Knowing How to Protect Your Supplies - Part One

Today, we have a practical talk about Knowing How to Protect Your Supplies – Part One.

You have worked so hard to plan, prepare, and stock up; now you want to be able to use your supplies, not lose them to looters.

This talk was originally very long, so we have divided it into two parts to make it more readable. Please do check out part two also, you would not want to miss any good info.

Please note, this is general information. It is for information, education, and entertainment only. Whether it is gardening, farming, animal care, survival, emergency, self-sufficient lifestyle, DIY projects, or herbal preparations this is for info-sharing only. It is not meant to replace urgent medical care. As we have said, we are not doctors, vets, or professionals of any kind. This info is not meant for medical diagnosis or as treatment advice. We do not guarantee any results that we have gotten for any of the projects that we share with you. We share info that has worked for us. For more info, please see the Out Standing in the Field disclaimer page.

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This is the Table of Contents for Knowing How to Protect Your Supplies-Part One. The title is at the top in bold black. There is a list of topics on the left and drawn picture to represent the four topics on the right. Picture one is a pile of junk to hide valuable supplies. Picture two has three cats. One cat is telling the cat to its’ left all about the supplies that they have stashed up. The cat on the right has an upset look on his face. Picture three has a secret garden that looks weedy and unkept but actually has herbs and unusual veg in it. There are three monkeys wearing shorts and hats with confused looks on their faces. Picture four is a bear on a skate board with a backpack of supplies and a van full of supplies ready to bug out. The background is white with a dusty, turquoise border frame.

Consider that if a major crisis, emergency, or natural disaster has hit and the world is in an even bigger mess than it ever has been. Now there were people who were prepared for the emergency situations and then there were those who were not.

What happens when the ones who were unprepared start coming to take from those who do have it? You must take preventative measures to be sure you keep what you have worked for. Of course, preventative measures should always be taken, but there are some things you can do once an emergency or crisis has already started, if you have not done so yet.

This is the section header for If Supplies Were Not Already Hidden, Do It Now. The title is in bold black. There is a drawn picture that shows a pile of junk to hide valuable supplies. The background is white with a dusty, turquoise border frame.

Step one to Knowing How to Protect Your Supplies is to know how to hide them.

1. If Supplies Were Not Already Hidden, Do It Now

One of the best deterrents to looters is keeping them from finding your supplies in the first place. If you have all your supplies out in the open and someone comes along who needs them, you won’t have them for long. Before you have a situation where someone tries to take your supplies, hide them.

Some people do not want to put their supplies out of easy reach. That is practical. And you do not have to hide your stuff so well that you can not get to it either, that is not even practical.

There are so many ways and places to hide supplies. Just look around and find even small spaces that are unused in your home or on your property. You can hide your supplies in plain sight where looters won’t think to look.

Obviously, if you hide your food in a pantry, looters will look there. But they may not think to look inside appliances like a stove or a washer and dryer.

For storage purposes, have a couple of extra appliances in your garage, like they are old junkers. Who does not have a few of those lying around? Load them up with your supplies and then stack boxes and other garage items on top of them. Most looters want to get in and get out quickly. They will not want to stop and go through your junk pile to see if there is anything there worth taking. Looters may not take the time to search beyond the obvious.

Just make sure you have securely packaged your supplies in waterproof containers or bags so they are protected from humidity and pests.

Hide supplies at the bottom of filing cabinets and camouflage them by placing folders and papers on top of them. Put supplies in laundry hampers and cover them with wadded-up old clothes to make it look like the hamper is full of dirty laundry or old rags.

Stash your supplies inside air vents, inside large pillows, or create a fake wall to hide supplies. Camouflage is the key make it look like it is something else.

Fake furniture is one way to hide stuff. Wooden boxes filled with supplies, but made to look like a sofa or coffee table.

Tape supplies on the underside of cabinets out of sight, or place supplies beneath cabinets, hidden behind the baseboards. Underneath kitchen cabinets, is usually empty space all the way to the supporting walls. Use this empty space to store your extra supplies. They may not be as easy to get to but they are harder to find also for would be looters.

Do remember to keep a list of what things are stored where. And rotate that stock just like you would do other supplies. It would be bad for you to go through all this trouble of hiding stuff to forget where you put it, and then it could be spoiled by the time you find it.

If you are storing supplies outside of the home or buildings, remember to have it properly sealed against water, heat, and pests.

Outside, you can store supplies in garbage cans and either leave them sitting like they are used for trash, or you can mark them with labels such as “compost” or something else that would fool a looter.

Cover waterproof containers with natural debris like leaves and brush. Put up outside meter boxes that are fake and put supplies in that. Do not use the real city electrical boxes. Old boxes lying around the yard can hide supplies. If you have old freezers or even old cars in the yard, use them.

Many people will bury a cache of supplies. Supplies can be buried underground in tubing or pipes. PVC with threaded tops wrapped with tape works well.

Burying an old freezer or fridge may seem like a good idea, and it may be, but be sure you mark it well or leave some way for you to find it. Do not rely on your memory, the trees change, the ground washes, and you may not remember “how it looked” when you buried it. This is extra important if your family is trying to find your stash without you. And do not think you can rely on a metal detector, if the freezer is buried too deep, the metal detector may not find it. Yes, we know, it has happened.

Food storage buckets that are well sealed will also work.

Use ammo cans for ammo and medical supplies. Try not to put food in ammo cans, as it leaves an odd taste and odor to the food.

Anything that will keep out water and pests will work.

We are sure you have heard the old saying, “Do not put all of your eggs in the same basket”. Well, that is true for hiding supplies as well. Do not keep all your survival supplies together. Use several different hideouts so that if one gets taken, you will still have others.

Bury them in your backyard or along your bug out trail or in the woods. The inside of tree stumps or in the base of trees that are hollowed make good places to stash supplies. Look for places that are not obvious to a looter.

Again, just remember to have your supplies wrapped and sealed to protect them, or they will be no good when you need them.

This is the section header for The Best Defense Is a Closed Mouth. The title is in bold black. There is a drawn picture that shows three cats. One cat is telling the cat to its’ left all about the supplies that they have stashed up. The cat on the right has an upset look on his face. The background is white with a dusty, turquoise border frame.

Step two to Knowing How to Protect Your Supplies is to keep your mouth and your family’s mouths shut. Advertising is the worst thing you can do.

2. The Best Defense Is a Closed Mouth

If you are someone who is prepared for the crisis that hits, it can be easy to feel satisfaction in the thought that you have prepared when others have not. But you do not want to let anyone know that you are prepared.

In normal circumstances, people have access to food. They don’t get desperate. But when there is no food and no other supplies and no way to get what is needed, people will go to great lengths to find and take what they need.

But they won’t know where to look, whose house to approach, unless you have been telling other people about all the stuff you have been stockpiling. In desperate times, word of mouth about where there is a location of food and other supplies will travel fast.

It can be tempting to let your friends in on your secret. After all, you’re friends. But you have not seen how your friends act when they are desperately hungry and maybe have a family of their own that is starving or needs medical supplies.

When people get hungry enough, when they get desperate enough, there is no such thing as friendship. There is only survival, and if you are the only thing standing between them and survival, they are not likely to choose you.

You might believe that family is different. Surely your family would not take what you have stored. Think again. An emergency or crisis situation changes people and drives them to do things they would not normally do. They will do things that you never thought they would or could.

That is, of course, the point of preparing for an emergency or survival situation, to know what you will and will not do and what you will and will not need to do.

Your best offense to make sure that you and the people you are responsible for have enough supplies is to keep your mouth shut. Do not tell anyone that you have anything stored up at all.

It may seem like the right thing to do to offer food and supplies to others in desperate need. But consider your family. If you give away your supplies, will you be able to take care of them? Will you be able to grow, raise, or get more supplies? If so, then you will need to weigh the dangers of giving some help to others. It may seem hard or heartless, but if you give to them once, they will come back looking for more.

It is the same as the old saying “feed the stray cat and it will go away”. That is not true, the cat has found food and comfort here once and it will come back or stay. People are the same when times become desperate.

This is the section header for Grow a Garden of Unrecognizable Foods. The title is in bold black. There is a drawn picture that shows a secret garden that looks weedy and unkept but actually has herbs and unusual veg in it. There are three monkeys wearing shorts and hats with confused looks on their faces. The background is white with a dusty, turquoise border frame.

Another part of Knowing How to Protect Your Supplies is knowing how to hide what you are growing.

3. Grow a Garden of Unrecognizable Foods

We always recommend that you grow your own food, this is just one step in a self-sufficient lifestyle. But when there is an emergency or crisis situation, you do not want it looking like you are growing a great garden. If looters notice that you have a big, bushy, green garden, they will dig it up for themselves.

So, do not plant your garden in neat little rows like you normally would. At this point, we must admit, our garden is generally not in neat, little rows anyway. Instead, plant your garden in a variety of areas around your property and make it look like there is nothing at all edible there.

If looters see what they think is a bunch of weeds growing, they are not going to investigate. They are going to move on. Have things in the garden like nettles and peanuts, gogi berries, quinoa and root crops like yams, carrots, beets, onions, etc.

Grow unusual crops or plants that only look like weeds. A herb garden is a great example of this. Most people just see flowers or weeds in an herb bed if they do not know their plants. They have no idea that your herb garden is a natural pharmacy and medicine chest.

Root vegetables are not easily identifiable either, and can safely grow out of sight. Let your veg grow up right along with the weeds and other items that can help keep it safe.

Because your garden will look like weeds, it will be safer from looters looking for easy to grab and carry supplies.

In regular times it is hard to get people to manual labor. How much less likely are they to work in the garden in an immediate survival situation?

This is a great strategy for the experienced forager. You know what
“weeds” can be used as medicine, and which can be eaten. You can use this knowledge to your advantage. If you are not a forager, learn this skill; it could save your life.

This is the section header for Considering the Need to Bug Out. The title is in bold black. There is a drawn picture that shows a bear on a skate board with a backpack of supplies and a van full of supplies ready to bug out. The background is white with a dusty, turquoise border frame.

Another aspect of Knowing How to Protect Your Supplies is to know if it is time to bug out.

4. Considering the Need to Bug Out

When an emergency or crisis situation is in full swing, you may have to make crucial decisions in a second’s notice. Be prepared to change course in mid-stream if necessary. While you might have planned to remain where you are, in some situations, you might be faced with having to bug out. If you can remain where you are and you are safe and you have supplies, then it makes sense to stay.

However, if your area has been overrun with mobs of people scavenging for food and supplies, even if your home has not been hit yet, it is only a matter of time before it likely will be.

When people gather in a mob, in the best of conditions, the mood can quickly turn, the herd mentality kicks in, and people get hurt. Adding things like hunger, fear, and desperation to that mix, and you have a recipe for disaster. Possibly including life or death situations.

Your safety and your family’s safety are more important than holding down the fort. If you are faced with a mob determined to overrun your area, you will want to bug out.

This is where preparing with a backup location and spreading supply stashes around comes in. If you have a secondary location that is already set up with food and supplies, you could go there. Of course, you will want to do some recon and be sure that the location is not more dangerous than this one.

If bugging out will mean that you will be put in a desperate situation, then you will have to weigh the risks. If you do not have a way to take supplies with you, or if someone in your family is not capable of traveling, then staying and fighting to protect your home might be your only option.

But just be aware that if the mob is large enough, odds are good you will not come out the victor unless you are prepared to use lethal force. If you have a secondary place that you can bug out to that is safe and has a food supply, when a mob shows up in your area, then leaving is the safest option for you. You can always come back once the mob has moved on to another area, if it is even safe to return. Odds are there will not be much left to come back to, but you and your family will be safe.

This is a section divider for Knowing How to Protect Your Supplies-Part One. There is a single, thin, dusty, turquoise line. The background is white with a dusty, turquoise border frame.

As we said, this talk was originally very long, so we have divided it into two parts. This will conclude Knowing How to Protect Your Supplies – Part One Please check out Knowing How to Protect Your Supplies – Part Two.

If you are interested in some of our other talks, please see the ones below.

Bartering and Trading

Knowing How to Protect Your Supplies -Part Two

Foraging for Beginners

Build Your Own Home Apothecary

Choosing Fall Spices for Taste and Medical Properties

Thank you for visiting, and please come again for another edition of Out Standing in the Field.