Keeping your household well stocked with gear and supplies is the best thing you can do to prepare yourself for any kind of emergency situation.
However, just as important as getting your supplies prepared is getting yourself prepared.
That’s why we’ve compiled this handy guide to what kind of gear you should be equipping your home with, as well as the important survival skills you should know.
Best Gear Reviews
We’ll start off by taking a look at the best survival gear and equipment you can get today.
These are the essential items your home should have to prepare you for an emergency.
OUR TOP PICK
One of the key things you’ll need in any kind of emergency is a source of clean drinking water to keep you hydrated and hygienic.
Any water tank with a large capacity will do the job just fine but this particular tank is even better equipped.
It’s collapsable and portable, meaning you can easily take it down and carry it with you if you need to move it to a different location.
It has a universal overflow spout and dual high flow spigot to make sure you can retrieve the water efficiently, without wasting any.
In general, because this is one of the most essential pieces of survival gear in your home, it’s worth getting the best product you can online.
EDITORS CHOICE
It’s all well and good collecting a lot of rainwater in your tank but sometimes it still won’t be safe to drink.
That’s why you need to use a home water filter to make sure your drinking supply is 100% safe and won’t present you with any health risks.
The Big Berkey gravity-fed water filter is a favorite among survival preppers, not only for emergency situations but also to keep their regular water supply clean.
The best thing about this particular filter is how reliable it is.
You could buy this device 20 years before any emergency situation takes place and it will still work just fine when you need it to!
BEST VALUE
Another key piece of equipment to have in an emergency is a portable power supply that will provide you with enough electricity for basic appliances if your home’s power goes out.
For large-scale appliances like electric stoves, you’ll need a much larger power supply but these portable power banks are great for keeping cell phones charged so you can maintain communication.
RUNNER UP
A great way to provide electricity to your home if the power goes out is to use a portable solar panel charger.
These devices convert light from the sun into electrical energy that can be stored away in your portable power bank.
With most solar chargers, you can even charge devices like cell phones and radios by plugging them in directly.
RUNNER UP
As the name suggests, multitools are great for taking the palace of multiple different tools.
Instead of worrying about an entire toolbox full of important equipment, it’s much easier to keep hold of a device that will perform all of the same tasks.
This multitool is a 14-in-1 device that can replace all kinds of unnecessary extra equipment that might be taking up space in your home.
The applications of this multitool are:
- Long nose pliers
- Round nose pliers
- Cutting pliers
- Sharp knife
- Phillips screwdriver
- Slotted screwdriver (small, medium, and large)
- Serrated knife
- Hook remover
- Double-sided file
- Small scraper
- Can opener
- Bottle opener
Survival Skills
Ever heard of the phrase ‘all the gear and no idea’?
Well, that’s how you’ll be left if you buy all of the equipment we outlined in the previous section but don’t train yourself properly for an emergency survival situation.
These are some of the key things to learn as soon as possible:
RUNNER UP
As you might expect, emergency situations tend to present a lot of unexpected medical emergencies.
A lot of the time, you might not be able to get yourself or a family member to a doctor so it’s safer if you know some of the basics for treating injuries.
Cleaning a wound isn’t as simple as it may sound and there are a few things you need to know before doing it safely.
For example, placing soap in an open wound is a bad idea because it can cause irritation and pain.
You can check out WebMD’s guide to cleaning wounds in the link above to find out all of the essential information about cleaning wounds.
RUNNER UP
Once you have effectively cleaned an open wound, the next step to getting it healed is to close it properly and safely.
You can use all kinds of makeshift equipment to close a wound if you don’t have access to the proper medical supplies.
You can craft a butterfly bandage from duct tape or even use super glue.
However, closing a wound on your own body is something you should only ever do as a last resort.
If someone else can do it for you, it will be much safer and you’ll be less susceptible to the wound opening up again.
RUNNER UP
In some situations, it will be impossible to tell when an emergency will end.
That’s why it’s better to have a good supply of preserved food in your home to prevent you from running out too quickly.
There are plenty of different ways to preserve food but the best thing you can do for survival situations is to pickle your food in air-tight containers like jars.
In general, you want to avoid air getting to your food as much as possible to avoid it spoiling and becoming inedible.
Once you understand this, you can apply it to the way you store all of your food.
RUNNER UP
Anybody with a keen interest in survival or camping will know how to start a fire but everyone has to be taught this skill at some point.
Again, there are many different ways to start a fire and the best method will depend on your situation and the materials that you have available to you.
It’s best to brush up on all of the most common techniques for starting fires so that you’ll be prepared for every emergency situation you could find yourself in.
RUNNER UP
It goes without saying that a sharp knife is an essential piece of equipment for any prepper or survival enthusiast.
This tool can be used for all kinds of things that will keep you alive in most emergency situations.
However, a dull knife is pretty much useless and some instances so it’s very important to keep it sharp and in good working condition.
Once again, depending on the situation you find yourself in and the materials that you have available, knife sharpening might be easier or harder.
There are ways to sharpen knives without any complex or dedicated equipment, though, and the guide that we’ve linked above will teach you how to keep your knife sharp with something as simple as a rock!
Final Thoughts
Of course, there are still plenty of other pieces of survival equipment and training that you might want to know before any kind of emergency situation crops up near your home.
We simply didn’t have time to go over them all.
That’s why it’s worth checking out some of our other guides to emergency and survival prepping to make sure you and your family are best equipped for whatever the world throws at you.
That being said, if you follow all of the steps and guidelines we’ve gone over in this article, you’ll be much better off and a whole lot safer than you otherwise would have been.
I have kept a survival kit for all my family members in my basement since I was in my 20s. Every time a new member comes along, I make them a new kit. No one in my family will be caught out in a disaster - I make sure of it.
I teach a survival class at the local hall as well. It’s free for anyone who wants to learn about keeping themselves and their family safe, should the worst happen. We cover how to help children and the elderly, make your own evacuation and survival kits, and much more.
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