Advice

Twenty short pages on storing food, water, and kit — written for a household that means to stay put, eat what it stores, and leave only when it must.

1. 01Water firstFood can wait a day. Water cannot. Store it, know how to treat it, and rotate it like any other supply.
2. 02Calories that lastA pantry is a number of days, not a feeling of fullness. Count calories for the people who will eat them.
3. 03Dates and rotationUse-by is a safety line. Best-before is a quality line. Holdfast can tell them apart if you do.
4. 04Staples in the darkRice, oats, pasta, flour, and salt are the quiet bulk of a store. They fail from damp and pests, not from drama.
5. 05Protein without a freezerFreezers die quietly. Tinned fish, beans, meat, and nut butter do not need one.
6. 06Fat, oil, and flavourOil is how a bowl of rice becomes a meal. It is also where calories hide, and where rancidity starts.
7. 07Tins that earn their shelfCans are a complete meal technology: cooked, sealed, and patient. They still fail, and they still need a plan.
8. 08Freeze-dried mealsPouches are light, long-lived, and thirsty. They are a tool, not the whole pantry.
9. 09Cooking off-gridA cold tin is a meal. A hot meal is how people stay civil. Fuel is part of the food store.
10. 10A working first-aid kitA kit is the things you know how to use, plus the medicines your household already takes.
11. 11Staying cleanSoap prevents more illness than most gadgets. Store it as deliberately as you store beans.
12. 12Waste and sanitationToilets fail in two ways: no water to flush, or nowhere for the flush to go. Plan for both without romance.
13. 13Light and fireDarkness is when stairs, knives, and tempers get worse. Light is a safety supply.
14. 14Batteries and small powerYou do not need to run a house. You need to charge a phone, a torch, and maybe a radio.
15. 15Papers and cashShops and officials still ask for things a dead phone cannot show. Paper is a supply.
16. 16Sheltering at homeMost disruptions are stayed through, not escaped. Make the house work for a fortnight of inconvenience.
17. 17When you leaveLeaving is a decision with a bag, a route, and a place to arrive. It is not a personality.
18. 18How you stay in touchA plan for messages beats a drawer of radios nobody shares a channel on.
19. 19Cold and winterCold finds the gaps: pipes, batteries, fingers, and moods. Autumn is when you fix them.
20. 20The habit of practiceA store you never touch is a story. A store you eat, test, and replace is a plan.