Out With The Old…

The beginning of March is our family’s Annual Rotation (okay, this is the first annual rotation – but it will be this time each year, probably). This is when we go through all our preps and rotate, replace, and update as needed. We decided on March because it’s a relatively slow time of year, there aren’t any holidays (or birthdays) that require extra money, gardens haven’t gone in yet, and maybe there’s even a tax return to help add a couple of new prep items that we’ve wanted.

Here’s our Annual Rotation list to rotate, replace, update, and/or review:

• BOB** food: We don’t rotate MREs or freeze-dried stuff every year, but peanut butter, power bars, tuna, snacks, etc. all get replaced with new. The old goes to (the front of) our pantry.
• Batteries: in BOB, car and house flashlights, and smoke alarms and CO2 detectors
• Evacuation/Bug-Out Documentation: Check phone numbers, maps, and routes. Review plan with family. New photos of kids. Ensure ALL copies of evacuation documentation get updated.
• EDC wallet contact card
• Short List (a check-list of items we’d quickly grab if we had to bug-out with little notice – more about Short Lists on Wednesday*)
• Red Buckets (non-perishable food in red 5-gallon buckets, with orange gamma lids, pre-stocked to be quickly grabbed to supplement BOBs, also part of our Short List)
• Flash drives in BOBs with home video inventory and PDF resources
• SWYE: ensure inventory is accurate

In addition we do our quarterly review of stuff at this time:

• Generator: run briefly to test
• Extra car keys: check to make sure key in hidden magnetic box is still there
• Furnace filter: replace (not a prepper thing, but needs to be done regularly)

Think of any other things you keep in your preps, but don’t use very regularly, such as:

• Chainsaw (or other small gasoline powered tools): clean, inspect, and run briefly to test
• Firearms: ensure cleaned and oiled
• Firearm’s magazines: it’s a good idea to keep about half of your primary magazines loaded (to about 80% capacity); then each year change over and use the other half (this will help maximize the follower spring’s life)

One thing that isn’t listed above, is our backup gasoline. Gasoline, with stabilizers, can last one to two years. We stagger ours so it doesn’t all have to be rotated at the same time (keep accurate records).

If you’re like us, you’re busy and life is hectic. We tend to forget about our faithful preps that just sit, waiting, in case we need them. And yes, it’s a hassle to replace and update things – but you’re doing this because you believe it’s important and necessary, remember? So make your own list(s), track the age of the perishable items, and rotate to keep your preps fresh and ready. (Minor confession: we’re not done with all of this yet, but we’re working on it…)

(Wednesday: *Quick, Grab Everything Important!)

**For my list of abbreviations and other information, open the above ‘Check Here…’ page tab.