This article was written by Gaye Levy and originally posted at Backdoor Survival

One of the excuses used for not prepping is that it takes a lot of time. True enough. Anything that you pursue with passion and intensity is going to take some time. On the other hand, there are plenty of prepping activities that can be undertaken in just five minutes.

Come on. I said just five minutes. And five minutes a day over the course of a year? That 30 hours with a whole lot of prepping going on. Today I am sharing some preparedness projects that can be accomplished in just five minutes. So if you think you don’t have time to prep, think again.

Shall we start? Here are some 5 minute projects, listed in no particular order.

1. Purchase a prepping notebook or binder where you can accumulate information you need in the event of an emergency.

2. Wash out empty juice jugs, swish with a bit of bleach and fill them with water for an emergency. Be sure to date them so that you that you can rotate them on an annual basis.

3. Place a pair of shoes, socks, work gloves, a whistle, and a light stick or flashlight with batteries under your bed for use during or after an emergency.

4. Talk to family members about how you will re-unite with each other following a disaster.

5. Choose an out-of-state contact person that is willing to be a relay point for information after-the-fact to your other family members and loved ones. (Following a disaster, telephone lines to an out-of-state location may work when local calls do not.)

6. Introduce yourself to a neighbor you have not met. Exchange emergency telephone numbers.

7. Purchase a manual can opener on your next visit to the store.

8. Fill empty milk jugs or other plastic containers with water and store them in your freezer. The frozen jugs will keep your food colder for longer in the event of a power outage. The water can also serve as a backup source for cleaning or sanitation purposes.

9. Read Food Safety When the Grid Goes Down and print out the food safety charts at the at the FoodSafety.gov website. Attach them to the inside of a cupboard door so you have them handy after a power outage or disaster.

10. Mark your calendar with a date one year from now so that you remember to rotate your canned goods out of storage.

11. Purchase extra canned goods each time you visit the grocery store.

12. Locate your utility shutoff valves and review the instructions for turning them off. Place a shut-off tool by the door nearest to them

13. Test your smoke alarms.

14. Make a list of all of your prescription drugs along with dosages and keep the list in your emergency kit.

15. Take digital photos of each room in your house. Take five minutes for each room and do you best to capture as much as you can. This will facilitate any after the fact insurance claims.

16. Write down your insurance policy numbers and your agent’s phone number, and put them in your wallet and in your emergency kit.

17. Add $1 a week to your emergency cash fund. If you can afford it, add $5 per week (or more) to the fund.

18. Make digital copies of your important documents and store them on a flash drive.

19. Make a backup copy of the data on your computer hard drive and give it to a friend or relative to store for you. In computer terms, this is called “off site backup”.

20. Locate a source of water outside of your home such as a lake, pond or stream.

21. Learn to cook a pot of rice.

22. Download free prepping, survival and homesteading for e-books from Amazon as they become available. Check the Backdoor Survival Facebook page for almost daily announcements of books that are currently available – often for just a day or two.

23. Call (800-480-2520) or email FEMA (fema-publications-warehouse@fema.gov) to order a free copy of their excellent print book “Are You Ready Guide to Preparedness”. For more information about this publication, see Free for You: The “Are You Ready Guide to Preparedness”.

24. Practice starting a fire using a bit of dryer lint, a cotton ball soaked in petroleum jelly or a flint and steel.

25. Sow some seeds, fruits and veggies that is.

26. Visit one of the websites in the article Special Report: The Best Prepper Websites.

So there you go, 26 prepping projects that will take only five minutes each. Have some ideas of your own? I would love to have you share them in the comments below.

THE FINAL WORD

Preparing for a disaster or crisis or even an economic collapse does not have to be an insurmountable task. Breaking tasks down in to manageable chunks will make the job less chore-like and less of a burden. As a bonus, when you are done, you will feel the sense of satisfaction that comes from knowing that you have done something to secure your safety and well-being if it all goes to heck.

One thing for sure, you need to make every day a prepping day!

Enjoy your next adventure through common sense and thoughtful preparation!

Gaye

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Below are five things that you can do to become better prepared. You might have some or all of these things already in place. If that’s the case, good for you! If not, pick one of the following and work towards it.

Develop a Communication Plan

Getting in touch with your loved ones in an emergency, to make sure everyone is alright, is of the utmost importance. However, in an emergency, cell phone traffic can be blocked or over-loaded. Landlines can become over-loaded as well. So, what are your options?

Texting uses far less bandwidth and can sometimes get through when a regular call would not. If you have a smart phone, you could update your status on social media or send an e-mail. Another good option is to have a long distance contact. In an emergency, if your family is separated, everyone would call this long distance contact to check in. The reason for this is that while the local lines may be bogged down, sometimes the long distance lines work and a call can go through.

I also highly recommend that you have a hard copy of all important phone numbers that are stored in your cell phone. You never know when your battery will die or you’ll lose your phone. I covered this in more detail in Low Tech Data Storage. I also covered a couple ways of simple encryption you can use to protect that data in Secure Your Personal Data with Low Tech Cryptology.
 
 
Know your weaknesses and how to mitigate them

This is possibly the most important thing you can do, both for your person and for your location. In Preparing for Physical Limitations, I cover how to examine your health and find ways to mitigate potential or existing dangers. I gave the example of my leg. Right now, if I had to bug out, my leg couldn’t go for very long. I have devised some ways to make it less of a possible liability to me.

In How to do a Threat Assessment, I explain how to discover potential or existing threats in your home, in your neighborhood and in your general area. I also explain that you should do this for your bug out routes.
 
 
Be prepared to shelter in place

I believe that in the vast majority of situations, battening down (bugging in, staying home) is the best choice. You should be prepared to support you and your family, including pets, for an absolute minimum of seven days. I do think you should be able to do so for longer, but if you don’t have enough supplies right now, make seven days your temporary goal. This means food, water, medicines, proper shelter (heat if cold out), security for each member of your family and, again, pets.
 
 
Have a bug out plan including a kit

As I said, in the vast majority of situations, battening down is a better idea. Mr. Murphy (Murphy’s Law) and his cousin Mr. Dirtbag can sometimes make it safer to leave home. For this reason you should have a BOB (Bug Out Bag)BOB (Bug Out Bag) stocked with seasonal clothes. If you do not have a BOL (Bug Out Location) I explain in Bugging Out or Battening Down? how you can pick four, one for each direction away from your home. When it is actively hitting the fan is not the time to figure out where to go and how to get there. Do this now. Pick a spot with multiple routes.
 
 
Know where you can get water and how to purify it

Aside from oxygen, water is the most important thing to human life. Don’t take your tap, the grocery store or anywhere else you buy your water, for granted. Identify the closest place you can get water. Also know how to purify it. If you do not have a water source nearby then you might consider storing more.

If you do these five things you will be further along the path to taking care of your family in an emergency situation.