You are listening to the Common Sense Practical Prepper, sponsored by Duct Tape, the real Duct Dape. It fixes everything except that decision. Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. America. From border to border, coast to coast, and all ships at sea. Here is your host, Keith.
SPEAKER_01Hey everybody, this is Keith, and you're listening to the Common Sense Practical Prepper Podcast for July the 31st, 2026. So today is the last day of July. Unless somebody's stuck in an extra day and we have 32 days in July, today is actually the last day where you can go purchase your tickets to prepper camp. For some reason, I was thinking you could purchase the tickets up until a week prior to prepper camp, but I was mistaken. So you have until probably the end of day today to purchase your tickets. And remember, you're not able to purchase tickets at the door. You have to get them ahead of time.
So with that said, we are going to talk about urban preparedness. And I've spoken about this a little bit before. And in previous episodes, I've alluded to the fact that I want to do deeper dives into some of the subjects, some of the podcasts, and quite frankly, in all transparency, after four years, you start to run out of topics. But going back and looking at some past episodes, I've kind of touched on certain subjects or kind of glanced, glossed across them, if you will. And I find myself going back and figuring out that I can do a much deeper dive into a lot of these subjects and provide a lot of detailed information. So that's what we're going to do today with urban preparedness. So I get a lot of questions, I get emails time and again about, well, I guess I can't prepare. I live in an apartment, a condo, a townhome, or a relatively small house. And actually, nothing could be further from the truth because being prepared has nothing to do with how much square feet you have in your particular home or living space. It's how you plan and it's what you do with that space. So again, with folks listening all over the world, I am sure I have a lot of folks that live in densely populated areas. Apartments in Chicago, flats in London, condos in Toronto, a high rise in Singapore, or a townhouse in Sydney. So this will apply to those folks. Or for people who live in homes that really don't have a lot of extra room, a lot of this stuff applies as well. So urban preparedness, how to build big preparedness in a relatively small space. So it's very important, regardless of where you live, or regardless of the size of the home or apartment you live in, is to prepare for the most likely scenarios. Okay, if you live in Florida, you don't necessarily have to worry about an ice storm. Folks that live in densely populated areas, you would probably need to worry about a three, four, or five-day power outage, a broken water main, a severe storm that wipes out all services for about a week, or a supply shortage after a major weather event. Because these things can happen every year, regardless of where you live. So if you prepare for events that are most likely going to affect you, you're already ahead of the game. You're already ahead of most, or at least the vast majority of folks. Because if you try to prepare for every single scenario, you're going to run out of room quickly. And unless you're a millionaire, you're probably going to run out of money well. That could be very, very expensive. So again, space is not your biggest limitation. It's what you do with that. So I've received emails in the past, or folks would ask me questions. I would love to prepare, but I simply don't have the room to prepare. And I understand the question, so here is my answer.
Being prepared is not about filling every single closet with buckets of beans and rice. It's about making smart use of the space that you already have. Look under your bed. Look above your kitchen cabinets. I used to live in an apartment that had a ton of room above the cabinets in the kitchen. The top shelf of the closets. Think about storing or stacking things vertically as opposed to horizontally. And here's a big win that I'll pass along. Vacuum storage bags can reduce bulky blankets and seasonal clothing by a ton. I vacuum seal my comforters, blankets, quilts, my hoodies that I normally wear in the winter. You can take a large stack of blankets that would be, my goodness, a foot and a half tall and vacu seal them down to just mere inches. Creates a ton of room. In the summer, that's what I do with my stuff, and I put it on the top shelf of the closet in the hallway. Storage ottomans, benches, and beds with drawers can hide supplies in plain sight. I have some friends that have, I want to call it like a breakfast, a breakfast nook or a breakfast area. It's an L-shaped breakfast nook in the corner of their kitchen area, and it probably seats about six. If you lift up the cushion that you're sitting on, it's like a big bench, and underneath it is a ton of room. They put extra cases of water down there and they just grab them when they need them. So they put food and supplies down there that they rarely need, therefore freeing up other room in their pantries and their cabinets for things they use on a daily basis or a weekly basis. Even space behind a couch or under a coffee table can be used for storage. The goal is not to turn your apartment into a warehouse. The goal is to use every cubic foot, or for the folks outside the US, every cubic meter that you can. Think multi-purpose. When space is limited, every item needs to earn its place. So folks that are OCD, you're probably well ahead of me here. Instead of buying equipment that only serves one purpose, look for items that can serve several jobs. A flashlight that also serves as a power bank. A backpack that is useful for travel that you can also use as an emergency go bag or a get home bag. Blankets provide warmth during a power outage, and you probably use them every day for other things. The same goes for food. Store food where your family already eats. Rotate them into your regular meals. Remember, first in, first out, rotate them, replace what you use. Nothing expires and nothing goes to waste. Preparedness should be become part of your normal daily routine.
Now, we've spoken about food and water before. Water is heavy, it takes up space, but it's one of those supplies that you cannot ignore. Now we're going to touch on a few things that I've already covered on the Build Your Arc series. So if you haven't listened to that series, when you get a chance, go back and check those out. But the standard recommendation is one gallon per person per day. But if you've been listening, I always try to aim for two gallons per person per day, if you have the space and if you have the money. Store as much as you reasonably can beyond that. So remember, one gallon per person per day. If you can store more, then do that. Having something stored is always better than not having anything stored. Now let's think about food that's going to require very little preparation. Peanut butter, canned meats, crackers, trail mix, granola, shelf stable milk, MREs, ready-to-eat meals. Your emergency food doesn't have to be fancy, it just has to be food that everybody in your family will eat. All right, let's touch on medicine and medical supplies. A lot of people overlook this. If you have daily prescription meds, how many days do you have currently in your closet or your medicine cabinet? If the pharmacy was closed tomorrow and stayed closed for another five or six days, would you have enough? I've mentioned before, talk to your doctor about keeping an extra cycle of critical medications on hand. Some docs do, some docs don't. I asked my doc several months ago, she said no, so that's not happening. Bandages, antiseptic, antiseptic wipes, pain relievers, antidiarrhea medication, allergy meds, a thermometer, a pulse ox, and any other over-the-counter medication that your family uses on a regular basis. So medication takes up very little space. A single shoebox sized container should be able to hold all of your medications. Unless you have significant health issues, then maybe it doesn't. So in a situation where urgent care clinics are overwhelmed or pharmacies are closed for whatever reason, that little shoebox becomes one of the most valuable things you have in your apartment. Work with what you have. When it comes to cooking, many buildings will prohibit propane grills on balconies. Others do not allow
charcoal grills. Some, depending on where you live in the world, will restrict fuel storage. So those rules don't disappear just because the power goes out. And there's one rule that should never be broken. You already know what I'm going to say. Never run a generator indoors, not in your apartment, not in your flat, not in your condo, not in a hallway, and not in your garage, not on an enclosed balcony. Every year, a lot of people die from carbon monoxide poisoning. Don't do it, even if you're going to open a window, just don't. If a traditional generator is not practical where you live, look for battery-operated alternatives. I have several episodes on solar generators, portable power stations, whatever you want to call them. No gasoline, they can be used safely indoors, outdoors, charge your phone, run your lights. If you have a CPAP, it'll run those if it's large enough and to keep other small electronics up and running. Now think about cooking as well. If you can't legally or safely use an outdoor grill, don't build your food storage around meals that require one. Now I have a butane grill that I would use in case of an emergency. Butane grills can be used safely indoors, but then again, check with your landlord, your rental agreement, local ordinances, check all of that. Do your due diligence before you look at a butane grill. Plan for foods that need no cooking or only hot water. When it comes to apartment specific challenges, here's something that a lot of people don't think about. What happens if the elevators don't work? Could you carry your go bag down 12 flights of stairs? Do you know where every stairwell
is located? If your parking garage uses electronic gates, how do you get your vehicle out? Where will your family meet in the case of an evacuation? If you care for an elderly parent or someone with limited mobility, have you thought about how you're going to assist them if you have to leave the building? Not trying to be all dramatic here, but these are practical questions that you need to solve ahead of time. We've talked about community before. Your neighbors might be your best prep. One thing that city living offers that rural living does not, and that is your access to people. Your neighbors, introduce yourself, learn a few names, know who lives nearby. You don't need to become their best friends. You don't need to tell them everything that you have stored or prepped for. But knowing who might be able to help you or who has useful skills can make a tremendous amount of difference during the early stages of an emergency. So for example, during a three-day power outage, your neighbor with a camp stove might handle cooking while you have stored water. A retired nurse down the hall might be able to handle a minor injury that otherwise would require a trip to the hospital. As I said before, communities recover faster than isolated individuals. Being prepared also means being a good neighbor. Most of us carry our phones, and they have everything in our lives, everything about our lives on these phones. Have your phone numbers written down, insurance information, medical records, maps, talked about this before, wills, medical directives, all that information. So what happens if your phone is damaged or it just runs out of power? Keep those important phone numbers and keep that important information written down. Before cell phones, I could tell you 25 people's phone numbers. Now, since cell phones came around, I know my phone number, and unfortunately, that's about it. Everything else is stored in the phone. Keep a charged battery bank if at all possible. Simple steps like these can save hours of frustration when things go wrong. So your urban go bag, your urban bug out bag. A go bag for someone living in the city is a lot different than one that I might
design or for someone who lives on a farm. Your goal is not to survive in the wilderness. Your goal is to get safely from point A to point B. If you don't own a car, and a lot of people in a lot of major cities don't have a car because they don't need a car. In those instances, your feet are your primary mode of transportation. So plan accordingly. Comfortable shoes, comfortable hiking boots. If you've ever walked several miles through a city, you know how much comfortable footwear matters. Include a lightweight rain jacket, a flashlight, a whistle, work gloves, your battery bank, charging cables, small bills. If you're in a city that uses buses or trains, keep your transit card, or maybe a copy of the transit card in your bag. Otherwise, if it's on your phone and your phone is dead, that's not going to help you. And don't laugh when I say paper maps. I have preached about paper maps before. Plenty of websites out there. Most of the time you can get paper maps of your area, street maps at no cost. The most important rule: keep the bag light enough so you can carry it comfortably for several miles. Your go bag does not need to be 75 pounds. It needs to be as light as possible, but have everything you need. Mobility in an urban emergency is one of your greatest assets. So one final thought before we wrap up. Good preparedness does not have to advertise itself. In fact, it shouldn't. A plain backpack attracts
far less attention than ones covered with tactical patches, morale patches, whatever you want to call it. You don't need everyone in your building knowing exactly what you have stored. Quiet preparedness has always been one of the smartest forms of being prepared. Be discreet. Know your building, know its layout, know where the fire extinguishers are, know the emergency exits. Know at least two ways to get out. If there's three ways, know three. Know where to meet your family if you become separated. Preparedness, as always, is not about just owning gear. It's also about understanding your surroundings. So if you take one thing away from today's episode, let it be this. Don't let where you live become the biggest excuse for not being prepared. Preparedness is not about owning the biggest house. It's not about having the most gear. It's about making thoughtful decisions with the space and the resources that you already have. So again, I always like to leave episodes with little challenges, little calls for action. So for this week, here's this one: find one cubic foot of unused space in your home. Folks outside the U.S., cubic meter, that's a lot bigger than a foot. So just say half a meter, one third of a meter, or just go with the imperial measurement and let's just go for a square foot. Maybe it's under a bed, maybe it's that closet shelf, something above the kitchen cabinets. Turn that one cubic foot space into a preparedness space. Rotate it with what you have, rotate what you store, and like I've always said, start small and improve or expand as you can every month or every week. You'll be amazed on how things add up or how quickly things add up, and how much usefulness you can get out of that space. Being prepared does not begin with, oh, I've got a six-bedroom house and it's got 12 bathrooms and a basement and a 42-car garage. I know if anybody has a 42-car garage, but if they did, that's that's a big garage. But anyway, it begins with having a better plan and using what you have and just going with what you've got. It doesn't have to be complicated. Prepping does not have to be expensive. It just has to make sense for who you are and where you are. Folks, if you need to reach out, practical prep podcast at gmail.com. As always, I'm on the Twitters, prep underscore
podcast, and a shameless commercial plug. I have the affiliate link for August and Farms. If you use the affiliate link in the show notes, you get 10% off your first order. Use podcast prep for an additional 10%. Folks, thanks so much for stopping by. And as always, please be careful out there. Take care of one another, and until next time.
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