Logistics-taking your eye off the ball

[NorthernRaider]

Over the winter months from around the end of September I have not been paying close attention to the stores issues, EG if I wanted Kitchen Roll or Laundry detergent I just yelled at junior to bring some down from the big cupboard. This morning I shout to the spoilt brat and ask him to bring a 4 pack of kitchen roll down and a bottle of domestos.

"Dad we haven't got either"!!!!!! was the reply.

Trots upstairs and inspects both cupboards, gallops back down and checks under the stairs and under the sink, anxiety grows and goes out to garage with check lists in hand.

Shit,since Sept 2013 we really have depleted our stocks, below is just some of the stuff we have ran down to very low levels, or ran out of.

Kitchen roll
Toilet Paper
Baby wipes
Domestos both 1 litre and 5 litre bottles
Flash liquid surface cleaner
Detol
Bin bags !!!!! I thought we had hundreds of them!!!!
Stardrops
Comfort fabric cond ( I like soft skivvies )
Disposable razors
Sanex hand cleaner

Coffee mate
Bread flour
Powdered eggs
Cooking oil
Apple juice !!! Has the little sod been bathing in it ?
Tinned pies (ok my bad )

Hell there is even only two boxes of compo rations left and I don't trust the dates on them.

Petrol
Engine oil semi synthetic
WD 40
De-icer
Screen wash

4x2 plywood boards

Cold & Flu Caps
Gaviscon
Colofac
Paracetamol

I an genuinely shocked and surprised just how easy it was to get through so much gear and not notice, I need to pay more attention in future, I hope the same cock up does not apply to you folks.

[bigpaul]

since we were snowed in for nearly 4 weeks a few years ago, I have increased the stocks so we DONT run out of anything, we do a "top up" shop every week and a "big" shop once a month.

[NorthernRaider]

Mind you I have just realised that it is nearly six months since I checked the stocks !!! what a maroon I am.

[bigpaul]

6 months?? bloody hell, I check the stocks every WEEK but then we haven't got the amount of stores that I know you have NR, we don't keep the large stock of chemicals that you do for instance. as for tins etc this is rotated on a date basis, using the oldest first and replacing with fresh stock.a lot of our food is used FRESH-in a normal week we would only use maybe 2 tins of stuff, we eat fresh meat from the farm shop and grow a lot of our own fruit and veg, we don't like processed food its not good for health reasons and most of our tin stock will only be used in a SHTF situation.

[Skean Dhude]

On the plus side you know how many you had and therefore how much you have used in 6 months so if you want to prep for 12 months or 18 months worth you can do the calculations. If you need help just shout.

[NorthernRaider]

Normally its only stuff like cleaning materials we keep crazy amounts of like Kitchen roll, Domestos etc cos we only buy it if we see it on really good offer at Makro. Grub wise we probably only normally have 3 / 4 months worth at sensible calorific values.

[bigpaul]

just been talking to OH about stores in general and she said " if imports stopped-for any reasons- how much of what you store can you obtain locally??" a lot of the medication comes from abroad.

[Lightspeed]

This household had a similar problem of depleted stores

We've now completely separated day to day living stuff from preps.

Preps are in sealed boxes and kept separately from day to day stores.

That said, we still had an unexpected shortfall on LPG stock after one of our number helpfully swapped out a 13Kg Propane cylinder without telling anyone. It was only discovered after I swapped the cylinder last week only to find the replacement empty. Helpful person has been asked to refrain from such helpfulness in future...

[Scythe13]

(31 March 2014, 11:23)Lightspeed Wrote: We've now completely separated day to day living stuff from preps.

Preps are in sealed boxes and kept separately from day to day stores.

I didn't know the 2 were ever kept together in the first place?!?!

If the wife ever says 'the house is low on food' I can't help but smile. Truth is, there's LOADS of food stashed away, but the cupboards she's looking at are not too abundant. Having a few days worth of food and equipment is 'empty' by her standards now.

When she goes upstairs and finds the extra stuff hidden away...she'll understand why I smile quite as much as I do when she says that the house has no food in.

[Midnitemo]

i live in my partners house and rent(well he's a lodger really)mine to a friend, i keep a bedroom for my bits and pieces locked, its becoming a regular little alladins cave for preppers but i am rapidly running out of room lol.