Awesome Projects for Preppers

Awesome Projects for Preppers—by Guest Contributor Matt Stevens

While there are a lot of people whose prepping starts and stops with stockpiling supplies, there are many others who make it a lifestyle. These people ultimately end up much better prepared, because they look beyond just having food and water and make or buy things to take care of any eventuality. With the high cost of buying prepping equipment and supplies, more and more have taken to making their own.

In pretty much all of these cases, you could buy the things that they make. However, by making it themselves, preppers both save money and are able to customize their equipment to their own personal needs. Considering that everyone’s lifestyle, skills and geographic location are different; there’s no such thing as “one size fits all” prepping.

Here are some of the top projects I’ve seen for preppers to make for themselves. You can find many examples of these around the Internet, as well as plans for making them.

•  Bug-Out-Bag – Everyone needs a good bug-out-bag. While you can purchase one that is ready-made, the only commercial ones I’ve seen that are worth having cost over $1,000. The lower cost ones just don’t have enough survival equipment to make me feel all that comfortable. Of course, if you think you’ll never have to bug-out for more than three days, they’d work.

•  Rainwater Capture System – This is one of the easiest ways of supplying your family with water in the event of a crisis. While a well will produce more water, it’s also a lot more work and a lot more money. You can build a good rainwater capture system that will provide quite a bit of water for under $200. Even if you live in an arid area of the country, you will get some rain, making this a worthwhile project.                                                                              

• Wind Generator – Since the electrical grid is the single most delicate part of our infrastructure and incidents of major power outages are on the rise, it just makes sense to have some way of producing your own electrical power. A wind generator is easy to make and will provide you with a fair amount of electricity.  

• Solar Panels – Making your own solar panels will save you about half the cost over buying commercially made ones. The only problem is that you have to know how to solder. But if you can do that, they really aren’t all that hard to build.   

• Vegetable Garden – Maybe you don’t think of a vegetable garden as a project, but building mine sure was. Being able to grow your own vegetables not only helps to get you away from all the GMO stuff out there, but in an emergency, it can add to your food supplies.                                                                             

• Solar Oven – I’ve always liked solar power as an energy source. A solar oven provides you with a means of cooking when the power is out… and you don’t have to worry about having enough fuel. The sun isn’t about to burn out anytime soon. Take some time to practice cooking with it too, as there is a learning curve.

• Fire Starters – It seems like you never have enough fire starters. Whether you end up bugging out or bugging in, you’ll probably use a bunch. This is a good project for when you’ve got a few minutes extra and don’t know what to do with your nervous energy.                                                                            

There are lots of other things you can make for yourself, many of which are easier than what I’ve mentioned here. I tend to concentrate on the bigger projects or they won’t get done. The little projects seem to easily fit into odds and ends of time. Besides, this is supposed to be about awesome projects; I just don’t see a paracord bracelet as being awesome.

Just remember this, every project you complete makes you a little bit more prepared!