This is the second in a series of crisis diaries. It deals with the subjects of stocking food for a long-term emergency, dealing with human waste and other trash and finding places to store water, food and other supplies when you live in a small space like an apartment or condo.
Part 1
How much food do you need?
Few people realize just how much food they eat (except Mom. She knows). Think about it, though. Three meals a day times four people times seven days is 84 meals. In a month, a family of four eats 336 meals. If each meal is about a pound (including drinks, which weigh a lot) that’s eating the weight of two fully grown adult men each and every month (this is not a serving suggestion, just a comparison). When you break down the geometry, what that means is that the volume of food you need to feed your family for a month will take up about half a typical 2’ x 3’ closet or a volume about the size of an average dish washer or stove. Ever wonder why Ye Olde Tyme folks stored their food in barns? Because they needed the room to fit it all.
You don’t need to eat k-rations to survive
Most of the food you keep for emergencies can be the same food you eat everyday – unless you eat a lot of frozen dinners or fresh meats and fish. In a crisis the electricity will probably be out all or most of the time, so freezers and fresh food will not be an option for most of us (barring hunting and fishing).
The food you store should be canned, dried or preserved and represent a balanced diet. Keep your food supplies in a cool, dry, dark place, up off the floor. Label them with their purchase date and their expiration date. Keep your food in sealed plastic bins. One day or one week per bin can help you keep track.
Plan your meals
Look at your long-term food storage options and think about what makes a good meal. Plan and make your purchases accordingly. Unlike federal fallout shelter planning in the 50s, you don’t have to lay in a diet of nothing more than saltines and peanut butter.
When you prepare your meals during a crisis, don’t front-load your favorites. In other words, don’t eat all the pasta in the first week, leaving you with nothing but canned veggies for the next two weeks and saltines and peanut butter for the last week of the month. On the other hand, there are enough food choices that you don’t really need to have on hand anything you don’t much like and, during a crisis, food is one of the better things to take your mind off your troubles. As long as you don’t neglect nutrition, buy and eat what you like during a crisis.
“Shop” from your stock
The best way to keep your supplies fresh is to use them first and do your shopping to replenish them. This ensures that your food supplies are always fresh. There are two caveats:
Don’t get lazy and use your supplies as a backup larder and then forget to restock. Always replenish. Don’t plan to do it “Later.” Do it right away, the next time you shop, as you use up your emergency stock.
Don’t let the foods you plan to use only for a crisis (or don’t really like) get ignored. It’s no good discovering that the canned soups and peanuts are three years out of date during a crisis.
Some foods to consider are:
Drinks:
Most drinks will be something dried to which you add water – hot or not: tea, coffee, juices, etc. See the previous Crisis Diary for information on your water needs.
Water. At least 2 quarts for drinking, per person, per day. More in hot climates and if doing hard work.
Instant coffee
Ground coffee or beans and a hand grinder (if you have an old-style percolator that works with a fire or camp stove or a french press, etc.).
Tea (get various kinds including useful herbals like vervain and chamomile).
Hot chocolate
Iced tea mix (whether you have ice or not)
Juice mixes
Powdered milk (in nitrogen-packed cans).
Various juices in bottles, cans or single-serving boxes. Note that single-serving boxes can be better because, once a bottle or can is opened, barring some sort of refrigeration, it has to be consumed quickly lest it spoil.
Foods
Foods can fit into two simple categories: foods that need water to prepare and foods that don’t. In a situation in which you may need all your water for drinking, you’ll want an array of foods that do not require you to use water to prepare them. Make sure the no-water foods are low in salt. Salted foods are fine for preservation but will increase your need for water and can be counter productive in a low-water crisis. Your goal is long-term storage, so certain foods are out (fresh meats, etc.). On the other hand, many foods can be considered “medium-term” storable and have a place in your everyday larder. They can be suitable for emergency use as well.
Don’t forget the can opener. No, really. This may seem silly, but so many jokes have been made about this that it could be easy to think you could never, ever forget it, only to find that you did. Or discover the one you counted on because you’ve had it for years is broken. Have two. KNOW that they work.
Foods that don’t need water to prepare
These foods are your core stock, easy to prepare and easy to move if you need to.
Canned soups (the “ready to eat” kind that don’t need added water).
Canned fruits and veggies. (Get fruit in water, not syrup. Save the water; you can drink it if you get desperate.)
Canned meats, chicken, fish
Tuna (comes in mylar packets these days)
Boxed cereals (you can eat them without milk if you need to).
Crackers and cookies
Jams and jellies
Peanut butter and other nut butters
Potatoes (Just potatoes. In a bag. Keep them in a dark place.)
Dried fruits
Nuts
Beef jerky or pemmican (not the Quickie Mart kind, get the real thing. It has less salt and chemicals).
Foods that require water to prepare
Soups, the “reduced” kind
Soup mixes, the powdered kind.
Pasta with jar sauce (I know, I know...)
Rice dishes (Rice-a-Roni, etc.)
Mac and cheese
Dried fruits (raisins, apples, bananas, etc.)
Dried beans (red, white, pinto, etc.)
Dried veggies (peas, corn, carrots, etc.)
Mashed potato mix
Dehydrated eggs (they last forever... but only because no one wants to eat them).
Bouillon cubes
Pancake mix
Oat meal and Cream of wheat
Unprocessed whole-grain wheat (with a hand grinder). If you can build a baking oven, you can bake bread.
Medium-term storage foods
Parmalat milk (which must be kept cool and is only good for about six months).
Chicken broth. A good, basic soup stock to which you can add dried meats and veggies.
Fresh veggies like carrots, pea pods, tomatoes, onions, peppers, corn on the cob when in season.
Other food stuff
Tomato paste (with this and some fresh tomatoes, spices, olive oil, onions and peppers you can avoid jar sauce on your pasta in the short term. Hooray!).
Olive oil and corn oil
Vinegar
Yeast for bread making
Baking soda
Flour
Vitamin supplements
And don’t forget:
Pet foods (not for you, for your pets).
And, this is something I should have mentioned in the previous diary: have enough water on hand for your pets. The amount needed will vary by type of pet and size, but a good rule of thumb is one ounce per pound per day. So your ten pound cat needs ten ounces of water per day and your 48 pound Labrador needs 48 ounces (or 1.5 quarts – almost as much as you need).
Condiments
Even the worst food can be made palatable with your favorite spices and sauces.
Salt & pepper
Sugar
Ketchup & mustard
Soy sauce
Red pepper flakes
Other spices you like
Mayonnaise (Get single-serve packets, not jars. Mayo goes bad quickly once opened, if not refrigerated.)
Molasses
Tobasco or other hot sauce
Honey
Maple syrup
Comfort foods
When the going gets tough, the tough get cookies! One of the things that can make the going just a bit easier to tough out is a raspberry truffle. Or a packet of Twinkies. Or whatever your favorite treat happens to be. Don’t forget to have a few comfort foods tucked away for the worst of times. Note: Twinkies, contrary to popular belief, do not last eternally. This is an urban myth. MYTH! I say. Do not make them an integral part of your emergency food planning.
Real emergency foods
MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) the modern version of army K-rations. Will keep for a long time. Especially if you avoid eating them until you absolutely have to. And you’ll want to.
“Trail” foods. The next step up from MREs. Many companies market these “just add water and heat” foods designed for camping and hiking. Try several before you commit to them. Some are an, a-hem!, acquired taste.
Food concentrate bars. These food concentrates come in 1200, 2400 and 3600 calorie packs designed for a 1200 calorie a day emergency diet (a 3600 calorie bar is for one person for three days or three people for one day). They’re sort of like a small block of hard cookie dough and are moist enough not to provoke undue thirst. Try several kinds as each brand has a different taste. Never your first choice for food, but keep a week or two’s worth for real emergencies. Also keep them in your Bug-Out Bag and car (boat, etc.).
High protein drink mixes
I’m including these, but not recommending them. I just don’t know how good they are for long-term survival use. But they are powdered and can be made with water, so they’re worth considering.
Calorie tablets
These are small chewable tablets that pack a lot of calories into a few bites. You would need about 16 a day on a real, hard-core emergency diet. Arg.
Part 2
Dealing with human waste and other trash
This can be an awkward subject but most people are surprised at how much urine and feces a single human generates in a day, not to mention a family of four (or a town of 4,000 or more). If you are holed up for two weeks, there’s going to be a lot of noxious waste to deal with and keep away from your family and neighbors.
Whatever you do, don’t just walk a few feet out your door and take a dump on the ground and leave it. The problem is, flies will find it almost immediately and walk all over it. Then they’ll find your kitchen and your neighbor’s kitchen and walk all over your food. Look! Dysentery and cholera for everyone!
If the sewers are still functioning and you have a suitable water resource (nearby stream, lake, etc.), you can hand fill and flush your toilets. Just don’t use your drinking water to do it. Without a lot of water close to hand, you’ll need to designate an “outhouse.” This needn’t be an official wooden shed with a crescent moon cut in the door. It can be any out-of-the-way corner with some plastic sheets hung for privacy.
Digging a latrine trench
A latrine is the basic non-mechanical human waste disposal arrangement. They’ve been in use, in one form or another, for millions of years.
The size of your latrine trench is based on the number of people using it and the length of time it is to be used. I favor the “back to back” latrine. This is a hole about 8-10 inches wide, three feet long and 18” deep. (Save the dirt to one side.) Cover half of it with plywood, a row of heavy sticks or something else to keep people from falling in. Put your seat at the other end. Use that end until the waste gets about 8-10 inches deep, then fill that end in with dirt and move the seat to the other end. Repeat. Once the latrine is used up, fill it in fully and pack it down. Dig another at least 10 feet away and do it again.
Never site your latrine within 200 feet of a water source, cooking area or up slope from a well or stream. If you don’t have 200 feet of back yard (like most of us) just site your latrine as far away as possible.
Making a latrine seat
There are a number of ways to do this. The easiest is to just buy one at a camping store. Making one is pretty simple, though. Take a folding chair and cut a hole about 8-9 inches across in the seat or remove the seat entirely and replace it with a securely fastened toilet seat taken from one of your regular toilets. Either way, position it over one end of your latrine. Make sure it’s settled in and secure. If needed, you can brace it with plywood or logs. The last thing you want to do is fall into the latrine. No, really, trust me on this.
Using a latrine
It’s not as simple as using a flush toilet; you have to clean up after yourself. Keep a shovel and the discarded dirt from the hole close to hand. Also keep a small bag of lime (calcium oxide) which you can get at a hardware or garden store. When you’re done, use a small trowel or large spoon to sprinkle some lime onto your waste (not too much, just a light covering), then lightly cover it all with dirt. The lime helps decompose the waste and the dirt keeps the flies off. Be very careful with the lime, it’s very caustic. If you get it in your eyes or mouth you can cause serious damage. If you don’t have lime, you can use ashes from your fire, straw or shredded newspaper.
Urine is a lot less difficult than solid waste. Just pee into the latrine and don’t do anything special about it.
Toilet paper
Keep toilet paper in a coffee can with a lid or a zip lock plastic bag near the latrine; you don’t want it to get rained on and all wet. Or keep it by the door on the way to the latrine (just don’t forget to bring it along, AND return it). There are those who advocate burning toilet paper after use. This largely depends upon location and care. As long as there is no local fire danger from a bit of burning paper that gets away and you’re suitably careful about the (admittedly very small) fire, I think this is a good idea. Paper – even toilet paper – can take a long time to decompose in a hole. Burning it removes that issue. The ashes can also contribute to decomposition of the waste. If you go for burning, keep a box of long matches by the latrine. As always safety and consideration for others are the watchwords.
Improvised toilet paper
What do you mean you FORGOT to stockpile toilet paper?? Okay, alright then... calm down, we have other resources. The best is a big old reference book, like a big dictionary or PDR (physician’s desk reference). The paper is suitably thin and strong. Tear out a page or two each time you need it. Avoid glossy magazines, the paper is too slick and, if you’re not careful, you can give yourself a paper cut. (Ow!) Also avoid phone books, and newspapers: the paper isn’t bad, but the ink comes off too easily.
Washing up
Keep a bottle of water with bleach (2-3 tablespoon per gallon) or anti-bacterial soap near the latrine. Use it to wash your hands.
Tampons and sanitary napkins
Don’t toss these in the latrine. Use a plastic bag and put them with your infectious waste (see below).
In conclusion
When all is said and done, latrines are smelly and inconvenient. But better than cholera.
Also, remember where you dug your latrine(s). You won’t want to dig there again for a couple of years.
The hard part is when you don’t have any land to dig a hole in: when you’re an apartment or condo dweller.
The bucket latrine
Some places, like those listed in the links at the end of this diary, sell a sturdy 5 gallon paint bucket with an attached toilet seat. You can also use a standard five-gallon paint bucket with a lid from the hardware store. Or you can go top-of-the-line with a stand-alone commode from a medical supply house or camping store (also see links; they’re not that expensive, but you need to buy one before you need it, unlike a latrine). In any case, always line the bucket or commode with a large plastic bag with the edges wrapped over the lip of the bucket. When you’re done, tie off the bag and put it into a red infectious waste bag (see below).
Toilets without water
You can also use your non-flushing home or apartment toilet by removing the water from the bowl and lining it with a plastic bag. As with the commode or bucket, tie off the bag when you’re done and put it with the other infectious waste.
Other infectious waste
If you have wounded people, or people who are sick, you will need to deal with the bloody or infected bandages, bedding, used Kleenex etc. Put these into a plastic bag (either a zip lock or other small, seal-able bag), then put it into a large, red infectious waste bag.
The infectious waste bin
Keep your infectious waste bag in a sturdy trash bin with a tight-fitting lid. Don’t put open waste into it, always put it infectious waste into another, sealed bag first. Don’t mix other non-infectious waste with it.
You can get infectious waste bags online or from your local medical supply store. Red bags mean danger to clean-up workers. If you don’t have infectious waste bags, use a large trash bag but label it clearly and store it away from you other trash. When clean up crews eventually come, tell them which trash is infectious so they can deal with it properly.
Trash management
Ever experienced a garbage strike? Yuck! Well, the greatest likelihood is that trash pickup will be halted for the duration of the crisis. You’ll need to manage your trash by a few simple rules:
As you buy your supplies, reduce packaging as much as you can. Take things out of clamshells and boxes and store them in logical groups as they’ll be needed (a kitchen box, bathroom box, etc.). Dispose of the packaging now when the trash pickups can be counted on; it will reduce your trash footprint during a crisis.
Don’t unpack items that can spoil or degrade outside their packaging.
As you use supplies, separate the trash into wet trash and dry trash. That means that table scraps, fruit peels, coffee grounds and tea bags, un-eaten food and anything else that will decompose (meaning rot) goes in one (trash-bag-lined) bin and dry trash goes in another. If you mix them, they all become moist and will all attract flies and other bugs. Empty juice boxes go in the moist bin, after you squash them flat. Water boxes can go in dry (set them aside to dry out for a day before you squash them and toss them in the bin).
When the wet trash is full, squeeze the air out of the bag, tie it tight and double-bag it inside another plastic trash bag, also tied tight. Optionally, you can spray the inner bag with Lysol or equivalent to help control the smell before you tie off the outer bag.
Note: You can also compost your wet trash and even human waste, but this diary is too long already. Watch for future diaries on the subject.
Collect dry trash in a bin or box. Break down boxes so they lie flat: they take up less room that way.
Put the lids back on juice and other bottles and keep them ready to rinse and recycle after the crisis. If you leave the lids off, the residue inside will spoil and attract flies.
Empty food tins should be wiped clean with a paper towel (watch the sharp edges!) and the towel discarded in wet waste. If you have sufficient water you can rinse them. Otherwise, squash them flat (remove the bottom before you squash them, they’ll flatten better) and store them in a closed bin. Like juice bottles, any food remaining on the tins will start to rot and attract bugs if you don’t keep them covered.
Any potentially toxic trash (motor oil, ammonia, bleach, other chemicals, etc.) should also be kept separate from other trash. Don’t put it in with the wet. And DON’T mix them together! (You really, really, don’t want to mix ammonia (Windex, for example) and bleach at any time, much less during an emergency.) With any luck, you won’t generating a lot of this kind of waste during a crisis.
A family of four generate a lot of trash. After two weeks you’ll probably have a pile that’s bigger than you thought it would be. After a month you’d be amazed. Decide where you’re going to keep it before you start piling it up. If you don’t plan ahead, you’re just going to have to move it when it gets so big it’s in the way.
The wet trash will need to be stored away from cooking and sleeping areas. Check it regularly for animal damage. Even double bagged, the smell will attract scavengers.
Animals may be a problem for your trash management. Rotting garbage will attract scavengers. In a crisis, that includes abandoned household pets as well as coyotes, raccoons and other small animals. It can also attract bears in some areas. It can also attract flies and other bugs. If animals get into your trash and carry it away, it spreads any potential disease vectors wherever the animal goes and to whatever predator may eat the scavenger.
Consider buying a few of those sticky fly paper hanging things to help mange the flies and other bugs.
If you have someplace – a garden shed, for example –that can keep your trash behind closed doors, that’s great. Barring that, check your trash every day and re-bag as needed.
If you manage trash carefully, it won’t attract too many flies or scavengers, get too smelly or spread disease.
Keeping clean in a crisis
Without water to wash up, people can get pretty smelly and dirty pretty fast. Don’t not wash – it can contribute to the spread of disease. Part of your emergency storage should be wet wipes and liquid no-water soaps. You can also save your “grey” water – water that’s been used for other non-drinking uses, like cooking – for washing.
A hundred years and more ago, people didn’t have showers and shampoo. They didn’t have deodorant soaps. They didn’t bathe every day. But they got by... and were used to smellier people. In a crisis you’re going to be living with other people in more cramped conditions than you’re used to: no running off to the mall when ever you want to. Emotions will run high. So will sweat. And without the ability to bathe regularly, you’ll all begin to smell. You also risk passing disease and infection from person to person if you aren’t careful.
Wash as much and as often as you can, at least your hands and face. “Sponge bath:” rinse your skin with a moist washcloth, sponge or paper towel every day.
Always wash your hands before handling food. Use bleach water or anti-bacterial soap.
Don’t forget to brush your teeth. You REALLY don’t want to aggravate a cavity when there are no dentists to go to. Use as little water as you can.
Stay clean as much as you can without sacrificing drinking water.
Remember that other people, those who have not planned ahead, will be a lot less conscientious about waste than you are. For many of them it will just make “sense” to pee and poop into the nearest open water, which is likely to be upstream from you. Others will just dump it into the gutter or rain sewers. Until things get back to what passes for normal, be careful when you go out and be careful of open water sources.
Sanitation checklist
Things to buy and store before the crisis
Extra toilet paper
Tampons and sanitary napkins
Bleach
Lime (calcium oxide)
Plastic trash bags, large and small
Zip lock bags in several sizes
Infectious waste bags
A ten gallon trash bin with a tight-fitting lid for infectious waste
Wet wipes
Waterless soap
Flypaper strips
4 x 8 plywood for the latrine (if you’re planning for one)
A commode, camp toilet or bucket latrine along with a substantial supply of plastic bag liners
Part 3
Planning ahead in an apartment or condo
When you don’t have a lot of room, it can be hard to stock up for a crisis. It is likely you just won’t be able to store as much as you might with more space; perhaps only 2-3 weeks worth. However, as always, the rule is act now, upgrade later. You can always do more, but doing nothing is a foolish option.
To begin with, analyze your storage options. How much room do you have? How much room can you make? Think about a “California closets” kind of solution: take a small space and hyper-organize it. You might be surprised to learn how much you can fit in a single closet.
If you live in a one-bedroom apartment – the kind with a long, 2-foot-deep closet along one wall – consider setting aside around 18” at one end of the closet. Maybe invest in or build some sturdy shelves. Fill the bottom half with water jugs. You should be able to fit about 18 jugs (two rows deep). That’s 45 gallons of water; enough for two people for three weeks. Fill the top half with compact foods: soups, mixes, etc. You should be able to store three weeks worth of food on top of the water. It’s not three months worth of supplies, but it’s enough to sit out most crises.
If you have more traditional closets, the kind that are three feet wide and two feet deep (just a door leading into a door-sized room) you can consider setting aside the bottom or top areas of several closest for emergency storage. Again, shelving helps; or you can use sealed plastic bins. If you go for bins, be sure to measure first because you want to use ALL the space you have. Losing an inch here and an inch there can add up quickly.
Other good storage options are under the bed (lots of places sell plastic bins designed to fit nicely under a bed), chests in place of side tables (you can get wicker chests that are about 20” square that are designed to be used as end tables. They are sturdy and provide plenty of out-of-sight storage). Think about what can fit behind the couch or comfy chairs, under the stairs, at the top of closets you normally don’t use because you can’t reach it easily, above the kitchen cabinets, over the fridge. Many small apartments have out-of-the-way nooks that get ignored. You can get behind-the-door hanging bags designed for shoes that can hold quite a lot of food supplies and even a few days worth of bottled water.
Think about your current food storage. Lots of people pack only the fronts of their cabinets because it makes things easier to reach. Pack your emergency supplies in the back. Since you’re going to be “shopping your stock” anyway (right?) you can make a habit of buying new and moving it to the back and keeping your oldest supplies up front. That way you can use you everyday food larder for your emergency storage all at the same time.
Finally, you can consider off-site storage. If you live within reasonable walking distance of a self-storage place you can keep your emergency supplies there and go “shopping” every few days.
Links
Human waste mangement
http://www.jenkinspublishing.com/...
http://www.medicalsupplygroup.com/...
http://www.survivalsupplys.com/...
http://www.quakekare.com/...
Under bed storage
http://www.containerstore.com/browse/index.jhtml?CATID=175
Water barrels
http://www.bayteccontainers.com/...
Infectious waste disposal bags and labels
http://www.macgill.com/...
Next time: When staying home isn’t an option, The Bug-Out Bag