I want to talk about what's in your closet.

The things that are tucked away, all but forgotten.

The stuff you bought on sale and forgot about. The things you only used once and then stashed away. The items at the back of the pantry, the clutter in the junk drawer, and the stash in the garage.

You probably have all sorts of preps already.

So before you go out and buy a bunch of stuff, you need to take a deep dive into your home and unearth your treasures. Nearly everyone has odds and ends on hand that, when organized, can form the backbone of a prepper stockpile.

If the last few chapters left you feeling overwhelmed and maybe a little bit defeated, I think you'll feel way better after this one.

Let's see what you've got!

Figure out what you've already got

I like to have my lists (the ones we made in the last chapter) close at hand and go treasure-hunting for preps. The way I generally get started is by attacking different storage areas in my house. One by one, I explore my closets, my junk drawers, my medicine cabinets, and my storage areas.  I have an area in my home that I use as Command Central, where the preps I found will go. Currently, Command Central is my dining table.

I have a process that I use for this:

I gather up cleaning supplies, a box for preps, a marker, a notebook and pen, and my lists.

I pull everything out of the area I'm working on. For this example, let's say we're doing the hall closet.

I lay my hands on every single item in that closet, going through any baskets and bins.

If something is on one of my prepper lists, I put it in a box. You may want more than one box – for example, house and hygiene, power outage, pets.

I wipe out the cabinets and shelves before I put things back in.

I return the day-to-day use items, such as towels, bed linens, current cleaning supplies that are in use, the open container of kitty kibble, the nail file, etc., to their places.

Everything that is a prep goes into its respective box and goes into my Command Central,

Now I'm left with a clean, organized closet and a stack of random preps I didn't even know I had. Win-win!