We did a post on a dozen essential items you should have in your stash. These were the more obvious things like duct tape, tarps, batteries and flashlights.
Here are some of the less obvious items that many people overlook when prepping, yet are still essential.
Spare Eyeglasses
This brings to mind the classic Twilight Zone episode, “Time Enough At Last”, about bookworm Henry Bemis, who just wanted to be left alone to read. Bemis was a bank teller who was saved from a devastating nuclear explosion by being in the bank’s vault when it happened. He emerges from the vault to find himself alone with his books and more canned food to last him the rest of his years. All was not lost, as now he had time enough at last to read his books.. until his eyeglasses fall and shatter.
So make that two pairs of glasses at least.
Can Opener
Along the same lines as spare eyeglasses, without a good can opener, it’ll be more difficult to get into your stores of food cans.
Manual can openers with hand cranks do dull and wear-out, especially the budget variety, so purchase a high-quality example made of stainless steel. Good can openers also produce smoother edges on lids.
Board Games
Offline entertainment is crucial for mental health and well-being during stressful times. Stratego is my favourite board game of all time, but is not too social being a one versus one game. Having a variety on hand is most useful as playing Monopoly for the 5th time in a week could lead to murder.
Some games to consider are backgammon, chess, Clue, Scrabble, Risk, Trivial Pursuit and Settlers of Catan.
Jenga, a simple challenge of physical precision is another fun way to spend with two or more players.
Lego
Lego deserves its own heading. Building Lego is a true ASMR stress reliever. It can be expensive, as some sets can cost hundreds of dollars, but there are many users on eBay selling jumbles of pieces by the pound. $13 per lb when I last checked. The beauty of Lego is that you can have a bucket of random pieces and still build some cool stuff and just limited by your creativity. It is a hobby and pastime for all ages.
If your creativity is taking a break, I asked Survivalist.ai AI chat app for some ideas on what to build, and it said this…
In addition to brick and mortar entertainment, there are plenty of great games and apps that work offline, without the need for internet.
Reference Books
When and how much should I water my tomato plants?
When should I prune my bushes and trees?
When should I fertilize my plants?
Can I add coffee grounds directly to my soil?
You’ll probably have these and a myriad other gardening questions, easily answered with functioning internet, but if you’re offline you’ll want to keep a library of useful information in your home. In addition to books on gardening, having references for first aid and auto repair would be very useful.
Downloaded Videos
I have gigabytes of great videos downloaded to my local machine. There are plenty of free tools available online to help you do this. They ask for a URL as input and produce a mp4 video in various resolutions. I find 720p is good enough. Just google for them.
There are countless hours of amazing shows available, from tutorials and documentaries to comedies and sci-fi.
If you want to be extra prepared, store the videos on a hard drive and place it in your homemade Faraday cage along with your solar battery and laptop.
Bicycle
Even if you have a working car, you might want to conserve fuel and be more incognito when traveling short distances. A survival bicycle is something that should be in every garage but is often not. It’s useful not just to get around but for hauling items.
E-bikes are awesome, but if you don’t have a robust offline power source, stick with fully pedal-powered bicycles.
Don’t forget to also have a manual pump, spare tires and tire-fixing kits in your inventory.
