Your Post Apocalyptic Shopping List

[MNblockhead]

Besides the obvious guns, medical supplies, food. What are the things you think you'll need to survive. I think toilet paper would be a good thing to hoard. A few extra pairs of shoes. A couple in my current size, and a couple in a narrower size as my feet may shrink a little. I have super wide feet. A dictionary and math text books. Coffee could be a useful trading item.

You don't need toilet paper. You would have to amass huge amounts of it to last long and that's only useful if you are bunkered down and don't need to be mobile.

A large portion of the world's population does just fine without toilet paper.

Really what you need first is access to water for drinking and cleaning and food. And you need other people.

After that my greatest concern would be access to first aid and medical supplies and hopefully some doctors will have survived.

Also, knives. That really stuck out as a gap in your initial list.

 

[Ryujin]

A good knife. Maybe several. You can get away with not having a lot of other things, if you at least start with a good knife. Salt. Pepper. Nitrite salts for preserving meat. A selection from this cabinet (though I think that I would skip the Phaser). My Mongolian recurve and flatbow are on top of the cabinet.

 

[Zardnaar]

Unless you know how to make hemp or sew a animal skins you're gonna need a lifetime supply of clothes.

Alot if things mentioned so far are luxuries up to and including electricity.

Short term it's food and water, then shelter longer term it's production of food and possibly water.

Various ways of preparing water to drink without chemicals. Realistically you need acrural location in urban area even with guns you can secure your stash even if you bunker up they can trash your crops.

Personally I would have a hill in a rural location even with a small trickle if water. Build a pool for tgat stream.

Have a garden know how to maintain it. If it's a secure location hothouse.

Depending on the apocalypse Yu might need several months through to a years food. Coastal helps but makes you vulnerable.

You can cook using an earth oven if you have to. Electric lights probably make you a target intitially.

So your rural retreat needs to be inconvenient to get to, easily camouflaged and prepared in advance. .
Mates not a hard core prepper or anything his rough plan is rural hill country he has a stream. It's over 100km from any major cities. There's wildlife to eat, fresh water available. Dirt road access remote location.

 

[Gradine]

Surprised nobody mentioned it, but medical supplies. And beyond the obvious too, like painkillers, bandages, splints, antibiotics to fight off infections, etc. There's a lot of people whose ability to live long and healthy lives with easy access to medicine suddenly have an extremely short life expectancy. Insulin and other diabetic medication. A entire raft of heart medications (blood pressure might be an issue!). Asthma inhalers. Prenatal vitamins were mentioned, but regular old multivitamins will help out a lot if you're reduced to stuff in cans. Even quality-of-life stuff like hormones, anti-depressants, etc. can be life-saving in the right situations. There was a semi-joke about condoms above but with all people rightfully mentioning period care* products might want to know that some oral birth control can reduce if not outright prevent periods.

Beyond that, I've watched enough Survivor to know that blankets and tarps are worth their weight in gold.


*the usage of the term 'feminine hygiene' is no longer recommended as it leaves out lots of people who have periods but aren't women, primarily transmasculine people

 

[Ryujin]

Unless you know how to make hemp or sew a animal skins you're gonna need a lifetime supply of clothes.

Alot if things me ruined so far are luxuries up to and including electricity.

Short term it's food and water, then shelter longer term it's production of food and possibly water.

Various ways of preparing water to drink without chemicals. Realistically you need acrural location in urban area even with guns you can secure your stash even if you bunker up they can trash your crops.

Personally I would have a hill in a rural location even with a small trickle if water. Build a pool for tgat stream.

Have a garden know how to maintain it. If it's a secure location hothouse.

Depending on the apocalypse Yu might need several months through to a years food. Coastal helps but makes you vulnerable.

If I could have a stable location, then my leatherworking tools would come in pretty handy.

 

[Zardnaar]

This here is a larder. Problem is everyone else probably has the same idea.



Earth ovens are easy you just need to dig a hole and line it with igneous rocks +old school) or chunks of metal. Light a fire, put fiid on coals and bury it

Tools stone and wood can do alit. Linen can be made from flax.

 

[Mad_Jack]

My little bro owns a hundred acres down in rural W. Virginia, a decent chunk of which is vertically tiered on the side of a small mountain. Very defensible.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Tonight's The Last of Us had Ellie triumphantly finding a box of tampons. This stuff matters!

 

[Zardnaar]

My little bro owns a hundred acres down in rural W. Virginia, a decent chunk of which is vertically tiered on the side of a small mountain. Very defensible.

On the plus side it's already half in the stone age as well!!.

 

[Mad_Jack]

On the plus side it's already half in the stone age as well!!.

The funny thing is my bro works in IT... They don't get cell reception or internet there, so he basically had to build his own cell/internet tower on top of his mountain and run cables for a couple hundred yards to his house. I believe he's providing internet service to two of his neighbors as well, lol.
He's really rocking the whole high-tech redneck thing these days.

 

[Zardnaar]

The funny thing is my bro works in IT... They don't get cell reception or internet there, so he basically had to build his own cell/internet tower on top of his mountain and run cables for a couple hundred yards to his house. I believe he's providing internet service to two of his neighbors as well, lol.
He's really rocking the whole high-tech redneck thing these days.

Could be useful after the apocalypse along with coal.

 

[RareBreed]

I have always thought prepper stuff seemed too immediate focused. Like a bug out bag that you need for your immediate survival for the next 3 days. It sounds "fun" for gaming, but it's also not realistic.

Beyond the immediate 3 days, you better have a source of food. And I don't mean foraging for MRE's or going all hunter-gatherer. One of the first things I would do is start gardening. That implies I need lots of people. People to farm and people to defend it. How do you do that? By hopefully finding some people you can trust.

Farming land is a precious commodity. It needs to have a steady supply of water which hopefully doesn't flood easily and doesn't suffer from droughts. An underground spring would be ideal for this. Being easily defensible would be another boon.

You'll also need draft animals. Animals for transport, and animals to plow the land....because who knows how long the fuel will last, and I don't think we'll be getting electric harvesters or plows any time soon. Speaking of which, you might want to stock up on old school lanterns. If you can learn how to make rope, you can make wicks. Not to mention making ropes is really useful.

I would also stock up on books about herbal lore so you can craft the best medicine you can. Books on farming, animal husbandry, textiles and pretty much anything 19th century you can get your hands on.

The great irony is my mom grew up in a household without electricity, AC, hot water or indoor plumbing. She grew up on a farm where they used water buffalo to plow the dry land for the rice, and my lolo (grandfather) built his house with his own hands using hand tools. My mom has survival skills I can't even comprehend, though admittedly, they are more in line for a jungle environment (she's from the Philippines).

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I have always thought prepper stuff seemed too immediate focused. Like a bug out bag that you need for your immediate survival for the next 3 days. It sounds "fun" for gaming, but it's also not realistic.

Beyond the immediate 3 days, you better have a source of food. And I don't mean foraging for MRE's or going all hunter-gatherer. One of the first things I would do is start gardening. That implies I need lots of people. People to farm and people to defend it. How do you do that? By hopefully finding some people you can trust.

Farming land is a precious commodity. It needs to have a steady supply of water which hopefully doesn't flood easily and doesn't suffer from droughts. An underground spring would be ideal for this. Being easily defensible would be another boon.

You'll also need draft animals. Animals for transport, and animals to plow the land....because who knows how long the fuel will last, and I don't think we'll be getting electric harvesters or plows any time soon. Speaking of which, you might want to stock up on old school lanterns. If you can learn how to make rope, you can make wicks. Not to mention making ropes is really useful.

I would also stock up on books about herbal lore so you can craft the best medicine you can. Books on farming, animal husbandry, textiles and pretty much anything 19th century you can get your hands on.

The great irony is my mom grew up in a household without electricity, AC, hot water or indoor plumbing. She grew up on a farm where they used water buffalo to plow the dry land for the rice, and my lolo (grandfather) built his house with his own hands using hand tools. My mom has survival skills I can't even comprehend, though admittedly, they are more in line for a jungle environment (she's from the Philippines).

One of my big complaints about post-apocalypse stuff is that it's largely written by misanthropic city folks who don't realize that going at it alone after the apocalypse is one of the most dangerous things you can do. More people mean more security, in every sense, including food security, which matters immediately and never stops mattering.

 

[Zardnaar]

One of my big complaints about post-apocalypse stuff is that it's largely written by misanthropic city folks who don't realize that going at it alone after the apocalypse is one of the most dangerous things you can do. More people mean more security, in every sense, including food security, which matters immediately and never stops mattering.

Well I think that's the idea of the guns and bunker full of food.

I don't think the bug out bag is for the apocalypse more social disturbance or natural disaster.

Live near an old Pa. Go full tribal!!

Pā - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Well I think that's the idea of the guns and bunker full of food.

A bunker full of food will run out long before your local supermarket is back up and running.

 

[Zardnaar]

A bunker full of food will run out long before your local supermarket is back up and running.

Depends how big the bunker is. After apocalypse there is no supermarket.

Got bored in Covid watched some prepper videos. One had 5 years supply of food.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Depends how big the bunker is. After apocalypse there is no supermarket.

Got bored in Covid watched some prepper videos. One had 5 years supply of food.

Right, so, back to my original point: At some point, you're going to run out of food, unless you only intend to survive for five years.

 

[Zardnaar]

Right, so, back to my original point: At some point, you're going to run out of food, unless you only intend to survive for five years.

I think the idea is most people starve and once the chaos, pillaging etc stop the survivors rebuild.

Isn't there prepper communities as well now? That old air force base with the hardened hangers turned into shelters?

 

[Ryujin]

One of my big complaints about post-apocalypse stuff is that it's largely written by misanthropic city folks who don't realize that going at it alone after the apocalypse is one of the most dangerous things you can do. More people mean more security, in every sense, including food security, which matters immediately and never stops mattering.

Also, most of the post apocalyptic stuff assumes that the vast majority of people die off incredibly quickly. It doesn't consider what would happen if civilization just ended, with most of the people still alive. No grazing in empty supermarkets. The cities would spit out vast numbers of people, who are unable to look after themselves, and would strip the land like locusts.

 

[John R Davis]

With lots of death there will be loads energy to go around from wind and solar
Should be a lovely time PA