So...you may have noticed (or not) that I didn't write a monthly preparedness post for May. I thought about it all month long, but just couldn't do it. I have a great excuse.
My kitchen was out of commission for the entire month.
So, at first I saw this as a great adventure. I thought, now I can see how I would do in an emergency event when I couldn't use my kitchen. You know...cooking with a different source, washing dishes and finding cooking water without access to a kitchen sink, etc.
I give myself about a D-. That's how bad I did. And I can see now where I need a lot of improvement to be able to function under a highly stressful situation where I really do have to operate without my kitchen. Here are some things I learned:
1) Bottled water was invaluable. Even though we had access to bathroom water...it tasted yucky and of course in a real emergency that may not be available. We burned through those cases of water like crazy and still never really felt hydrated. I need about twice as much as I had before...and that's a lot!
2) I am lost without my dishwasher! Joan suggested a very simple way to hand wash dishes without access to a sink...buy those cheap plastic dishpans from the dollar store with soap water in one and rinsing water in the other. This is, of course, making sure you have plenty of dishwashing detergent on hand!
This is the area where I really bombed...I tried washing in my tub, from the hose, using neighbors' sink and dishwasher...in the end I gave up and just piled dirty dishes in a laundry basket until we could give them a good wash. What a pain!
3) Which leads me to another invaluable item...paperware! We didn't have nearly so many dishes as usual because we used so many paper plates, cups and utensils! Again, I should have about 10 times the amount of paperware than I now have if I ever want to make my life that much easier in an emergency. (I know it's bad for the environment but if water was scarce...it would be mighty helpful.)
4) Grill, griddle, slow cooker, blender, and toaster oven. These babies helped me get something warm on the table. Because I had electricity and propane, I was good on the energy side of things. But it's a reminder to me that I still need to get an extra propane tank and I will also be looking for a generator that can run small appliances.
5) Ready made/Easily prepared food: I am not a fan of processed food and try to avoid it when I can. However, it was a real life-saver in this situation. Granola bars, yogurt, string cheese, fruit snacks, cold cereal and PBJ's were the go-to items pretty much every day. Ready made granola, pre-browned hamburger, and pre-grilled chicken from the freezer would have been mighty helpful. Never knew how much I took that cooktop for granted till I couldn't brown a pound of hamburger! Also, easily accessible fruits and vegetables that don't require preparation would be fantastic; grapes, baby carrots, bananas, apples, etc. For whatever reason, we really craved pre-made juice; probably because we weren't getting enough water or enough fresh fruit. Stores easily and really refreshing in a pinch. Mixes are also helpful. Pancakes, cookies...whatever. Easy to make up a batch and help everyone feel "normal" for a minute.
I didn't do much grocery shopping during the entire month because we didn't really have a place to keep groceries and so I could also gauge how well we were using our food storage. I give myself about a C here; I made a valiant effort but we pretty much bought the Chinese takeout and pizza joints close to our house. Sigh...too bad that stuff isn't readily available in a crisis...
We did appreciate canned soup, bread from the freezer, tuna, crackers, pickles and dried apple chips. And mayo. Plenty of it.
6) I also had my refrigerator/freezer running. So without those I would really be hurting. Another reason to find a good generator. Ice chest coolers could be used temporarily. Also a cool trick...freeze water in milk gallon jugs in your extra freezer. Keeps things cold for awhile even if the power goes out, plus it's extra water storage!
I sure learned a lot with this experienced, mainly that I'm really not as ready as I had hoped.
How would you fare without a kitchen in an emergency???
By the way...in case you're interested...here's the fruits of our labors.
Before...
After...
