WATER - Emergency kit item #1

Focus on water first if you are a beginner to prepping. The first reason for this is because water is so important to our survival and sanity. Not only do our bodies need water but we need it for cooking and cleaning as well. The second reason is because the beginning stages of prepping can be overwhelming and costly. Water is free!
Side Note: For those that have wells, you are better off than us urbanites that are tied into the city lines. Just make sure you have a back-up plan when the power is off and you can no longer pump water from your well. A hand pump can be a great investment that will return your investment many times over.

Most survival sites recommend a minimum of 1 gallon of water per person per day. I agree with this number and believe that some days we will have extra to use the next day. The math portion for this is easy. Just multiply the number of people you are storing for times the number of days you would like stored.

ex: 3(people) x 10(days) = 30 gallons of water to store.

An easy and free way I found to store water is reusing all of my plastic 2 liter pop bottles and juice bottles. If the plastic is strong enough and you can screw the lid on tight than you can use it. Just please be sure to wash the bottles out prior to filling them. Washing won't remove all of the bacteria so I would recommend a couple(2-3) of drops of chlorine bleach in each bottle as well(1/8teaspoon/gallon).

Only use bleach that contains 5.25% hypochlorite and is scent-free.

So if I want to store 30 gallons of water for an emergency situation I would need how many bottles? Here comes more math! There is roughly 4 liters in 1 gallon so we need 2 bottles for each gallon or a total of 60 - 2 liter bottles. YOWZERS! I don't know about you, but I don't have the storage space for 60 bottles filled with water.

There is another option here: Most Americans have a water heater in their home. That tank of water that is sitting in your house will most likely be free of contaminants since it was filled prior to WTSHTF(just make sure you shut the intake water valve coming into your house). My small tank only holds 40 gallons, or about 13 days of water for my family. So I am done right? Depends on if you are satisfied with about 13 days of water storage. I know I'm not. What if this issue lasts longer?

A solution to this problem that takes up little room in your storage is a filter. Filters can turn creek and river water into acceptable drinking water and save the day. With a 13,000 gallon filtering capacity, the Katadyn water filter is my favorite. 13,000 gallons is almost 12 years of clean water for a family of 3. That is worth the cost. I also recommend water purification tablets because they are cheap and can be helpful to remove certain bacteria.

I can write on forever about the different water situations, but this general knowledge will help everyone reading this get started on building their supplies.