water prepping to do list water for emergencies hi it's AlaskaGranny Alaska Prepper no matter what
day it is in your life you need fresh drinking water to maintain your life and your health today
I wanted to share with you a water prepping to do list emergency survival we know we need to store
at least one gallon of water per person per day and that is for all of the things that you would
do that require water from the minute you wake up until you go to bed at night think about all the
ways that you use water not only for drinking but for cooking and bathing hygiene sanitation if you
only have that one precious gallon you really need to know how important water is we let water run to
get warm for our shower we let water run to get cool for a drink many of us take fresh drinking
water for granted because we have a seemingly endless supply of fresh drinking water but
the day may come when that doesn't happen and you need to have a supply of water emergency stockpile
there are many different ways that you can store water you can buy water in little containers you
can buy water in gallon containers there are all kinds of containers that you may have on hand or
you care to buy that you can fill up with water for your water storage needs there are pros and
cons to every type of water storage container we need to be able to rotate and access our water
we also need to think about portability issues if you needed to grab and go take water with you
and it's all stored in a 55 gallon barrel that's going to be a problem try to vary
the size of the water storage containers that you have and the places where you keep your water
let's look first at bottled water that we commonly buy in the grocery store
things that we can grab and go put one in your hiking bag in your lunchbox in
your bug out bag to-go kit water come in different sizes and they also come in different qualities
you can easily feel the different quality in the bottles of water and the bottles do
actually tend to disintegrate you can see that this water bottle is misshapen and squishy
water doesn't expire but the containers can disintegrate and while you think you can buy water
set it aside and count on it always being there it isn't necessarily the truth because it depends
how you store water and the container that you use does that mean you shouldn't buy grab-and-go
water bottles no it just means you need to actually rotate the water so that they don't
end up becoming wasted because once they start to disintegrate I don't trust the water in it I
figure if the container is disintegrating parts of whatever it's made from are now in the water
and it's not water I want to drink does that mean I need to throw it all away no you could
maybe use it for dishwashing use it for hygiene pour it over your plants find a way to use the
water don't just pour it down the drain and waste it even the large containers of water tend to
disintegrate I have a stack of these water bottles and the sides are starting to cave in it's a handy
size that I like to bring home when I go to the grocery store but you need to remember to also
be rotating them keeping an eye on them because after a couple years if the container is starting
to get saggy then you need to rotate out these containers and replace them with fresh water new
one of the reasons I really like to stock up on these they always come with a nice sturdy handle
and it's a size that you can easily carry water is heavy it weighs about eight and a half pounds
per gallon so most of us can transport gallons of water but when you get into larger containers
then it can become very heavy and cumbersome there are lots of containers that you might have around
your home that you can fill yourself with water from your tap water from the tap if it's coming
from a safe drinking water you can fill these containers you don't need to do anything to it
because the water is already safe to drink you can fill up empty canning jars you can fill
up empty soda bottles sports drinks bottles and you can even refill things like reusable
Nalgene type bottles why have a shelf of empty water bottles in your kitchen or your cupboards
that you use when you go out if you could keep them stored full in your kitchen that doesn't
mean that's the water you have to use if you're going out but you could they're already filled and
ready to go all water isn't just for drinking and cooking we need some for hygiene and sanitation
I like to save big empty detergent bottles that have a pour spout spigot on it
I like to save these and take them out to my Granny Camp which is my Alaska off-grid cabin
there's no electricity there's no running water it's basically a dry off-grid cabin and so I can
fill these up and I have a little sink that's built in but it doesn't have running water or
plumbing I put a bucket under the sink I set these detergent bottles on the counter and then you can
use the water by pressing on the button and it releases a little bit at a time this is also
great if you go camping with children because they can't just turn it on and let it run and then all
the water is gone when they want to wash their hands or something you can control the amount of
water that is used for each event by pressing the button and then releasing it they're also a size
that's easy to carry because they're just a few gallons next you can store water in containers
that you buy from the store such as four gallons five gallons six gallons seven gallons
and all the way up to 55 gallon water barrels i have several different kinds of these big blue
aquatainers which are actually my favorite water storage containers because they also have this
spigot end on them and I like to fill them up and take them out to Granny Camp and that's the ones
I use for my drinking water however they're pretty heavy something to think about is how you're going
to be able to get the water out of it are you going to lift it up and tip it over and pour it
out every time you want a drink of water one of the things you might consider is having some kind
of a pump I found this battery operated pump on amazon you can insert it into the water container
press the button and then the water will flow out of the tube so you can get a little or a lot if
you have a 55 gallon barrel you definitely need some kind of a hose system and the pump isn't
going to work because it isn't long enough it's designed for something like the five
six or seven gallon containers so you want something like a shaker siphon hose you can insert
that all the way down into your barrel and then it has a little like a marble thing in the valve
you shake it up and down and it creates the siphon effect and then the water will come flowing out of
the hose and that's how you can get all the water all the way down to the very bottom of your water
storage barrel are you wondering how to sanitize your containers when you very first get them
you want to wash them out with a bleach solution I'll put a link to a video I made on how to
sanitize your water storage containers when you first get them in case you're interested in that
another easy way to have extra water on hand is to refill plastic storage containers place them in
the freezer then you have not only a way to keep your freezer colder if the power goes out but once
these are melted then you have another source of fresh drinking water water needs to be stored in a
cool dry dark place you absolutely need to keep the water dark and that's why the barrels come
as opaque that no light can get through them because the sunlight is what allows bacteria and
algae to grow inside your water storage container so if you are refilling containers that are clear
make sure that you store them in a dark cabinet if you have large water containers such as barrels
don't store them directly on a cement floor because chemicals from cement can actually leach
into containers and it could contaminate your water put something down like a piece of wood a
pallet some cardboard something to keep your water storage container from being in direct contact
with a cement floor also remember water is very heavy store it on the bottom levels in your pantry
or your storage area it's very heavy you wouldn't want the shelves to break because the water was
too heavy or one of your containers got a leak and it ruined all the food you had stored below
it then also remember because water is very heavy don't go stacking them on top of each other when
it isn't appropriate the containers are already holding so much weight of the water they probably
can't hold the weight of more containers full of all that water so don't stack these so high that
you squish them and damage your containers never store water in recycled milk jug type containers
they're not sturdy they're not designed to last and it's nearly impossible to get all of the milk
solids out of those kind of containers anyway and then it's going to contaminate your water
so anytime you're reusing something that even if it held food before know that
containers that held food with strong odors it's nearly impossible to get those odors out you
don't want to find in an emergency you want to cook rice and your water smells like root beer
can you use those containers to store water absolutely because you need water for
hygiene you can use those containers that had strong odors in them
store them away under the sink you'll have water where you need it in an emergency for sanitation
and hygiene then you need to think about what if you've used up all of your safe drinking water
and all you can do now is go and collect some wild water you need to have a way to filter the water
even if the water is still running in your home sometimes water becomes contaminated flowing into
your home just look at places like Flint Michigan or they had some brain eating amoeba that got
in the water in Texas so it's not safe to drink even if it's coming into your home from the city
system you want to have a top quality water filter remember it's not a filter like a Brita those are
filtering out unsavory flavors and odors in water they're not doing anything to purify the water
you need a water purification filter that takes out the bacteria the viruses the contaminants you
want a water purification filter sturdy that's dependable so that you have the best fresh
drinking water possible you can get water filter from a life straw to a Berkey water filter purify
water from any source whether it's coming out of the faucet in your sink or you're collecting wild
water you can purify water by boiling it I'll put a link to a video I made on how to purify water by
boiling it you can purify water using bleach you need an eye dropper I'll put a link to a video
I made on how to purify water with bleach there are all kinds of water purification tablets such
as aqua tabs there are P&G water packets that if you collect what's called turbid water or
wild dirty water you could even scoop it up in a five gallon bucket add one of these packets stir
it around follow the directions you stir it all around and then you let the water sit the chemical
packet collects all of what's known as flock and it all settles to the bottom and then the water on
the top is still fresh and safe to drink another survival tool you might consider for your bug out
bag is a silcock tool it's a plumbing wrench that if you've ever been around commercial buildings
they look like they have the faucet but the handle is missing and with a silcock tool
you could turn on the water at a commercial building in an emergency and get the fresh water
that you need if you live in hurricane country and you have advanced warning of an emergency
maybe you want something like a water bob it goes into your bathtub and it's like a gigantic plastic
bag you can fill it up with up to 100 gallons it even includes a pump so that you can pump it out
as you need it then you'll have a source of fresh drinking water that lasts about six weeks water
is the most important prepping supply because it's something that we rely on every single day
to keep us alive and healthy go over this water prepping to-do list and make sure that you have
all of your water supplies up to date and ready to go no matter what the future brings if you
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