bring some books – escapist ones like romance or mysteries become more valuable as the war continues. Sure, it’s great to have a lot of survival guides, but you’ll figure most of that out on your own anyway – trust me, you’ll have a lot of time on your hands. Lots of people hiding in underground train stations during the Blitz read Agatha Christie mysteries.
7. The feeling that you’re human can fade pretty fast. I can’t tell you how many people I knew who would have traded a much-needed meal for just a little bit of toothpaste, rouge, soap, or cologne. Not much point in fighting if you have to lose your humanity. These things are morale-builders like nothing else.
8. Slow burning candles and matches, matches, matches. I’m not certain what makes something a slow-burning candle, there are 100 and 120-hour candles that use different wicks and fuels. A different thickness of wick will throw off different amounts of heat and burn down a given diameter width of the candle. It is important to know if the wick and the type of fuel emit toxins in case you need to use them indoors.
If you have any feedback about this post please feel free to contact me.
Paul
Evilrobotgames at Gmail.com