Total Home Prep Now $29.95
I was recently sent a DVD called Total Home Prep Now, which I watched and am going to give you my thoughts on.
From the DVD jacket:
“In just over one hour our exclusive DVD course will teach you everything you want and need to know about getting prepared. No fluff here just practical, easy to follow, step by step video lessons that will get you prepared faster than any other product on the market.”
Overall Video
The video is very well made. Both presenters do a good job and the camera work was good as well. They were able to squeeze a lot of information in just over an hour. One thing I like is that they tell you what to search the Internet for to get more information on different subjects. If they wanted to go in depth on all of the aspects of preparedness they would need to make this a series of DVD’s. Listed below are the subjects they covered and my thoughts on them.
Food
They do a really good job on this section; how to go about starting a pantry, explaining the two main rules of food storage and the enemies of food storage.
Some food staples are listed and they list expected shelf life. They also explain what the shelf life is with and without storing things in Mylar with an oxygen absorber.
They do a great job of explaining how to store food in metal lined bags (Mylar), and cover some of the problems I ran into in the beginning. Over the years, I have watched a fair number of videos of people putting up food for long term storage. This was one of the better ones.
They used a bath canner and stored apples in jars. They explained the entire process of blanching and soaking the apple to prevent the color from changing. They also used a pressure canner to store chicken. I found this pretty interesting, as I haven’t ever canned meats.
Water
Gathering, treating and storing water is covered in pretty good detail. Rain catchment and using a bathtub bladder are both covered. They also show a clever idea on how to use a tarp and some poles to catch even more rain.
They explain some of the differences in water filters and bring up some points you should consider when looking for one. They cover boiling water and how to store water in a 55 gallon drum.
House
This area covers topics like developing a family action plan, researching potential local threats, how to shut off your gas and electricity.
Sanitation
There are a few different ways listed to deal with sanitation. I’m glad they covered this, as it is an area many people overlook.
Vehicle
Vehicle Prep covers some good info, including never letting your gas tank get below half and doing a vehicle once over, checking for problems with belts, tires and checking for leaks.
Do It Yourself
There are a fair amount of projects shown that you can do yourself. Some of them are:
How to build your own water filter
How to put a spigot on a 55 gallon drum
How to grow sprouts
How to make a small cache out of PVC
How to dig a trench for a latrine
How to make a faraday cage
My Take
There were a few things that I disagree with them on, but on every one of them, they erred on the side of caution. I also disagree that this DVD covers everything you’ll need to know, but it does cover some of the most important things.
This video would have saved me many hours of research in the beginning, and would be a great resource to anyone relatively new to prepping. If you have been at preparedness for a few years, there are probably still some things you will learn, but you’re probably familiar with most of the content.
I usually base my rating system on how much value I feel I got out of the product. I am going to give this DVD a rating from the stand point of someone who is relatively new to preparedness and not from the standpoint of someone who has a blog and talks about it.
As I mentioned above, this DVD would have saved me a lot of research on some of the most important aspects of preparedness. I like that they gave some ideas for things to research if you want more information. The DIY projects are an added bonus as well.
Because I think the DVD has a lot to offer to a newbie to preparedness, I give it four stars.
