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hi it's AlaskaGranny Alaska Prepper today I wanted to share some tips and tricks about water
storage lots of us have questions about how to store water what's a great
container to store it in how much water is enough how do we know our water is
going to be safe can water expire and the answer is no water doesn't expire
but what happens is water is made up of h2o so part of it is oxygen the oxygen
can actually almost evaporate out of the water remember setting a glass of water
next to your bed at night and when you woke up in the morning it tasted flat
that's because the oxygen has escaped but you can put the oxygen back into the
water if you take two glasses pour it back and forth you're re oxygenating it
and then it tastes fine again so that's a quick tip to knowing how to
help your water taste better if you normally use water out of your kitchen
faucet and it's safe to drink you don't need to treat any water that you fill
your barrels or containers yourself the water coming into your home is already
safe to drink your water can become contaminated if you see that it has
anything floating in it any type of bacteria or algae anything that looks
suspicious or if your water ever smells off then you need to replace it
part of those problems come from what kind of container you store the water in
what kind of containers are safe to store water well there's always
containers that are designed for water storage make a good head start on your
water storage by purchasing some bottled water it's going to come in adequate
containers then maybe you want to purchase a container that's designed to
hold water food grade type containers that are designed for storing liquids
they generally come in two gallon three gallon four gallon five six gallon sizes all
the way up to water barrels that could be from fifteen to thirty five to fifty 55
gallon barrels the barrels and jugs are usually blue
and they have an opaque side they're not see-through because the the part of the
reason that water becomes filled with things like algae is from sunlight so
you can find five gallon water containers that are clear in the store you need to store
them in a dark place so that the light can't cause algae to grow in your water
that can be as simple as storing it in a dark basement storing it in a cupboard
storing water with a cover over it even something as simple as a large black
plastic bag you can also fill up containers that you have around your
house one good way to store water is in your empty canning jars if you have
empty soda pop bottles or flavored waters clean those out and use those to
store extra water there's a caution to that because intense flavours from
things like Gatorade and colas can remain in the plastic and so then your
water no matter how fresh your water is is going to take on the scent from that
bottle or container however we are going to need water for things like hygiene
and dishwashing and so not all water that we store is going to be used for
drinking you can fill up some of those type of containers like Gatorade or soda
pop store them under the sink in your bathroom stash a few under the kitchen
sink so that you have water in a place that you would need it should you run
out or for some reason the water stops running it's not a good idea to store
water in something like an empty milk jug you can never get all of the
contaminants out of an empty milk jug plus they're just not sturdy milk jugs are
going to burst if they fall they break don't waste your prepping prepper food storage space storing
things incorrectly make the greatest use possible out of you're prepping supply
areas how much water do we need to store you need one gallon of water per person per day
for a minimum of three days is a fifty 55 gallon barrel
enough well it depends on how many are in your family and how long you want to
store water if you're one person fifty gallons would be a nice supply the more
people in your family and the longer period of time you want to have that
water cover your emergency is how you decide if you have enough store water in
various sized containers one gallon of water weighs more than eight pounds of
50 55 gallon barrel is not going to be movable have some water that's in
grab-and-go sized containers that you are able to pick up and take with you or
move to a location that you need it even if it's just from your basement to your
kitchen so that you have the water where you need it if you do have water barrels
make sure you have a bung wrench so that you can open the barrels and then some
kind of a siphon hose or a pump to be able to access the water in your barrel and use it
water barrels need to be set in a very level location and don't set water barrels on
a cement floor in your garage put down even cardboard boxes or
a couple of two by fours or a pallet of wood something to keep the water barrel up off of the
cement because chemicals from in your cement or your concrete can actually
leach through the plastic bottles and we don't want to risk contaminating foods
and supplies that we need never stack a water barrel on top of another barrel they're
just too heavy and they're not designed to carry such a load then the final most
important element of water storage is to have some kind of water filter and
purifier the amount of water that we can store simply can't be enough for how
much we would actually need in a protracted emergency have a way to
purify water whether it's how to purify water with bleach water purification tablets get some kind of water
filter make sure any water purifier or filter that you choose takes out all of
the impurities you want to make sure that the water filter purifier
gets out bacteria viruses cysts and purifies the water to a safe drinking
level my family's favorite water filter that we use in our home all the time is a Berkey water filter
Berkey water filter you fill up the top it has black carbon filters the Berkey water
filter is a great in-house unit that holds a lot of water it's gravity-fed
you can take water from any source and the berkey water filters are absolutely fantastic of
clearing out any contaminants you should also have some kind of a water filter for your
Bug Out Bag and your emergency kit in case you would have to evacuate or leave
your home have water filter that's handheld water filter you can pump water filter purifier that's
gravity-fed that's a small enough size that you can carry it with you and
utilize it to purify water water is really the most important prep that we need to provide
for ourselves and our family every single emergency that we will ever encounter
we need fresh drinking water so whether you're planning prepping for a forest fire or an
apocalypse a snow storm or even just a power outage if the water is no longer running
flowing into your home you need to have a few containers of water on hand to get
you through emergency survival situation until you can figure out what to do next find some containers
today take an inventory of your stored emergency water and make sure that you're providing the
things you need so you're prepared for whatever comes your way
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