Preparedness Challenge: Five Easy Ways to Begin Water Storage
Water sustains our life. It’s that simple. Do you have at least some water stored for emergencies, no matter where you live? We have all seen the devastation that a hurricane or earthquake can bring and having some water storage just makes sense. There are some easy things you can do today to begin your water storage.
I took the quiz at the USGS Water Science School , and put in an estimate of what my family might consume in a day and here is their response:
“Does 114.6 gallons sound about right for the day’s indoor-water activities?”
Yikes! How am I going to store that much water? Well I’m not. Unless I go for underground storage tanks, there just isn’t enough room at my house to store that amount of water.
So how much should you store? All the experts agree you need at least one gallon, per person, per day and you need enough for three days. This really is basic water consumption though, so make sure you are comfortable having less water than you are used to using.
Consider this when deciding. You will need to make a plan for -Drinking water, -Water for your animals, -Cooking water, -Washing water for dishes, laundry and people, -and you might want water for your garden
Five Easy Ways to Begin Your Water Storage
1. Fill Your Empty Canning Jars. I probably have 50 empty canning jars around my house at any given time. Maybe you do too. Pull out all your empty canning jars and fill them with tap water. Fill them to the brim and cap each tightly. What a great way to make use of that empty space. If you have city water with chlorine, no need to do anything else. Well water people will want to add 2 drops of chlorine per jar. You also need to think about how much they will weigh once full and store them appropriately, probably at ground level. Now make a commitment to always refill them before they are stored away again.
2. If your family drinks pop, you can reuse the food grade bottles for your water storage. Fill an empty 2 liter soda pop bottle. How do you get them clean? Rinse with water and fill 1/3 full. Add ¼ teaspoon of bleach and coat the whole inside of the bottle. Rinse well before refilling.
BONUS: Only fill the bottles 3/4th of the way and put some of them in the bottom of your freezer. This will extend the life of your frozen food in a power outage and give you more storage area.
3. Purchase bottled drinking water. While this might not be the most environmentally sound option, it does get your water storage accomplished. We have a combination of water containers at our house and 12 oz bottles are part of the plan. They are inexpensive to purchase and easy to carry. Plus you can stash them in out of the way places. We also have a couple cases of 1 gallon containers that are easy to access. These plastic bottles need to be rotated every year and remember to keep them out of sunlight so they will last longer.
4. Purchase 5 Gallon Water Storage Containers
. You can start with collapsible or rigid, whatever will work best for your situation. In addition to canning jars, soda bottles, and purchased water bottles, we have one 5 gallon container for each member of our household.
5. Once you have your drinking water in place start rinsing and refilling your milk jugs. You can’t safely store drinking water in them but they work great to have an extra stash for washing clothes and flushing. These will eventually break down, so keep them out of the sunlight and rotate every 6 months – or plan on a leaky mess. Use them to water your garden or patio plants.
Today’s Challenge: Using one (or more) method above, make sure you have at least 3 gallons of water stored for each person in your family.
Other water storage posts you might be interested in: Water Storage Infographic, 2012 Water Storage Challenge, Storm Preparedness.
I am storing water in empty milk jugs. I clean them thoroughly with hot soapy water and then stack them in a shower we never use. I don’t have to worry about them leaking. Additionally the most inexpensive water storage container I have found is called a Water Bob. It only costs around 25.00 and holds 100 gallons of water. The downside is it’s pretty thin plastic and is supposed to be set up in a bathtub. I am able to do this as I have 3 bathrooms, one of which has a tub we don’t use. I think a person could build a frame, as long as it’s smooth with no splintered wood, that could double as a bathtub like structure and have more than one of these Water Bob’s filled up and ready for use. Perhaps a frame covered in carpet scraps would work. Or, while not attractive you could even find an old bathtub and use that. Just an idea because water is so important and it’s not cheap to purchase containers to keep it in. It might not be optimal but again, water is number 1 so if you are able to find a place to put something like that do it!
Whenever I empty a gallon bleach or vinegar bottle I rinse well, add 1/4 tsp bleach, fill with water, date the bottle with a Sharpie, store in a dark place. We are on well water, so the bleach is absolutely necessary. I rotate each bottle after a year.
Drinking Water from 5 gallon water bottles
We have a water from a water coop that uses chemicals that people with kidney problems should not drink. We buy filtered water in the 5 gallon bottles for drinking and cooking with but use the water for bathing and washing dishes and clothes. I am in the process of setting up an homestead and will add water cisterns so the animals will not have to drink water with harmful chemicals from the coop.
My husband uses a CPAP breathing machine that uses distilled water. I have been refilling these bottles that had the distilled water with city tap water once empty and putting them down in my storage for water storage.
They have had water in them already and even if I only use the water for washing it is still water stored.
Thanks for the suggestion to only fill water containers 3/4 of the way and put some of them in the bottom of the freezer. I would like to start doing some emergency preparedness in my home, and I figured that water would be a good place to start. Purchasing some 5-gallon water storage containers is something I’ll look into to start my emergency preparedness.