Simplify Now, Before TEOTWAWKI
I live a self-sustaining and prepared lifestyle, always have and always will. My parents and grandparents lived this way and taught me well. Several years ago, we chose to purchase property for a mini-farm near a university town, so that we could have it all, a self-sufficient small farm near educational and intellectual endeavors for my children. Naturally hidden from view we bulldozed a home site in the woods and built our property up to be self-sufficient, with woods for firewood, fruit trees, garden areas, secret outdoor rooms, caves and everything anyone would want. I worked full time then and my co-workers and friends thought I was nuts working so hard mornings, nights and weekends to make my property self-sufficient. They said “America is a land of rich promise; you can buy anything you want.” I didn’t want to buy it, I wanted to grow it and do it myself. I chose to build a small home purely out of selfishness; I just don’t like cleaning or doing windows. I really had to downsize when we moved in as our new home was about half the square footage of anything we owned previously. I found I could simplify without cutting back on our ‘future supplies’. Our food storage and our prepared supplies take up at least a third of our home’s volume, and it remained intact. I have never regretted our choice to simplify our life, nor have I missed anything we got rid of in the process of downsizing. Now those friends
who scoffed at me are new preppers. Many of these newer preppers
live in huge, sprawling, luxury homes that their large university
salaries afforded. One friend in particular was talking the other
day about how he has his families bug-out-bags all packed and ready
to go, and all his alternate locations stocked. He has been watching
Doomsday Preppers and has decided to go out and spend thousands
of dollars on ‘stuff’. I commend his ability to have a
salary large enough to be able to do this, but like so many others
I see around me in my ‘neighborhood’ and in church, they
feel the need to prepare, but haven’t thought thru the mental
process of living a self-sustaining lifestyle. I would guess it’s
probably because they never had to be self-sufficient and never
experienced traumatic loss of their possessions. So, my question
to him (and all those in this situation), is, are you seriously
going to walk away from this vast luxury, sprawling, expensive home
to bug out and live in a tent with your family? Can you really walk
away from it all? Can you give it all up if you had to? What are
you going to do when the food runs out? This new prepper looked
at me as though I had slapped him. My intent was not to be rude,
but to wake him up to real TEOTWAWKI thinking. I’m not making
fun of him, I’m extremely concerned. I’m worried about
him that he and his family will end up in real trouble. If anyone seriously thinks they can bug-out post-TEOTWAWKI, and come back to everything just as they left it, they are delusional. New preppers do not understand that very well, you really have to be prepared to leave it all permanently and be able to live and thrive somewhere else. My advice is to prepare to do that by simplifying your life now. If you really believe that TEOTWAWKI is coming (as I do), then live that way. Simplify and learn to be self-sufficient now! Living a prepared and self-sustaining lifestyle is a way of life, not a weekend project. You can simplify your lifestyle with or without downsizing. I’m not saying to get rid of everything; I’m saying to get rid of everything that would be extra baggage later or that you can live without. Ask yourself, is this a necessity, or of future value? If it isn’t an heirloom, a necessity or of future value, then get rid of it, make it one less thing you have to worry about. Now I’m not saying to strip the house and go to the bunker and wait. Not at all, matter of fact we have broken out the good china and crystal now and are using them on a daily basis, not just on the holidays. We are installing new family room carpet and painting the kitchen to spark up our home and lives. We intend to live life to its fullest every day and be happy and find the value of living now. We, like most preppers intend to stay at home as long as possible post-SHTF, but unlike many, we can walk away and not look back. Logistically speaking, we can pack everything important into the bus if necessary. I’m not sure my wealthier friends or newer preppers who are riding the ‘prepper wave’ can do this. We have simplified our kitchen, getting rid of rarely used appliances and pans. We have simplified our wardrobes into three colors, so it is all interchangeable, thus needing much less clothing. (No, camo is not a color, it’s a blend of colors.) We have simplified our holidays by giving home baked gifts to everyone and tremendously downsizing our holiday decorations. How many strands of Christmas lights and red balls do we really need? How many pruners do we need? How many slow-cookers do I really use? Do I really need to keep those baby clothes? How many spatulas do I have? This is a good time to spread items into different bug-out locations. I found five skillets, but only used two of them. The other three went to our bunker and cabins. The old cot fit into a nifty little vacant space on the bus. The daily silverware went to the cabin and we use the good ones daily now with the bone china when we aren’t eating on paper plates. We have simplified our paperwork with a scanner and a trash burner. All memorabilia and family history has gone into scrapbooks, and I have had to limit the amount of scrapbooks. Even the sewing room has been downsized, instead of the cabinet sewing machine, I now have a portable. Instead of totes of material and supplies, it is now in under the bed chests. We freed up huge areas in the garage by selling older and duplicate tools and took the money to buy newer multi-use tools that take up much less space. We don’t miss a thing that we let go when we downsized. August 7, 2012 Copyright © 2012 Survival Blog
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