If you’ve ever rushed to prepare for a natural disaster or big event and ended up not benefiting from your prepping efforts, you may have opinions on why prepping is pointless.
And you wouldn’t be totally wrong because if you go about it improperly, prepping is in fact not useful.
The reality is that everyone can benefit from prepping, but only if you follow some important guidelines and tips.
This article goes into the reasons why prepping is pointless and when it isn’t.
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Reasons Why Prepping is Pointless (What You Should Avoid When Prepping)
There are some reasons why prepping is pointless and you should avoid doing these things when you’re prepping.
Spending more time and money than you really need to
If you Google anything related to survival prep you’ll quickly discover that many of the search results end up being a way to sell you something, like a beginner’s course on prepping, a survivalist pack, and so forth.
It’s easy to spend more money and time on prepping, whether it’s on educational resources or actual products that you store away. But you really don’t need most of the things that people try to sell you.
When you spend unnecessary money and time on prepping, you end up wasting those valuable resources, and prepping becomes pointless at that point.
You don’t know why you’re prepping
If you’re just prepping because of recent trends or scare tactics, your efforts aren’t likely going to be worth the trouble.
Prepping is pointless without a good reason and an even better plan. You’ll feel burnt out and will lose motivation because you don’t even know why you’re prepping other than because someone told you to.
You prep for things you won’t actually need or use
Prepping is meant to store away the things that you will need when they’re no longer readily available.
If you don’t need or won’t use what you store away, you’re just wasting your time and money.
So if you don’t like rice and never eat it, then it’s pointless to buy it in bulk and stash it away. It will probably just end up getting wasted.
3 Reasons Why Prepping Actually Isn’t Pointless After All
When done correctly, prepping becomes a great resource you have in the back of your pocket as opposed to a bunch of wasted efforts.
There are other more practical reasons why you may want to prepare, and not so much as a way to prepare for doomsday.
Loss of income
The truth is that no job or source of income is 100 percent guaranteed or bulletproof. Sometimes layoffs and getting fired or losing work is out of our control.
If you have room in your budget to spare, you can easily buy one or two items in bulk and store them away to be used in the case of not having money to pay for it later down the line.
Natural disaster
Of course, there’s always the risk of a natural disaster in which supply chains can get messed up and stores run out of inventory.
If you’re in an area that sees a high number of storms or other natural disasters, you will benefit from prepping.
Economic downfall/collapse
There have been economic downfalls and collapses throughout history and such cycles will continue to repeat themselves.
When something like this happens you will want to be well prepared to survive it and not be dependent on the stores or government.
How to Make Prepping Worth It
There are a few essential ways to make prepping worth the money and effort, especially if you’re a beginner.
Know your “why”
Before you start prepping you should know why you’re doing so in the first place. Are you preparing for a loss of income or a bigger event like economic issues?
Remembering why you’re working hard to prep will help you stay motivated and help you make an effective plan of action.
Have a plan
You need to have a plan before you start randomly stashing items and money away.
Consider what you’ll store away, how much of each item you’ll be stocking, where you’ll store everything, how you’ll make sure it’s properly stored, when you’ll buy your items and from what stores, and so forth.
Also think about other ways you can acquire food and items, any skills you need to learn to go along with prepping, ways you can cut down on costs (like buying during sales or in bulk), growing your own food, canning your own vegetables, and what you can make instead of buy.
Start small
Every effort counts, so even if you can’t build a bunker full of supplies and food to last 10 years, that doesn’t mean you can’t keep a pantry shelf of extra food staples and supplies.
Start small and build your way up to whatever your “big plan” is and remember that every item you store away or skill you learn is important.
Secure the basics first
When you’re starting to prep, you need to focus on the basic necessities first. This usually includes things like a first aid kit, foods with a long shelf life, essential medications, everyday staples like toilet paper and feminine products, basic house tools, and so forth.
Continue to scale
When you have enough basics to start with, you can continue to stockpile the basics as time goes on and when you can fit it into your budget or make more space for it.
Alongside building out your stockpile of essentials, you can add in extras like kitchen tools, household items like lightbulbs, personal care products like shampoo, hand soap, cleaning supplies, and so on.
Check-in on a regular basis
Continue to check in on your stockpiles to make sure everything is still good and being stored properly, especially if your storeroom isn’t temperature regulated or you have a rodent problem.
Things can still get destroyed despite our best efforts and you don’t want to risk things getting ruined while you wait to use them.
It might be useful to keep an inventory sheet, too so you can keep track of your stuff and know when you need to replenish something or when to not buy an item.
It’s also important to check in on your plan and your reason for prepping. Make sure you’re still following your plan and know why you’re doing all of this so you don’t get off track or overwhelmed.
Learn skills
Finally, prepping is pointless when you don’t have the necessary skills to go along with it. Learn how to start a campfire, how to cook on that fire without convenient modern kitchen tools, how to grow your own food, and how to cook from scratch, and so forth.
Start with basic prepping and survival skills and continue to educate yourself to build out your skillset. Most of these skills you can even use in your daily life or while traveling, too.
Final Thoughts
Even if you don’t believe the world is going to end or there will be a zombie apocalypse, there are lots of practical reasons to prep.
There are some cases for why prepping is pointless, though, such as not educating yourself first or having a plan in place.
Make sure you get the most from your prepping efforts by knowing what you’re prepping for, having a plan you’ll follow, maintaining your stockpile, and building out your survivalist skills.
https://theprovidentprepper.org/12-ways-to-prepare-to-survive-an-economic-collapse/
