As I was reading through my church magazine, the Ensign, this month I was inspired by our prophet to do a new series about being prepared. God has given us a prophet here on earth today to be his mouthpiece, we are told in Amos 3:7 that "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secrets unto his servants the prophets.." Right now, and in times passed, we are being told to be prepared.
I want to keep this simple for those just starting down this path and give challenges to accomplish taking baby steps to preparing your family and home for what may come. I wanted to begin with the most important, yet simplest and least expensive way to begin preparing. That is with water. Water is the most important thing we have, we must drink it daily, we use it to cleanse our bodies, our clothing and our homes. During a disaster or other unknown, water will be what we desire and need most, so we should be storing it.
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What to Store It In
Storing water can be as simple as filling up an empty juice or soda container (I don't purchase these but others do and you can get quite a collection if you just ask) or as elaborate as purchasing water tanks - I do both. All my drinking water is stored in empty beverage containers, ranging from 2 quarts to a gallon. I then have several 5 gallon containers stored in the basement and a 250 gallon tank stored in the garage. My garage tank will be water needed for personal care, washing laundry, dishes, etc. The rest is drinking and cooking water. If you are re-purposing containers make sure it is thick plastic and food grade. Don't store it in plastic jugs like the grocery store milk come in, or any container that had harmful substances in it (this is a given, but thought I would still throw it out there).
Where Do I Store It
Many of you may not think you have room to store so much water. I am sure if you are creative enough you can come up with some interesting places for that water to be stored, it is even easier if you are storing it in re-purposed containers because they are smaller and easier to stash. I have a ledge going down the stairway to my basement, perfect place to store water bottles. I have a room in the basement with a table in it, I also utilized this space to store not only my water but my wheat. I stack and shove and make sure every bit of room is utilized in my storage area in the basement You could also store water under beds, in closets, and cupboards, you get the idea.
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Rotating Water - The Simple Way
Water should be rotated every 6-12 months but personally I have opened my stored water that is 2 years old and it is still good. As a rule of thumb I just rotate as I use water for various tasks around the house, grabbing a gallon here or 2 quart there for boiling pasta, starting a soup and other cooking needs, watering plants or boiling water for foot baths. I then fill it back up, label with the date and put back into storage for rotation, using this simple method I never need dump and refill for rotation, saving lots of time - and water! My large containers I fill with the treated house water and that I can keep stored for 5 years or more without rotating.
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Preparedness Challenge
- Start today to collect containers for storing water.
- One by one fill them up with water and find a place to store them - shoot for 1 gallon per person this week and move on from there.
- You could also purchase a gallon or two of water each time you go to the grocery store, building your supply slowly.
- You should aim for AT LEAST 20 gallons of water per person in your household.
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