Let’s stop beating around the bush. We all know the basics of survival: how to store food, water, and put together a bug-out bag.
What we’re all really looking for are advanced, high-quality survival tips, tricks, tactics, and secrets that can help us take our preps to the next level.
You can’t find these by doing a quick search using your favorite search engine, or by reading your favorite survival blogs.
Many of the articles out there are just re-hashes so you don’t really learn anything new. And when you finally do find something useful, you realize you spent half an hour digging for it.
Wouldn’t it be nice to read something different for a change? Real survival tips from real preppers such as myself and others, go beyond the basics such as preparing your car for a bugout, or how to store food in Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers.
The prepping community has grown exponentially over the last few years and I’d be honored to help raise the bar as we gain more experienced preppers into the community.
I apologize in advance if you’ve already read, heard, or are already putting some of these tips into practice.
I’ve been reading and practicing like crazy lately, so it’s hard for me to know who first came up with some of the ideas I’m sharing, except the ones that are my own.
So, without further ado, let’s get started with this massive collection of tips (which I’ve conveniently grouped into categories)!
Bugging Out
1. Leave some room in your bug-out bag.
You never know when you’ll have to carry some extras, like things you find along the way, or items your partner or kids ask you to carry, or extra stuff when you are forced to leave your vehicle behind.
Let’s say you find an abandoned BOB along the way that belonged to someone who died and you can basically take anything you need.
Wouldn’t you want to be able to add more of the things you KNOW you’re going to need rather than the ones you THINK you’ll need in advance? This is where the extra room comes in handy.
2. Pack the heaviest items closest to your spine. This way, you’ll put as little stress on your back as possible.
3. Make sure items more likely to be used are easiest to grab. Put them at the top, inside the pockets or even in separate, smaller bags that attach to the back of the main one. Careful, though, you don’t want too much weight packed too far away from your spine (see tip #2). Some of the things you’ll need in a hurry include your first aid kit, your gun, water, and your bandanna.
4. Keep your vehicle ready to move immediately.
If a motor vehicle is part of your bug-out plan, make sure it is well-maintained and that the fuel tank is kept topped off as much as possible.
Have the necessary emergency equipment to deal with different weather conditions, have spare parts that commonly need replacing, and the correct tools to install them.
5. Have a secondary bug-out vehicle on hand. No, not a second 4×4 but something you can put inside it, such as an inflatable boat, a canoe, a mountain bike, a foldable bike, or even a skateboard. You just never know when you have to abandon your car.
6. What to take when you are forced to abandon your car. In this case, you may want to take some of the things from the trunk with you as you continue your journey on foot, or in the canoe, bicycle, or skateboard.
7. Keep your hiking boots attached to your bug-out bag. This way, if you have to get your bag and leave in a hurry, you’ll also get the boots without having to occupy one of your hands.
Of course, these will misbalance the bag but remember you’ll be wearing them soon enough. We’re just trying to cover having to leave in a hurry.
8. In case of social unrest, you may want to move to your bug-out location late at night or early hours of the morning.
That’s when most of the rioters as well as the police will be sleeping, so you reduce the risk of being bothered when attempting to leave your city.
9. Always have improvised flotation devices on hand, in case you need to cross a body of water, a plastic bag filled with water can keep you afloat as empty 2-gallon plastic containers.
10. If you live in an area with hot summers and a lot of sun, make sure you pack sunscreen, moisturizer cream and a hat or a bandanna. In the event of a bug-out, you’ll end up spending a lot of time in the sun.
11. Cut off the handle of your toothbrush so it takes less space and makes the entire BOB lighter. I know it’s not much but you really don’t need the handle.
Bugging In
12. Avoid eye contact. When trying to reach home in an SHTF scenario, looking people straight in the eye for more than one second could be interpreted as a challenge/aggression and cause them to come after you.
13. To get out of a riot, walk in the same direction as the protesters, at the same speed but at a slight angle. Adjust your angle depending on the side roads that you could get to.
14. If you get caught in the middle of a riot with nowhere to go, take shelter in any building whose doors are open.
15. Move your crying toddler to the most sound-proof room in the building. You don’t want anyone (including your neighbors) to know you’re home.
16. Keep activity at your BIL to a minimum. No one should know you are at home. If possible move to an alternate BIL every few days assuming you have the luxury of choice for BILs
17. Have ear buds for your transistor radio so you can keep up with what’s going on without giving away your location.
18. Resist the urge to build a fire pit in your living room, do not bring your propane (or charcoal) grill into the house because you feel there are no longer any rules and your family is hungry. Eat from your canned food and store food much as possible. People can smell food cooking and it can attract unwanted attention.
19. As a matter of fact pay special attention to your smoke detectors. Even in a grid-down scenario, they should still be able to operate on 9v batteries. Make sure they remain functional as fire is a very real threat and care should be taken to avoid catastrophe.
20. When SHTF, stay in the house, cover windows so no light shows at night, and keep curtains drawn during the day. Give no sign that would indicate that anyone is home, or if they are, that they are better off than anyone else.
The neighbor you used to play golf with on Saturdays and have backyard BBQs within the summer WILL come calling, and it won’t be to have a cold beer on the front porch. Hunger will make a man do crazy things, so keep a low profile.
Shelter
21. This is for the newbies but SHELTER is more important than FOOD and WATER. The rule of threes states you can live 3 hours without shelter, 3 days without water and 3 weeks without food.
22. Mylar blankets are overrated. They’re more useful to radiate heat back from a fire. If you still want to use them, the best way would be in conjunction with a sleeping bag.
23. Never make a shelter in a ditch or, as some preppers on YouTube do it, really close to a river. You might get inundated and if you’re unlucky enough to get trapped in a flash flood, that might be the end of you.
24. Never use shipping containers as underground bunkers. They’re made to be stacked one on top of the other but are very weak when it comes to lateral pressure. The earth surrounding them is going to alter their structure and if you happen to be inside when it happens…
25. Thoroughly check out a cave before choosing it as shelter. Look for “residents”, falling roofs and the possibility of it getting flooded. Also, try to make sure you won’t be trapped in there if unfriendlies come calling.
26. Bunkers are, in most cases, less than ideal. The people outside can either wait until you run out of food and water or they can smoke you out if they discover where the ventilation system ends.
Light, Fire and Heat
27. Strap a headlamp around a jug of water, point it towards the liquid and turn the light bulb towards the bottle for an instant nightlight.
28. Use hardwood to keep a fire burning for a longer period of time. Examples of hardwood include oak, ash, beech, cherry, and maple.
29. Not a tip but a warning: always put out a campfire before you go to sleep. So many accidents happen when a gust of wind comes up in the night and scatters embers onto tents and the grass.
30. Run twigs through a pencil sharpener to make tinder.
Clothing
31. Avoid wearing a bandana over your face unless you’re protecting yourself from tear gas. Sure, you think you might be blending in, but law enforcement officers might mistake you for a bad guy. The same could happen if you wear camouflage.
32. Consider what types of shirts, pants, undergarments, and vests would you use for both tough durability, earth tones, and with a multitude of pockets.
Jeans, thermal underwear, t-shirt, sweatshirt, overcoat, ski mask rolled into a hat for the top. If it gets hot during the day you can always remove layers.
Stockpiling
33. As a general rule, it’s always better to stockpile the ingredients to make something instead of the food itself.
34. If you have to erase the writing of a Mylar Bag, use rubbing alcohol. It’s something you should have in your first aid kit anyway.
35. In order to increase the shelf life of your food, store it in places that are as cool as possible, such as basements. Generally speaking, you can double the shelf life for every 18 F or 10 C decrease in temperature.
36. Do NOT use oxygen absorbers when storing sugar or salt inside Mylar bags. Sugar will harden if you do and salt… doesn’t really need anything for preservation because salt itself is a preservative.
37. What should you do when you realize you have very little water? Try these:
- Avoid making too much effort. In fact, the more you sleep, the better you can conserve your energy.
- Avoid sweating, and move slowly.
- Don’t drink diuretics such as caffeinated beverages (Coke, alcohol, energy drinks) or alcohol (particularly beer). Once it hits the bloodstream sugar, just like salt, pulls water out of your cells and the cells react by sending along a message to the brain – “We’re dehydrating, give us water!” This triggers the thirst reaction – making you more thirsty. Alcohol suppresses the release of vasopressin – also known as the anti-diuretic hormone (ADH) by medical professionals. The kidneys don’t have enough ADH to control excretion and send messages to the brain that water must be excreted.
38. If you don’t have enough room for all those 5-gallon buckets, use 7-mil bags. You can store the same amount of food in almost half the space!
39. Consider these less common survival items with unbelievable shelf life: spam, pemmican, and hardtack.
40. Use freeze-dried food for your bug-out bag. Sure, you can still add energy bars or hard candy but freeze-dried foods taste great, are lightweight, and will provide you with not just carbohydrates but with many essential micro and macro-nutrients. They also have an excellent shelf life.
41. Sure, you’ll need water to cook them but that shouldn’t be a problem if you have a water filter and access to a water source.
42. Keep in mind your family’s allergies before building your food stockpile.
43. Although brown rice is healthier, white rice has a longer shelf life.
44. If you don’t have oxygen absorbers, you can use salt and peppercorn instead. Put each of them in a light cotton bag to increase the shelf life of beans, rice, grains, etc.
45. Store wheat berries instead of flour. Wheat berries have a shelf life of 20 years, while flour only lasts for a few months.
46. You can overwinter certain veggies, meaning you can leave them in the ground during winter. This way you avoid having to freeze or can them, and you save time as well as space in your pantry. Carrots, spinach, broccoli, kale, and onions can all be planted in the autumn and left over during winter.
47. Before you store pasta for the long term, keep it in the freezer for a few days to keep any larvae eggs from developing.
48. Unconventional places to hide your food and water include in fake air vents, inside trash cans, inside Pringle’s cans, in fake pipes, in PVC pipes buried underground, inside trees, inside barns, inside wells, in abandoned cars, inside pots and pans you don’t use and in your garage.
Ensure all the stored food is in watertight, airtight, and rodent-proof containers to avoid food spoilage.
49. Always make sure you’re not being watched before accessing your cache locations.
50. Never use milk jugs or plastic juice bottles to store water for the long term. No matter how well you rinse, there will still be leftovers that will contaminate your water at some point. Always use BPA-free containers that have never stored anything else but water.
51. Avoid using 5-gallon water jugs. Many of them will leak at some point. Rather use smaller containers to contain damages. Losing 5 gallons could be a catastrophe.
52. Make an assortment of foods inside every 5-gallon bucket or bag. This way, if you need to bug out and only get to grab one container, you’ll have more than one type of food inside. Food variety is important in a survival situation.
53. Don’t forget to stockpile things to help you open, cook and consume your food: can openers, cooking pots, small stoves, spoons, forks, etc.
54. Well water has benign bacteria in it that will metabolize sulfate minerals once you store it. One way to inhibit them is to chlorinate your well water each year.
Sulfates can act as a laxative – which can be dangerous for infants as it leads to dehydration. With time people will become used to the sulfates, but in a survival situation, you don’t want to be troubled with a runny tummy.
55. A good place to stockpile water is your swimming pool. However, it’s best to boil it, or add bleach to it before drinking – 2 drops per quart.
Survival Bags
56. By replacing the food inside your bug-out bag with freeze-dried packages you’ll shed quite a few pounds and it’ll make a world of difference if you’re forced to bug out with it on your back. Even better, you can use labels.
57. Think outside the box when it comes to survival bags. Bug-out bags, INCH bags, get-home bags, and everyday carry kits are just “standardized” survival bags that a lot of people happen to like.
But you don’t have to always follow the rules. You can store survival items in just about anything: tin cans, coffee cans, mason jars, etc.
58. You can make your bug-out bag waterproof by “lining” it with plastic bags on the inside.
59. Don’t use backpacks with external frames, they’ll get caught in branches. Get one that has an internal frame. Besides, you’ll blend in better if people don’t see it.
Home Defense
60. A bigger dog isn’t necessarily better from a survival standpoint because they need a lot of food and water. Consider other options such as the Jack Russell terrier, the Basset Hound, or the Beagle.
61. A good fence/wall is able to deter potential intruders and can prevent trespassing to some degree, increasing your level of safety up a notch.
62. Exterior lights/motion-activated eventually, are excellent as early warning systems for home defense. They alert you about possible intruders and have the potential to intimidate villains passing by.
63. Professionally installed home alarm systems are an excellent investment for your security and peace of mind, as they may alert the neighbors about a specific threat long before the police arrive at the scene.
It would help a lot to talk to your neighbors in advance about this issue, i.e. mutual defense/aid in the community, and about your/their alarm system.
64. Secure/reinforce the doors and windows.
65. You can install security cameras in all the vulnerable areas of your residence and don’t forget to put a big sign mentioning this fact (something like “This Property is Under 24 hours Video Surveillance”).
66. A safe room is a fortified room of your home, designed to protect you and your family from burglars, looters, rapists and critical events.
In times of danger, you can barricade yourself inside and call for help. Safe rooms are not bunkers. They’re intended as temporary havens for weaker, unarmed people to retreat to until help arrives.
67. Avoid providing potential burglar tools which can be used against you, such as ladders near your residence, pick axes and spades, or ropes lying around.
68. Trim the bushes that can block your view from the windows or obstruct your line of sight.
69. Eliminate objects from around the exterior of the house that can be used to toss through the windows like decorative rocks, spare bricks, and so on.
70. Have self-defense weapons/objects placed strategically inside of your residence that will allow you to protect your physical integrity if SHTF (guns, knives, hammers, etc.) but not in an obvious position otherwise the burglar may get to them first.
If you carry a gun it should be on your person. You don’t want the intruder accessing it first.
71. Be prepared physically and mentally for a possible confrontation with a burglar. Remember the average time for a street fight is 3 to 8 seconds – in your home, you’ll have very little time to act so make those seconds count.
72. In the worst-case scenario, if you have to shoot someone, never-ever shoot to kill; the idea is to stop the threat of physical injury/death upon your person – that’s it!
73. If you arrive home one night and notice someone’s broken into your home and is still there, don’t be a hero. Move to safety and call the police (if available). Your life is more important than your valuables.
74. If you suspect you are being followed by possible hijackers drive right past your own home and on to the nearest police station. Hi-jackers attack when you are opening driveway gates or pulling into the driveway.
75. Use double-cylinder deadbolts for your front door.
76. Replace glass doors and basement windows with plexiglass or polycarbonate or install security bars.
77. Install a wide-angle peephole that’s at eye level when you kneel. This will make you a smaller target if the person on the other side has a gun.
78. Prune large trees that could allow a thief to climb into one and through one of your windows.
79. Make sure drainpipes that someone could climb to enter the property are protected with razor wire at intervals so access cannot be gained this way.
80. Balconies provide easy access for someone with a grappling hook. Enclose with burglar bars or security gates you can open up, so you don’t feel like you are living in a jail.
Put razor wire at the edge of the balcony – you get really pretty variations that look like lush ivy plants but underneath they have vicious spikes.
Personal Defense
81. To escape an attacker, use the least amount of energy. This doesn’t mean you should stay still but don’t exhaust yourself. If he’s stronger than you, the less energy you have, the less likely you are to set yourself free.
82. Never comply with your attacker the first time. People have died even though they did everything they were asked, so why not buy yourself some time. Don’t be afraid to say No, I Don’t Know and I don’t want to.
83. Did you know a lollipop can make a lethal self-defense weapon? Hold the candy inside your fist and allow the plastic part to stick out from between your fingers. Punch your attacker in the eye, ear, neck, and other sensitive parts. A key held this way also becomes a lethal weapon.
84. Careful of how you store pepper spray inside your car. If the temperatures reach 120F (48C), it can leak out. This not only means it won’t work but it’ll contaminate the air inside your car.
85. Keep a self-defense weapon really close to your front door. This way, when you answer someone you don’t know, you will have it on hand to protect you.
Umbrellas with a concealed blade in the tip, walking sticks that have a spring-loaded blade, and such like look innocuous enough standing in the hallway until they are needed.
86. Don’t use pepper spray if the attackers are less than 3 feet away from you. It’ll affect you too. The range of most pepper sprays is between 3 and 15 feet.
87. Don’t put pepper spray in your car’s trunk or at the bottom of the glove compartment after a while just because nothing bad happened.
You probably bought it out of fear but the odds of you needing it don’t decrease over time. Always keep it within reach.
Mindset
88. Stimulate all your senses when making visualization exercises. If you’re picturing yourself during a bugout, imagine people screaming, seeing the cars being taken away by the tornado, buildings falling from the earthquake, and so on.
Feel the texture of your bug-out bag as you put it on, or the smell of your wife’s perfume as she comes near you in panic. These little details make the entire experience more real.
89. Average people struggle with the noise in dangerous situations – gunfire, shrieking wind, the noise of rioters, roaring fires, etc. can be disorientating and affect concentration.
Soldiers and emergency workers are trained to function in chaos and noise – the body becomes used to it allowing them to keep cool and calm.
90. Whenever you find yourself having to do a large task, break it down into smaller ones and do them one by one. Remember a journey of a thousand miles starts with one step. (Lao Tzu)
91. The only way to master fear is to understand that it exists and admit that it’s something you can’t fully eradicate.
92. To deal with loneliness, find friends among even the smallest insects. Focus on easy, useless tasks such as polishing your shoes.
Urban Survival
93. The moment you realize something is about to happen and you decide to bug in, start filling the bathtub and every other container with water.
It may be a matter of minutes until it runs out so start filling not just the tub but every jar, pot, pan, and tin can you can find.
Of course, lack of water might actually be the tip-off that something’s happening, that’s why you need to stockpile in advance.
94. If trapped in a riot, remove all accessories (earrings, neck chains, rings, tie clips, etc.) so you don’t become a target.
95. Always have some cash on hand to get food and snacks from vending machines. You need to keep yourself hydrated and energized when dealing with an SHTF event.
96. Always rent/buy as close to your workplace as possible. This way it’ll be easy for you to get home on foot while everyone else is stuck in traffic.
97. Know all the alternate routes to get out of a city – The main ones are probably going to be jammed with everyone trying to evacuate the city.
Devious back routes you avoid because of time lost may just be your savior if you know them well. Practice using them so they are familiar.
Would you consider evacuating the city by boat (assuming you have a river that crosses your city)?
98. Do NOT engage in battle Things escalate a lot quicker in a city due to a large number of people, panic, and confusion.
Since you probably have a lot less food, water, guns, and ammo than rural preppers, you can’t really afford to deplete them by fighting for some nonsense reason. Plus, you might wake up outnumbered and put your life in danger.
99. Be creative when it comes to finding food and water. The city’s bodies of water are going to be full of food and water… and you might have to use those resources.
You’ll have to filter that water, those ducks need to be killed, plucked, and cooked, possibly without any electricity.
101. You can use the rail tracks to bug out. Depending on the type of disaster that will strike, the railroads may be abandoned.
102. Never sleep with the air conditioner on In case of a fire, it will only allow smoke to propagate faster and decrease your chances of survival.
103. Don’t disturb your burglar! If you come home only to find your place getting ransacked, don’t be a hero. Hide, run and call the police.
If this is a post-SHTF situation, get a gun and, possibly, some help before going in there. The best thing to do, probably, is to let him or them leave and make sure you improve your home protection as soon as possible.
104. Avoid crowded places If you can, try to avoid malls and other crowded places. You never know when a terrorist decides to kill as many as he can.
Do your shopping right after the mall opens or right before it closes. Better yet, do your shopping somewhere else.
105. Always park your car in a spot that’s well lit. This will make it less likely for someone to try to break in.
106. Keep an apartment dog. Dogs will surely scare some burglars who will hear them bark and move around the apartment when they try to break in.
107. Handkerchief. Always carry a handkerchief with you when going out, you might need to protect yourself from smoke or tear gas.
108. Don’t let your walkie-talkies and guns show. If you do, it’s only a matter of time before someone is going to want them – particularly your gun.
In fact, you shouldn’t even allow the tip of the gun to show from under your shirt as it will be easy to guess that you have a firearm.
109. Consider your workplace as a bug-out location. This needs careful consideration. If you’re working downtown, that’s probably the worst place to bug in.
But if your office is a more suitable location for bugging it, you might want to discreetly stockpile some stuff in your desk… just in case.
110. Have an Everyday Carry Kit (EDC). Having an EDC doesn’t mean you have to carry a backpack with you every day.
110. Never stay in hotel rooms above the 2nd floor. In case of a fire, it’s going to be tough for you to evacuate.
111. Make sure your kids all have get-home bags. When disaster strikes, chances are they won’t be at home. Make sure they all have some emergency items stuffed in their backpacks… just in case.
112. Have some means to overcome obstacles when you’re bugging out. The first thing that comes to mind are fallen trees (that are going to be everywhere after a hurricane) and building debris.
A chainsaw or an ax will do the job but a big hammer may also prove useful in some scenarios.
These are heavy and you’ll need a vehicle to carry them, but a full tang tomahawk can be very useful for your bug-out-bag.
A video from the recent fires in Australia comes to mind –one person who had a chain saw was able to cut some trees so the rest of the people could drive their vehicles into the shallow waters of the lake and save themselves and their vehicles from the fire.
During the same fires, people who couldn’t get vehicles through the trees had to swim into the middle of the lake and watch their vehicles burn.
113. Have means of entertaining yourself during a power outage. Board games, books, maybe even a Kindle if you have a solar charger for it.
114. Cities provide you with lots of stuff to burn to keep warm. No need to freak out about freezing to death.
You will find plenty of newspapers, cardboard, junk mail, and wood chips, to burn and keep yourself warm.
115. Forget your car. If you need to escape a riot and you have your car nearby, it might be safer to abandon it and go on foot. Better to deal with a broken windshield than with a broken leg.
116. Don’t make a fashion statement. Camouflage, urban camo and black hoodies are all no-nos. You don’t want to be mistaken for a prepper. Jeans and a t-shirt will do.
117. Keep away from windows. If bugging in is what you decided, you must keep away from windows at all times. Resist the temptation to see what’s happening; turn on the radio or the TV instead.
118. For safety, bed down in the passageway at night – it’s too easy for people to fire shots through windows. That way when you hear shots you can either lie low or get yourself ready for the follow-up attack.
Communications
119. A radio which is powered by batteries, solar cells, or even a hand-crank, can be a great go-to source for information.
120. FRS and GMRS radios are very easy to obtain and operate, and satellite phones also may be a good option for you if you find yourself frequently in very remote places.
121. What about CB radio? This public radio service is a good option, and no license is required.
122. There are more communication channels than the FRS and GMRS radios, and the distances that a CB radio can cover are also greater than both.
However, your range is limited to your area. What if you need to contact someone outside the region? Here is where ham radio shines. There are no geography limits.
With ham radio, one could contact those loved ones in the area, (assuming they also are hams, or at least know a ham,) and one could also reach out and contact someone outside the region to let them know who is alive and well.
Homesteading
123. Rainwater is safe to drink. There’s no need to worry about it being too acidic or safe to drink1. All water is acidic and the only water you shouldn’t be drinking is water near radioactive sites.
124. You’ll still want to avoid filtering and purifying it even if you have the means, to make sure your body is used to a few germs and can mobilize its defenses to keep you safe.
125. Collecting rainwater is illegal in some states or you may need a permit2. Before you install a rainwater harvesting system, you need to check with your local authorities if and how much you can harvest.
126. Don’t chop veggies on a wooden cutting board if you just chopped meat. Some bacteria will remain in the wood and then contaminate the food you cut afterward. Always clean your cutting boards after cutting meat on them.
127. You don’t need to keep water boiling for minutes in order to kill all pathogens and make it potable.
You just need to get it to 158 F (70 C). This way you’ll save time, fuel and, of course, water, which would otherwise be lost in the form of steam.
128. In order to slice meat, you can give it a quick freeze first (approx. 20 minutes).
129. Goats should be milked from the side, not from behind. The reason is, that they sometimes defecate.
130. Here’s how to keep your plants watered if you’ll be away for a longer period of time: put a bucket of water, place it next to the plant and make sure the bottom of the bucket is at a higher level than the top of the pot.
Then, place a long yarn connecting the bottom of the bucket with the inside of the plant’s pot.
Wilderness
131. Tie a belt around a tree and attach hooks to hold various things.
132. You can create a pillow or a mattress by filling plastic bags with leaves.
133. If you don’t have a knife sharpener, you can use the bottom of a mug or even the edge of your car’s windows.
134. If you’re having difficulty lighting a regular match because of the wind, shave the portion near its head.
Not completely, the shavings should still hold on to the match but you will see them easily catching fire in windy conditions.
135. Use a tarp to collect rainwater.
136. Lots of things can make good tinder: a deck of cards, dryer lint, cotton balls soaked in Vaseline, facial clean pads or cotton balls dipped in melted candle wax.
137. Oil, grease, mud, and smoke are great pest repellents if you don’t have natural ones like citronella, lemongrass, or tea tree oil.
138. Reptiles are not good at indicating water sources. Birds and insects are.
139. Use your reading glasses to start a fire by focusing on the sun’s rays.
140. Don’t throw away your lighter just because it’s run out of fuel. It will still spark and that’s all you need to light your tinder.
Survival Fitness
141. To practice carrying your bug-out bag, ditch going to the supermarket with your car.
Instead, get a backpack, load your groceries inside and walk there with it on your back. This will not only improve your stamina but will also save you money on gas.
Post-Collapse
142. Since people who will still be fat after a while might tip off others that they have food, consider having clothes that are 2 sizes too big to look thinner.
143. When you return from a bartering negotiation, always make sure you’re not begin followed. If you gave of the impression that you’ve got more you may be a target.
Medical
Disclaimer: you should know that I am not a doctor and that I am not responsible for the negative effects of you using my tips. Please consult your physician.
Before I give you these tips, I feel compelled to remind you that I’m not a doctor so my advice is for information purposes only.
144. Avoid storing your medicine in the bathroom, as some people do. The moisture will decrease its shelf life.
145. Someone who’s just experienced an electric shock can pass it on to you. Electricity travels through air.
146. Never touch or get too close to someone who’s experiencing an electrical shock. The current can travel through the air and will get to you too.
Either stop the electricity source or use a wooden stick to push the person away from the current.
147. You can apply pure honey to a dressing and then directly over a wound. Honey, just like lemon juice has an anti-bacterial effect.
148. Never suck the venom out after a snakebite. You risk yourself when you should be ready to assist the victim in getting help.
The primary concern in the treatment of snakebite is to limit the amount of eventual tissue destruction around the bite area.
Before you start treating a snakebite, determine whether the snake was poisonous or nonpoisonous. Bites from a nonpoisonous snake will show rows of teeth.
Bites from a poisonous snake may have rows of teeth showing, but will have one or more distinctive puncture marks caused by fang penetration.
Symptoms of a poisonous bite may be spontaneous bleeding from the nose and anus, blood in the urine, pain at the site of the bite, and swelling at the site of the bite within a few minutes or up to 2 hours later.
Do not:
- Give the victim alcoholic beverages or tobacco products.
- Give morphine or other central nervous system (CNS) depressors.
- Make any deep cuts at the bite site. Cutting opens capillaries that in turn open a direct route into the bloodstream for venom and infection.
- Put your hands on your face or rub your eyes, as venom may be on your hands. Venom may cause blindness.
- Break open the large blisters that form around the bite site.
149. I’ve said this before in a previous tip but it’s worth repeating: make sure your first aid kit is easily accessible from your bug out bag.
150. Never consume antibiotics past their expiration dates.
151. Use belts to stop bleeding (as tourniquets).
152. Mix vinegar with water, then apply on sun-burnt skin to relieve pain.
153. If you are under physical and mental stress or subject to severe conditions, increase your water intake. Drink enough liquids to maintain a urine output of at least 0.5 liters every 24 hours.
154. Keep your hair clean as your hair can become a haven for bacteria or fleas, lice, and other parasites. Keeping your hair clean, combed, and trimmed helps you avoid this danger.
155. If you get a small blister, do not open it. An intact blister is safe from infection. Apply a padding material around the blister to relieve pressure and reduce friction. If the blister bursts, treat it as an open wound.
156. The signs and symptoms of a fracture are pain, tenderness, discoloration, swelling deformity, loss of function, and grating (a sound or feeling that occurs when broken bone ends to rub together).
Natural Disasters
157. If you want a see the direction a tornado is moving, pick an object that’s close to it (a tree, a building) and notice how it’s moving relative to it.
158. During an earthquake, don’t sit in the doorway. Find an interior wall and sit down next to it.
159. To check a gas pipe for leakage, wet the suspected segment of the pipe with a soap solution (mix 1-2 tablespoons per gallon of water). If you see bubbles, it means it’s leaking.
Weapons
160. You should never use gasoline to clean your guns. This is a highly flammable substance.
Misc.
I’m adding tips here that didn’t quite fit in any other category.
161. To mark a cached location, take a photo of yourself or your family right above the ground. It looks like an innocent snapshot instead of a map.
162. Replace your shoelaces with Paracord… Paracord has many uses, 87 of them being detailed here.
163. If you need to get in or out of a burning building, if possible, you should crawl on all fours because you’ll find more oxygen closer to the floor.
164. If hijackers follow you into your driveway and leap out with guns, reverse into their vehicle as fast and hard as possible to get them off balance and the vehicle out of the way, and then speed off.
Their vehicle will be running and the handbrake will not be on as they will be planning on a quick getaway so there should not be too much resistance. It beats being shot.
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