31 Days of Emergency Preparedness {Hygiene and Sanitation}
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Hygiene and Sanitation are so important!
If you are without power for a few days then your toilets may flush, but have nowhere for the waste to go.
This is when diseases and such start happening.
There is also the possibility of a pandemic. Flu or the like. You want to be prepared NOW rather than after the fact when everybody is out looking for the same supplies you are.
#1 If you are sick stay home.
Make sure to add soap and bleach to your preps. I also have stockpiled, using coupons, Lysol type wipes. N-95 masks are also a good addition.
I use Fels Naptha for homemade laundry detergent. I can then use the ‘plunger’
Then there’s the “What to do with garbage.” Well, if it’s a short term emergency hopefully you have enough large garbage cans outside. Or a barrel to burn it.
Long term scenario? You can’t really bury it if you are urban or suburban.
If it were me and it looked like this was a long term situation I would be finding someplace else to go.
Where we are we will burn it as long as it is safe to do so.
Continuing to use the toilet:
You can use a black garbage back in an empty toilet. More comfortable than a 5 gallon bucket, but not as easy to empty. A little sawdust, which hopefully you have in your preps, will help with odor.
We have the option of just building an outhouse if it ever came to that. The old school way and throw lime in the hole to help with odor.
Make sure to prep feminine hygiene, whether it be boxes and boxes of product or washable, reusable product. The best place to find washable is Etsy. There is also the Diva Cup, which is also reusable. I have not personally tried either other the washable choices. Yet.
The List
- Lysol style wipes
- Bleach
- Feminine Hygiene products
- Alternative for toilet
- What about your garbage?
- Hand Sanitizer
- In case of Flu pandemic N95 Masks and Latex gloves
Here is a great infographic of a Handwashing Station
Just make sure to be clean! So many illnesses happen because of poor sanitation.
5 Level of Preparedness
Acronyms
Apps
Bug Out or Bug In
Communications
Cooking
Dictionary
Family Plan
Farm Animals
First Aide
Food
Got Power
Got Shelter?
Kids or No Kids
Op Sec
Practice What You Preach~Power Outage Practice
Resources
Sanitation
Skills to Have
Tools
Urban vs Rural
Water

Great series! I hadn’t thought much about having a good supply of feminine hygiene products on hand for disaster preparedness, but with 5 daughters growing up way too fast, I’d better get on that! 🙂