How to be an (almost) prepper in 3 easy steps!
- Alissa G.
- Mar 22, 2016
- 2 min read

So here's the story, as promised, of how I became an (almost) prepper. I would say it started out as unintentional and spiraled out from there and once you get to a certain point, there's no turning back.
Step 1- Become a tiny bit obsessive about running out of something
It drives me crazy when I go looking in my panty or hall closet and I can't find what I need because I've run out of something and forgot to replace it. I won't say I hate it, but I actively dislike it. It's that lazy part of my brain that doesn't like being inconvenienced in any way. So when I get ready to go to the store and I'm making my list, I check what I only have one of in the cupboard and add it to my list.
Step 2 - Forget your grocery list on the kitchen counter ( a lot)
I admit it. As much as Step 1 makes it sound as if I'm supremely organized, I'm not. More often than not I forget my grocery list on the counter and have to wing it. Which is why when I need to buy a couple of cans of tuna one week I end up buying a couple of cans of tuna a few weeks in a row. My brain just gets stuck sometimes on one item I absolutely must buy which is how I ended up at one point with thirty cans of tuna, twelve cans of diced tomatoes, eight packages of shallots, and four can openers.
Step 3 - Get a severe case of the flu where you lack the energy to reach down to the floor where you dropped the remote so you end up watching a marathon of Doomsday Preppers
This happened to me a couple of years back and the hours of being held hostage to the show imprinted it on my fevered brain. I attended an "Emergency Preparedness Fair" a few weeks ago and somehow it had become the coolest thing ever. I listened to the man talking about living off the electrical grid like he was the greated motivational speaker I've ever heard. The way that man talked about building your own bicycle-powered generator and rocket was just so inspiring that I wanted to run out to my garage and start taking my bike apart. I also attended a session on building 72-hour emergency kits and I was giving them suggestion.
Does having emergency and back-up supplies make me feel any safer in case of a geniune emergency? I'm still figuring that out for myself. It does make me feel like that's one less thing I'll have to worry about if the world falls apart but that will just give me more time to worry about what I'm going to if the WiFi goes out. I shudder to think of it!
By the way, the above photo is not of my pantry. The one in my house is not that big, nowhere near as organized, and would NEVER contain pickles.