Containerisation

[NorthernRaider]

(17 May 2013, 19:44)Little Lou Wrote: 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...

Hi Castle NR is a small three bed semi , but I'm thinking of storing those collapsable crates of the type you can buy from B & Q or snaffle from the Coop or Boots, they are about 30 inches by 24 inches by about 10 inches high but fold flat. The Company owned versions are very tough indeed, and very useful.