Early each year, I try to set aside a full day for updating the home inventory...both for preparedness and for insurance purposes. I also use that day for rotating my stored gasoline and similar tasks.

Every year is a leaning experience, some more than others.  This years gems:

1] I missed something last year.  We added another dog and I did not update the minimum amount of kibble to have on hand.  Easy fix

2] Our chest freezer has been taken over by junk food.  There was less than half the frozen beef and chicken that I though I had on hand.  On the other side of the equation, lots of frozen pheasant breasts (I guess that offsets the chickens shortage).

3] OTC meds and toiletries were low, especially vitamins and allergy meds. I see a big Sam's bill in the future

4] My barrel pump fell apart. A new one is on order and will be stored in the climate controlled workshop.   The garage is just too hot for a lot of stuff in Texas.   I'm also moving the water barrels into the shop.

5] This year was an all-time low for expired stuff that needed to be tossed.  My wife has finally embraced restocking canned items with the new times to the back !!!

6] In the WTF category: I have "lost" about half my 1# propane bottles, all the candles, and the adapters for running the propane camp stove from a BBQ grill cylinder.  This underscores the need for an inventory that includes WHERE SHIT IS STORED.  A search of the attic is planned for this weekend.

I also tested batteries.  We use a lot of smaller batteries, like- AA, AAA, 123, & 2032, so freshness is not an issue with them, but D & C batteries not so much... they are mainly a prep item, so I tested a bunch of those.  Every pack of D alkaline cells dated 2025 were dead or close to it.  About half the batteries labeled 2027 that were also dead.  Maybe 10% of the D & C alkaline cells were also leaking.

its hard to keep on top of for sure. hell, just keeping up with all of my gasoline engines is hard, 6 generators, 4 chainsaws, 3 weed eaters, leaf blower, pressure washer, 2 tractors, 2 lawn mowers, 2" water pump, boat, utv, truck, and car, thats a lot of yearly fuel switching, fuel stabilizing, oil changes, filters, etc to stay in front of.

propane.. iv got 5 or 6 propane tanks, and a BUNCH of gas cans, gas / diesel, etc.  one day they are all totally full, a week later ( seemingly)  80% are now empty, got used for grilling, running turkey friers to fry turkeys, boil water for canning, melt lead, run lawnmowers / weed wackers / atv's / tractors etc, and i realize iv tapped into them dozens of times for various reasons, but  havent bought any propane / gas / diesel in months or a year.

same for checking, watching, stocking, restocking, checking dates on food, keeping track of usage, food, fuel, batteries, oil, etc, etc.

i fully admit i run in cycles, go for days / weeks / months obsessing about keeping everything topped off, rotated, refilled, etc.... then i realize its been 18 months - 2 years suddenly since i swapped generator fuel, checked this, or that, or dates, etc.

even with my weaknesses, laziness, and holes, im / your still probably much, much better stocked  and have multitudes of options for light, heat, food, shelter, first aid, self defense, clothing, etc for days / weeks / months or even years than 99.5% of the population, who run panicing for toilet paper / bread / food / ammo insert panic item here at first sign of storm / shortage / ban etc that the tv suddenly tells them is imminent.

your doing great bro !

I have a couple of neighbors that are just recently starting to think along the preparedness lines.  One is a recently retired couple, the other younger, with kids still at home. I have been providing them with guidance on how to start out slowly and build their reserves.  I believe both at about the 2-weeks point on food and water, with some of the other basics covered.  We were just talking about how that put them in better shape over half the households in the US.  I saw a Honda generator box sitting on the closest neighbor's porch last weekend...its time to talk to him about safe gas storage options and rotation.  

I think water was the real eye-opener for both of them.  Last summer we had a 2 day water outage and an almost 2-week boil water notice.

If I can EVER get over this flu shit I have a nice project to get on. I'm building a "lever" set up to lift and place boiling pots over a fire and then move them over to set them down to cool and then disperse into smaller vessels. We have a lake and unlimited firewood and the lake water is about 100% of my back up needs beyond the pallets of water in my shop which we'd like to use SOLELY for drinking water as long as they may last.

My idea is to make this device such that I can snatch it with my tractor and locate it wherever I need it to be to run a "batch" of water.

I do my best to keep tabs on all my supplies and gear.  For me gas is one of the easier ones because I use what I store in various things such as ATV, snowmobile, tractor, generators etc.  When I have an empty 5 gallon can or two, I go fill them up.  I don't store a ton of gas but try to keep 50 gallons on hand.  If I go an extended time without using my generators, I will take 90% of the gas out of them, use it in one of my ATVs and top the generators of with fresh.  I don't stress about rotating the gas in the generators until its approaching two years old.  Same with oil changes on the things that don't run all the time.  If I use a generator several times during the year, I make a point to change it otherwise I try to do it every two years.  Things I use like my ATVs I change annually.

This thread does remind me that I need to make sure to run all my chainsaws a bit this spring.  I usually end up using the same two and the other 3 sit.

I have a few adaptors to fill 1# propane of the BBQ size tank so I can fill small ones if needed, I keep a stash of fresh new ones as well.

I don't really use the basic candles that I have stacked up in my gear room, so I don't really bother to inventory them, or stuff like that.

I rotate batteries best I can and don't go to crazy storing a metric ton because they do age out if not used.  I don't live near any streetlights, so head lamps and flashlights get used a bit around the house.  I use them more when hunting and camping.  I go through some AA using my Garmin Rino when hunting but not enough to justify a huge stash.  My largest stash is probably CR123 but they keep longer.  I never leave alkaline batteries in any device that I care about that's not in rotation.  One thing I do with batteries and others may find it trivial is when I go hunting or on a long camping trip, I will use fresh AAA or AA batteries in things that call for them.  After the trip or season is over the used batteries go in a drawer by our living room TV and we finish off the used batteries in things like TV remotes, and wireless computer mouse, or maybe an old head lamp that hangs by the door.  I find this helps me get the most out of what I paid for.

My wife takes care of freezer and kitchen food inventory.  She keeps things pretty well topped off and I don't really think about it.  I only worry about the cases of MRE and humanitarian rations.  I don't worry about the few #10 cans beyond writing the year I bought on it and using it if and when we need.  Same goes for our bin full of longer-term pouches such as the patriot type meal kits, mountain house freeze dried etc.  If I want or need a pouch for hunting/ camping I grab what I think is the oldest and go with it.  For the first time in several years, I topped them off when mountain house had their recent sale.  

I have a rough idea on what ammo I have but I don't write it down or inventory it.  I don't plan on buying anymore bulk for a long while.  I don't shoot as much as I used to simply because it's too expensive to blast through.  I reload and have plenty of supplies but a few years ago I forced myself to just enjoy picking one gun, grab one box of ammo, go out to my backyard range and just shoot half of it.  I have a stash of 7.62 some possibly corrosive and some known corrosive ammo I acquired and will probably try to use most of that up this summer.

I put up a ton of stores many years ago. I told a friend a had a "bunch" of salt I could set him up with and I went to get it and didn't have any. I had 100lbs stored 20 yrs ago. I don't remember using it, but it went away. I also had 100lbs of sugar. I still have most of that.

I'm always adding/tweaking to the preps. Since Christmas I purchased a couple Bluetti power banks (1800  watt) with two 100 watt foldable EBL solar panels. That's a big step up in my preps. This year I have to rotate food so I throw out less. Always picking up something every payday. I picked up lamp wicks, lamp oil and rechargeable AAA batteries today through Amazon. I need to pick up more rice and water this weekend.

NEVER, ever, not even once.....

but then, what yall call preps, I call life.

Whenever I come here and read what someone else has, or need...

I have spare carburetors for my two primary saws, at least another kit for each one.  I also keep plenty of every size fuel line on hand.  I did a full case split and rebuild several years ago on my old 372XP which was given to me when my dad retired it from his business.

I use saws a lot, I heat with firewood in the winter so that premix from the store in a can would get expensive.  It is a consideration though for my unused saws.  I think I probably go through about 7~10 gallons of mixed gas in a year depending on how much I use the weed whacker.  I know some people love their 10% gas, but I buy the ethanol free at our local pump and it works for me.  

I think I have at least a dozen and a half of those brass propane tops with the rubber seal.  They work amazing and are a must have IMHO if you are going to only use half a 1# propane tank and detacch it from its implement.

I have never really dealt with corrosive primer ammo so wasnt sure what to expect.  I usually clean my guns after each use anyway but did go down the rabbit hole of reading about how bad it was online

Batteries are the hardest for me. I never look at them until I need a few, and then I realize the new pack I bought two months ago is nearly empty from extended family "borrowing" one or two at a time.

Honestly?  Where I fall short, and hence find and tweak things is mainly through failure.  More specifically positioning and deployment.  I guess you could just say execution.

I have stuff.  Lots of stuff.  Other stuff to use when my main stuff doesn't work.  I'm always looking for new stuff.

However this past weekend I lost electrical power for two days from 6" of slushy snow and a quick drop to single digit temperatures.  
I have:

• a small gasoline powered generator
• a fire place with plenty of maple, quite a bit split and a 5 gallon bucket of twigs in the basement
  
• two kerosene heaters (and lanterns)
• a Big Buddy propane heater (I just bought a couple of weeks ago)

Sounds good right?  I live in an urban area that rarely loses power for more than a few hours.  Well, I have grown complacent.  

• I did not prep my generator for winter.  Didn't gas it up or start it.  Haven't needed it in decades
• generator and kerosene heaters are stored in a detached two car garage.  One door has an electric garage door opener
• the other garage door (which is my alternate entrance i.e. no man door) has a car parked right up against it.  So even if I could have opened it, the lock was frozen, I would have had difficulty entering the garage.
• I could have pushed the car back 3-4' were it not for the stuff I had piled behind it.  This would have granted me ample access to the rest of the garage
  
• I could have stored my prepped gas generator in front between the two large garage doors but that space was occupied by a portable table saw I rarely use.
• The coal shovel I use to clear the mountain of snow/ice the City plows into my driveway could have been pre-positioned in my basement along with a splitting maul and axe but instead it was in the back of the garage with the generator.

I could go on and on but the point is while I did not suffer, things could have been A LOT better had I not been so half-assed.  Maybe I could have offered my BigBuddy to my liberal neighbors who fled somewhere when they lost power.  Maybe they'd think twice before fingering me when the SHTF.  Point being I am thankful Nature gave me a bitch slap now for taking her too lightly and I now have a to-do list of tweaks.

I know this thread is, for the most part, about adjusting your material preps, but I believe adjusting your prep plans are just as important.  My prep planning has been built around having my immediate family being home.  A big key to that is my 20 y.o. son being around.  I've always known that eventually he'd move out, but he threw us a curve ball last month, when he enlisted in the Army.  He'd been talking about it and hitting the gym hard to get into shape, but I thought he'd join in the summer or fall.  So as of this coming Sunday, he's headed to GA for basic.  I'm proud of him for his decision.  I'm realizing how my emergency preparedness plans have a gaping hole in them.  I'd planned for my son to play a key role in pretty much every aspect of our preparedness.  I will still have my three daughters and wife at home, but my oldest daughter is planning on heading off to college in the fall.  So I'm trying to reapportion SHTF tasks to other members in the family and figure how to train up the girls to be able to complete those tasks.  Sadly, I'd let my health/fitness level go knowing that my son could do a huge chunk of the heavy lifting.  Guess it's time for me to get back to the gym.

So whether it's a family member moving or dying, a divorce splitting your household, declining health, moving to a new area, etc., all these things require changing your plans and adjusting your gear accordingly.  

Also, I want to publicly thank @Rock6 for giving some sage advice to my son about surviving and thriving in basic and in the Army.

We all wish him the best!

ROCK6

Good post and good reminders!

Thanks.  Good luck to your son, as well.

One other thing that relates to periodic re-evaluation of your prep situation. Typically, one should have an emergency fund in the bank equal to the sum of your expenses over the length of time you'd typically expect in your industry to find another job. That number varies based on economic conditions, ie it takes more time to get another job in a recession than it does when times are booming. So, you should periodically evaluate you financial preps and make sure that your bank-stored reserves are adequate and that you have adequate actual cash, too.

Financial planners suggest you look over your finances and (possibly) readjust your various portfolios and strategies at least once a year. It's also a good time to think about whether you're putting away enough in the right places for retirement.

Got married. Which means my month food supply went to two weeks immediately. Also, added on an emergency bivy in the get home bag for her, and put together an emergency bag to put in her car.

So the wife got a new car last week.
We are buying a new car without trading the old one...which means another car needs a get-home bag.

I went to transfer the stuff from the old car to the wife's new car, figuring I will re-equip the old one soon.  Almost everything has been stored in the spare tire well, imagine my surprise when I raised the back deck in her new SUV and found there was no spare or jack. Instead there is 12v air pump and a container of flat-fix.  I'm not sure I am good for that.  I may be being buying a used (salvage) spare & jack kit, but on the other hand, there is a lot of space back there without the spare.



I had not been checking that stuff out regularly...the last time was probably before a vacation 3 years ago. I need to add this my spring & fall To-Do list.
I opened one of the emergency ration bars at has been there for almost 10 years. It was still eatable, but I will be replacing all of those.
The Mylar blankets have embrittled and some of the first aid kit stuff was in bad shape.
I found one empty water bottle and another leaking.  So much for newer "less plastics" types of bottles.  Holes had worn in them from rubbing.   I will be going back with thicker bottles.
The jumper cables are being replaced with a lithium jump starter, which need recharging spring and fall.

For Christmas, I bought myself an older Corvette to use as my daily driver and it didn't come with a jack, spare or even lug wrench.  I need to get an air pump and some Slime for it - the new Corvettes come w/ an air pump and slime.  I'm debating whether it's worth it to buy run-flat tires or not.  

With the purchase of the new-to-me car, I went to get the jumper cables, air pump and tire air pressure guage out of my previous daily driver and they were all gone.  I went looking in the other cars for said items and couldn't find them in those cars either.  Between the wife and my kids (and maybe me, but I'm not admitting to anything) things all migrated to the unfinished basement, which is one massive room full of prep stuff, camping equipment, home repair items, tools and parts and my son's bedroom w/ little organization.  

As we're working on getting things organized, we are checking dates on food and replacing the old stuff.  We had some flaxseed that was well beyond it's expiration date - smelled pretty funky, but the chickens didn't mind.

About 4 times a year

I periodically evaluate each time I take something out of or add to the stash. Strategy is different depending on what it is. Foodm gas, etc. are used on a rotating basis and we only buy things we actually eat. Most of our food is home grown.

Other stuff like oil and filters I'll keep a few changes worth on hand for each vehicle. Things like ammo? Buy cheap, stack deep. That goes for components too.

I tend to do it around the beginning of both spring and fall, mostly to be prepared for any seasonal storms. Just restocked on canned goods (mostly soup), toiletries, paper goods, laundry detergent, etc. Things had gotten a bit low after the winter.  

Just ordered another Anker battery pack for my electronic devices. Got a rechargeable battery fan off Amazon. Also got some battery operated tea lights. Those are good as night lights during a power outages. Got a crank emergency radio with NOAA weather alerts over the winter.

I’m an apartment dweller, so my preps are different than folks with a house. I’d love to have solar panels to recharge my Jackery 300, but I have no patio/ balcony.