Containerisation

[Little Lou]

I agree about the need for containers - but it seems a terrible waste of space to store them empty. Maybe Castle NR is huge, but I struggle to find room for my preps as it is.

There are a few items I use regularly (like the water filter) which would need to be packed at the last minute, but most things I try to store in portable containers. Old suitcases are great for this, and unlikely to attract many scavengers' attention. Survival clothes I keep in vacuum sealed bags like these, which saves me space now as well as in the BOV, and means I can pick up a whole load in one go. A few things have overflowed into 'under bed' drawers, but if the worst came to the worst I could just yank out the whole drawer and carry it to a vehicle as it is.

But you're right, and there'll always be extras it seems a shame to leave behind if you've got time and space to take them. For those I keep a stack of folding cardboard boxes in the shed - the kind of thing removal companies give you when you're moving house. Not great and I'd lose time whacking on the parcel tape to hold the base secure, but I don't have space to keep plastic ones empty.

Ideally I think we'd use containers that were useful preps in themselves eg I have a spare sleeping bag in the bedroom I'd stuff with extra clothes. Realistically, however, I think I'm going to be constrained by what we could take in the vehicle - and if the roads are blocked we'll be carrying no more than we can take on our backs...