First things first, start with what you’ve got.  Print out or open the workable spreadsheet I’ve given you.  Or make your own.  Any way you do it so that it works for you.  It’s easiest to make a list of what you have.  If you were like me several years ago this process is really easy.  Nothing.  If you’ve got some things acquired, write down what they are.  In each of the 14 areas write down what you do have.  Then…start a list of things you want to have in each of those areas.  This is where a workable spreadsheet may be easiest.  As you go along in this journey, there will be some things you may want to add that don’t apply to someone else.  This is why emergency preparedness and food storage is so individual.  You may want a certain type of tent, or sleeping bags that have a certain cold rating.  You may want to stock pile away lots of freeze dried fruit.  You may have to adapt your grand list for food allergies.  You may want to have enough “inventory” to last you a week, some may want enough to last them a year.  Emergency preparedness isn’t just a one size fits all approach, but rather a list of guidelines or suggestions.  Frankly, this is also why so many people don’t ever start to accumulate much or get frustrated after just a few pieces of the bigger puzzle come together.  I’m hoping by breaking it all down, you can see that this is easy.  As long as you recognize it’s a journey and will take you some time to get there, but again, as long as you’re traveling towards the goal…there is progress.

For those of you looking for a “framework” (I’ll be honest, I work best when I have a reference too) I’ve created a link to show you what my “Inventory List” looks like as of the day of this post.  Also, I’ve created a link of my workable spreadsheet I’ve created and have updated as of today.  I will update this grand list frequently as I go along and create links that you can reference too.  My hope is to some day create my Ultimate Emergency Preparedness List.  I like the thought of that!  Until then, it’s a work in progress.

Start with what you have, make a list of that.  Then make a list of all the things you want to accumulate in each of the 14 areas.  After you have a good look backwards and forwards of your grand plan, you just need to pick one of the 14 areas in which to start adding to.  How do you pick?  I’ll tell you where I started and why in the next post.