by Daisy Luther, The Organic Prepper:
Do you feel overwhelmed by trying to get prepared? The checklists feel endless. There’s always another gadget, always another class, always another bucket of food that you need to add to your stockpile.
At one point, someone gave me an Excel spreadsheet with a multitude of tabs at the bottom, which linked to every area of life and gave me a list of things that I “needed” that I couldn’t purchase all of even if I lived for two hundred years! That didn’t help me! It discouraged me!
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80/20 Principle
But I found encouragement in an unlikely place. One of the classes I’m teaching this year is called SOAR. It’s all about study skills and helping students accomplish more in less time with less stress. How many of us could use less stress? I know I can!
One of the foundational principles from this class was introduced by a man named Vilfredo Pareto: it’s called the Pareto Principle. This principle says that eighty percent of your success comes from twenty percent of your effort. The curriculum stresses that if we only focus on the twenty percent that brings us eighty percent of our effectiveness, we will succeed so much more easily – and with less stress.
The effectiveness of this principle doesn’t hold true just in study skills – it’s true for all of life! Including preparedness! During our time as preppers, we’ve suffered a job loss and inadequate employment. I can tell you how thankful I was to have buckets of food on hand with basic ingredients. Buckets of oats and wheat berries aren’t glamorous, but I can do so much with those basic ingredients!
I can’t tell you how many times we’ve used our portable fans. Now these aren’t your small handheld fans. These are portable, battery-operated 10” square fans that blow an incredible amount of air. When my husband was working in construction up on a scaffolding, these worked incredibly well, keeping him cool. When I sold my items at homesteading Expos, these fans were a lifesaver for our little group. When the power went out at home, we were able to use these fans.
The Core 20% of Prepping
So, if we’re applying the 80/20 principle to our prepping, what is the 20% that we should be focusing on?
Water
Most people overlook this and go directly to food. You can live three weeks without food, but you can only live three days without water. There are so many ways to store water, from water barrels which hold fifty-five gallons, to water bricks which hold 3 gallons, to 5-gallon water containers with spigots, to gallons of water, to water bottles.
The rule of thumb is that every person needs 1 gallon of water per person per day for drinking, cooking, and hygiene.
Food
When you are gathering food, I teach that you should put your long-term food storage into place before you put your short-term food storage into place. Long-term food storage is food that will stay good for up to thirty years if stored properly. Check out the list below. What foods do you eat that are on this list. Consider stocking up. Long-term food storage foods include:
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