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Thanks…now on to the good stuff!

One of the easiest (and most important) steps we can take on our preparedness journey is storing water.

We are incredibly spoiled in this country. Very rarely do we have to think about our access to safe and clean drinking water. We turn on a faucet, and just like that, water appears in our homes.

We use it for drinking, cleaning, and hopefully brushing our teeth!

But have you ever stopped to think about what your family would do if you turned on the faucet and nothing came out?

It’s not a question intended to send a shiver down your spine, although if you like showers as much as me, that’s exactly what just happened, it’s designed to make you more conscious of all the ways we use water on a day-to-day basis.

We flush toilets, take showers, fill up tea kettles, brew coffee (an essential task), and wash our hands. Water is used for cooking and cleaning on a daily basis and yet most of us haven’t really thought about what we would do if the water wasn’t there.

Spend one day and log every time you turn on your faucet, get water out of the fridge, or start a load of laundry. You may be surprised at how much water you family uses in any given day. If you don’t want to track it for a day (or two), pull our your latest water bill and look at the number of gallons your house consumed over the latest 30 day period. If you’re like most of us, it’s a lot!

Most experts agree that we can only survive for about 72 hours without water. I don’t know about you, but I’m not really interested in going ANY days without water.

Water is my beverage of choice and I drink A LOT. I also really, really, really like my showers each morning. A day without water does not sound fun!

Now, imagine a natural disaster compromises your water system and makes it unsafe to drink or bathe.

How long could your family survive with the water you have stored in your house?

Most of us only have a few days worth of water in our homes, unless we start prepping.

Okay don't panic, let’s chat about water storage and how you can get prepared for an emergency.

1. Figure out how much water you need to store for your family.

FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, recommends storing 1 gallon of water per person per day for an emergency situation.

Now, I don't know about you, but I consume a gallon of water a day in the form of coffee and drinking water. I feel like this number, while enough to sustain you, might not really be enough to keep you comfy in a disaster…and let’s face it, I want to be comfy (it’s why I prep)!

I recommend a more conservative estimate of at least 2 gallons of water per person per day. You’ll need to take a hard look at how much you and your family actually use, and create your plan from there.

You’ll also want to decide how many days worth of water you want to store for your particular comfort level. Again, FEMA recommends storing enough water for a minimum of two weeks.

I live in a relatively dry climate without many natural water sources near my home, so we store enough water for more than 30 days.

Take a look at what water sources might be available in an emergency, determine how many days of water you’d like to have available, and then decide how many gallons you are comfortable storing.

2. Decide how you want to collect and store the water.

Once you know how much you are storing, it’s time to start collecting the water!

One of the easiest ways to start your water storage is by picking up a few packs of bottled water. I started my water storage with a few 24 & 32 packs of water bottles.

Yes, I know that there are some environmental impacts with this plan, and I’m not discounting them, but this is the simplest way for most of us to start our water storage. And although I use a refillable water bottle for my daily consumption, I do use plastic bottles when I’m out and about and on the road.

I love water bottles because they are easy to get, you don’t have to worry about the quality of the water stored, and they are easy to transport!

If you want to stick with water bottles, great! They are a perfect way to store water…but depending on the size of your family, it may be impractical to store enough water bottles to fully stock the amount of water you want to store.

Another great way to store water is in 5 gallon containers. I personally love these 5 gallon storage containers!

Personally, I wouldn’t go larger than a 5 gallon container for water storage. Anything larger than 5 gallons gets way too HEAVY to move! This type of container makes a great storage option if you have large family or want to store water for an extended period of time.

3. Remember to rotate your water

Awesome you have the water stored…you’re all done….well not quite.

Believe it or not water can spoil over time. You need to rotate your water every 6 months or sooner.

If you are using water bottles, simply keep an extra case or two in your house and as you buy a new case, put it in your storage supply and use the oldest one in your day-to-day routines.

If you end up getting 5 gallon containers, make sure you rotate the water in those as well. All you need to do is dump out the stored water (a great way to water house plants or the family pet), and then refill from the tap water.

It’s a good idea to add a drop or two of unscented bleach to the water you store in containers to make sure you kill any bacteria that might be in your water supply. Just make sure you don't use a bleach with any additives or scents!

If you rotate your water consistently, you’ll always have safe water for drinking and cooking even in an emergency.

Other tips and tricks:

• You can count the water in your hot water heater when you are calculating how much you need to store…in an emergency you can drain the water out of your tank for emergency use.

• You can also store water in your bathtub if you know there is the potential for a water issue (think ice storm or hurricane on its way) - I love the WaterBob to store clean water in the tub.

• Don’t use old milk jugs or fruit juice containers to store extra water…it’s impossible to remove all the sugars no matter how hard you scrub and any leftover residue can ruin your water supply

• Mark the dates on your containers so you don’t forget when you stored the water

• Store the water in a relatively temperature controlled environment to keep anything from leeching into the water from the plastic containers

Hopefully, some of these tricks and tips will help get you started with your water storage.

Again, NOW is the time to take action. You don’t want to be in the middle of an emergency wishing you had fresh water to drink!

Drop me a picture of your water storage below when you take that first step…let’s celebrate together.