Learn from the Mistakes We Made

We think we're pretty savvy when it comes to preparedness but we've made our share of prep mistakes. Learn from our mistakes so you don't repeat them. 

For instance, storing water in plastic bottles may be lighter than storing water in glass jugs. There are a number of reasons not to store in plastic, but if you choose to do this, make sure you don't store anything with the water jugs. Our mistake was keeping our plastic jugs of water in the same container as our store of paper money. On our yearly inspection (or maybe it was over a year), the plastic jugs had leaked and that paper money - all $200 worth - was wet and moldy. Kudos to the wonderful bank teller who patiently peeled those $20s apart and was able to refund us almost all of it.  

Another thing to think about is storing your food supplies. Store what you like to eat. We made the mistake of buying for calories, not buying what we like to eat. Even though we had a very detailed list of expiration dates, life happens and we didn't eat the lard and voluminous cans of green beans we'd stored and had to compost or throw away a lot of our expired food. The lesson? Store what you like to eat so you eat and replace, eat and replace. Just make sure to replace. 

Finally, as we found out, children grow and they grow fast. Check the clothing you packed in your GO-bag last year - you may be surprised to find the outfit you have for your child will in no way be useful. 

The moral of the story here? Check your preparedness stores regularly to make sure nothing's leaked, expiration dates and information are current, and clothing will actually do the job you expect it to.