Bugging In – The Number 1 Ultimate Guide

What is bugging in, anyway? The vast majority of situations that occur in our daily lives are handled without us even knowing it. When you hear sirens, the emergency services are handling all of the emergencies. However, what happens when you hear commotion and disorder, but no sirens? Of course, the first thing you do is ring them. Now, what happens when they have no resources left to handle what is going on? Large scale disarray, for whatever reason, will require you to look after yourself.

First of all, depending on the situation, you will be faced with the question; do you bug in (stay in your home) or bug out (leave the house and go somewhere else). Bugging in is always going to be the preferred method unless the situation disallows it. The majority of the times that you are going to be asking yourself this question is going to be because you have a lack of basic requirements and services that you relied on in your daily lives. Therefore, the comfort of your own home is going to be a huge benefit.

In this article, we are only going to be looking at the things that you need to think about when you are considering bugging in. However, ensure that you plan for this possibility well in advance, as an impromptu decision for bugging in could leave you no better off than bugging out.

Planning For Bugging In

As I have just said, preparation and planning for bugging in is by far the most crucial step in the whole process. If you plan wrongly or not enough, you WILL be left wanting for something. Firstly, take a look through the list of things you need to take into consideration, and then we will go through each of them individually and in more detail:

• Who you are planning for
• Food
• Water
• Waste Disposal
• Sanitation
• Power
• Heat
• Light
• Communications
• Security
• Tools
• Comforts
• Exchangeable items
• Entertainment
• Books

Before we go into these points in detail, we will go through some of the reasons why you should be bugging in instead of bugging out. Bugging out may seem like the more romantic and exciting option of survival when you are in a situation that requires it. However, you should only use it in a case that requires it. You already have many of the basics that you need for bugging in, and the preparation for bugging out is much more difficult.

Therefore, take a look through the reasons for bugging in, before we take a look through what preparations you need.

Reasons For Bugging In

If you think about it, except for the times that you leave your home for work, school, going to the shops, etc. you are already ready for bugging in. You could last in your home for anywhere between a few days and a month without leaving it and without any preparation, providing that you have the amenities that you need. Those things are:

• Shelter.
• Community.
• Knowledge of the area.
• Supplies.
• A known address. 

So, let’s have a look through the reasons in a little more detail.

Shelter

Of course, shelter is one of the most crucial components for survival in general. However, it is not just a shelter that you are gaining by staying bugging in. Your home offers various other advantages too:

• Insulation. – Your home is insulated already. So, if you were in the house with no heating, it would still be warmer than if you were in a tent.
• Security. – Walls, doors, and windows offer a level of protection that is already adequate for day to day life. That makes them perfect to be upgraded with boards if you need to prevent any intruders, etc.
• Space. – A home is much more spacious than anything that you are going to get out in the wilderness. Not only is it more spacious, but it is a space that you and your family are familiar with already. You will know your way round to all of the stock, and know your exit routes should you ever need to.

Community

You likely know, or at least have some day to day contact with the people who live by you. Therefore, in the event of bugging in, you will know who is a stranger and who is a local. Some of the advantages of staying in your community are listed below:

• Collective eyes. – Keeping an eye on the outside of your home in a time that requires you to bug in can be a full-time job. That makes it very draining on your mental abilities, and very time-consuming. If you are the only person to keep a lookout at your house, you are going to have to do it 24/7. In a community, you can have rotating shifts of lookouts who check all of the homes between them, and then swap duties. That saves time and stops it being so mentally draining.
• Daily or weekly meetings. – Meetings will keep up the morale of everyone involved in a community. You can use them for sharing skills, experiences, medical supplies, tools, food, etc. It also means that you may not need all of the equipment in this article, but it is still advisable. If everyone read this article and didn’t take all the precautions, you as a community could be missing a lot of supplies.

Knowledge of The Area

Of course, if you were to bug out, then it is likely that you will be going somewhere that is more unfamiliar to you than your home area or town. You have probably spent a few years at least in the local area, and this gives you an advantage.

• Supplies. – Supplies are going to be your main advantage of knowing your area. Whether that is fresh supplies of natural things such as firewood and stream water, or shops and gas stations. It is going to make your time scavenging much more productive if you already know where you are.
• Routes. – Routes in and out of an area are vitally important to know if you are bugging. If you are in a built-up area of somewhere you are unfamiliar with, you will not know where entrances and exits are. That can make it very hard to defend yourself should the need arise. For example, in my neighborhood, I know that there is one road and four pedestrian entrances to get close to my home. I also know where those routes lead should I ever need to use them to make a getaway.

Supplies

I have already mentioned some things about supplies when bugging in. Such as the availability of them, the knowledge of where they are, etc. However, there are still advantages that relate to supplies when bugging in:

• Storage. – Think about this: You are going to bug out. What do you do? Get yourself a perfect bug out bag with some clothes, food, water, and tools. It is highly likely that the bag is hefty, and can only contain fifty liters. Although we will go into what that bag should contain in another post, think the difference in storage between that bag, and a storage cupboard at your home.
• Planning. –  Although no one knows when the need to bug in may arise, you are likely to have some time to plan your stockpile of supplies. Obviously, the quicker you start, the more you are going to be able to plan, and stock is not free.
• Diversity. – Because of the difference in storage, you can have a much more significant amount of supplies readily available to you. Even just your regular household items may come in very handy if you need to improvise. For example, you can make rope from sheets, or use hairspray as a deterrent spray. They may not be ideal, but they are certainly not things you would put in your bug out bag!

A Known Address For Bugging In

It may seem super obvious, but as you are in your own house, you have an address that is known to you, your family, your friends, and the emergency services. Having that address is something that you do not have if you are out on your own in a tent. And unless you have a GPS with you, you may not have any way of telling anyone else where you are. If you are in your house, and you can manage to get some help, then it will be much quicker to arrive.

Making The Bugging In Plan

Now that I have told you about the reasons for bugging in, we will go through the plans that you should be considering. Whether or not you take all of these points on board is entirely up to you. However, we think that most, if not all of them, would be very advantageous. I have already given you a list of points that we are going to discuss here so I will get straight into it:

Who You Are Planning For

Your absolute priority should be to decide who you are planning to bug in. If you are bugging in on your own, then you are going to have an easier time planning. However, if you have a family, children, or older relatives that you are going to be helping, then it will be more challenging. You will also have to plan for the extended family that may not be preppers themselves. Do not forget about your pets or any of your families pets, as I imagine they won’t want to leave them behind.

After you have worked out how many people there are going to be, and who they are, it is a good idea to work out what their abilities are. What may be a good idea is to make a list of people who you are going to be having with you at a time of need. Then you will be able to use that list to write down their strengths and weaknesses. It is not only physical ability that you are looking for here, though, but you may also find it helps to know their mental capacity too. For example; you may have someone in your family that is extremely good at problem-solving but not very good with manual labor.

Knowing these strengths and weaknesses will give you a significant advantage as soon as it is needed. For another example, I am quite good with my hands, I can make things, I can improvise, but I am not very good at planning large scale food supplies, but my wife is. Therefore, when the time comes, it is her job to organize the food and water, and it is my job to make and repair things that are needed.

Food and Water

Food may be second only to the knowing who you are planning for in a situation like this. It is going to keep you alive for the time that you need it to, but only if you plan it right. Not only will it be required to keep you alive, but it will also be what will keep you healthy. You probably wouldn’t eat only frozen fries every day of the week for every meal in a normal situation as it would not give you the nutrients that you need. Therefore, it is a lot more imperative not to eat that way when it is your survival on the line.

You will have some of your regular food left. However, throw all of your eating habits out of the window after that has gone. Unless, of course, you usually eat the food that I am about to talk about here. Secondly, you need to know what your body needs to survive. There are five nutrient groups that you need to survive and be healthy, and let’s face it, when catastrophe strikes, the last thing you want to be is unhealthy.

What Your Body Needs

So, as I have just said, there are five nutrient groups that you need to stay as healthy as possible. Before we go into the actual foods that you could use, I will go through the groups in a little detail. They are:

• Water – We will go into that in the next section.
• Carbohydrates – Carbohydrates give your body energy. Your brain functions primarily on carbs unless you have been following a ketogenic diet for any length of time. They also control your blood sugar levels and prevent muscle wastage or dystrophy.
• Protein – You were expecting this one. Proteins are critical to muscle building and hormone creation. However, proteins are made up of amino acids. The body produces some of these, but nine of them cannot. They are essential to get into your “survival diet.” I could tell you what those names are, but it really wouldn’t help you. What will help you, though, is to know that meat proteins contain adequate amounts of all of them. While plant proteins usually lack one or more of them.
• Fat – Yes, you need fat in your diet. However, it needs to be healthy fat. Fat will help your body absorb vitamins and protect your organs. Furthermore, it will also protect you against heart disease.
• Vitamins – The main vitamins that your body need are in the bullet points below. You usually get these vitamins from a varied and healthy, balanced diet. However, that may not be as easy when you are bugging in. Therefore, I would highly suggest that you buy a decent supply of right quality vitamins ready for when you need them. Cheap vitamins are just synthetic top-up alternatives for when you are eating correctly. But if you are in the survival mode, those foods are usually not available.

The body typically needs 2000-2500 calories of a mixture of the above nutrients. I will exclude water and vitamins, as they have no real caloric value. However, there is no “exact requirement” for the ratio of those nutrients, but it is a good starting point to aim for about 50/40/10 carbs, protein, fat percentages. Please bear in mind that this is not a bodybuilding website. It is for survival. And, if you disagree with my thoughts, that is fine. I am just trying to give you some benchmarks.

• 1g of carbs = 4 calories
• 1g of protein = 4 calories
• 1g of fat = 9 calories

If you base that ratio on a 2500 calorie a day diet, it means you will need about the following each day:

• 312.5g of carbs.
• 250g of protein.
• ~28g of fat. 

A battery kitchen scale can help you make sure that you do not use more food than is needed. Cooking combined meals will be easier than individual meals. However, weigh out food per person, before and after cooking. It will not take long for you to get to grips with how much food you need to prepare.

Water

Water is the single most needed thing on this whole article. The body can survive in a lot of situations, and a lot of deprivation. However, if you have no water, you will not live for long. When your home water supplies run out, then you need a backup. Some of the ways that you can collect water are:

• • A pool or pond. – If you have any large body of water in your garden, then you already have some water stores that you can use.
  • Rainwater collection. – If you are not already collecting rainwater, then I seriously recommend starting as soon as you can. Use anything that you can to start. Large food-grade containers that are sealable are the simplest thing to use at first. But you can use a variety of options from empty soda bottles up to huge underground rainwater cisterns. What you use is up to you, but obviously, an underground reservoir will hold plenty of water to last you a long time, and hidden from the eyes of others.

One thing that you will need to think about though is to have the ability to clean at least the maximum amount of water that you can store. So, if you can save 100 gallons, then ensure that you can purify at least that much water, and preferably more. The reason that you want to be able to clean more is that you will not stop collecting the rainwater once you start to need it.

Carbohydrates

Brown rice is the obvious choice for storing your carbohydrates. You can save it for up to five years in its original, air-tight packaging, it packs quite tight, and it is very filling. However, there are some other long-life carbohydrates that you can utilize:

• Oatmeal
• Beans and lentils
• Pre-packed pasta
• Corn

The majority of these, if store-bought, will have a pretty long shelf life, and small packaging. Both of those lend themselves beautifully to storing in case of an emergency.

Protein

When you are planning your protein stores for bugging in, it may seem a little daunting. Fresh meat is the best option that you have, but for that, you need to have chickens or other farm animals that you can eat. Chickens are great because they lay eggs, and you can cook them if you get desperate. However, bear in mind that if you have animals, you need to feed them too. So, chickens would be the first to be used for eating.  Some other animals that you can keep for such a time are:

• Goats.
• Cows.

They will both eat the grass that you have in the yard. Therefore, you will not need to feed them food that you could otherwise use for you and your bug in group. However, do not hesitate to use them as food when it is necessary.

There are various other things that you can acquire to provide you with protein, but remember that you need to have long term storage plans for them. Frozen meat will be no good when the power goes out. That said, here are some other things that you can use:

• Protein powder.
• Protein bars.
• Nuts.
• Jerky.
• Powdered eggs.
• Powdered milk.

All of the things above are great for protein storage. One thing that you will need to take into consideration, though is that the powders will require water mixed with it before use. Therefore, you must ensure that you have a sufficient enough water stock to accommodate the use of them.

Fat

Fat is another thing that you may think that it will be difficult to store for bugging in. However, there are still some great things that you can use to keep in your storage:

• Olive oil.
• Lard.
• Coconut oil.
• Nuts.

The other great thing about fats, except for their long shelf life, is that you only really need ten percent of your caloric stock to be made up of them. That ten percent of calories will also take up less space than the same percentage of any of the other foods because it has a higher calorie count per gram.

Vitamins

Although there are many vitamins in all of the food that I have mentioned so far, it is still a good idea to keep a stock of high-quality vitamin supplements. As I said earlier, remember to invest in some high-quality ones, as the cheaper products are usually synthetic productions of them. They are just not going to be as good as the good ones.

Not only should you be thinking of vitamins, but you also need minerals. Again, a good quality electrolyte powder would be a great addition to the stock cupboard. They will help alleviate cramps, and also replenish salts, etc. should any of you fall poorly.

Extras

Although I have now listed all of the things that may be necessary, there are still some other items of food that you may find that you need. Depending on who you have with you, and what you require, the following may be advantageous to store too. They all have long shelf lives, and are quite calorie-dense:

• Baby food
• Baby milk
• Sugar
• Honey
• Freeze-dried foods of any kind
• Canned foods

Remember to try and get some food that people like. Tinned fruit, custard, or puddings may not have a significant impact on health or survival, but they will undoubtedly help with morale when you have all been eating the same food for weeks.

Other food items that would help if you have the ability is to grow your vegetables. Not only will they give you extra vitamins, minerals, and nutrition, but it will be a very nice feeling to eat fresh food when you have only eaten pre-packed food for any length of time.

As with the livestock, however, you will need to water the crops. That means that you need to weigh up your options; do you have enough water to last and water the plants, or will you run out of drinking water before you can eat them?

One last note is that you can buy MREs (Meals Ready to Eat). Although, I would leave these until the last resort as they take up such a small amount of room. They will be useful to take with you if you ever need to bug out.

First Aid

First aid is a skill that you should learn no matter if you are planning on bugging in or not. Having a family first aid kit in your home should be a necessity no matter what situations you think you may face. However, if you need to bug in, then I would highly suggest that you have a more comprehensive, separate kit that you keep with your other stocks.

There are a couple of considerations that you must think about while considering your first aid options for bugging in.

• The people you are with. – If you are on your own, then you need to know how to treat yourself in the case of an emergency. It is difficult to think straight when you are injured, and you should practice often. However, if you are not on your own, then it would be helpful if they know first aid too.
• The ages of those people. – The age of people can change some of the basics of first aid. Knowing pediatric and elderly first aid can be very beneficial if you are likely to be with people of those ages when you are bugging in.
• Any existing conditions of those people. – Some of the people you are with, friends, family, neighbors, they may have some pre-existing conditions, and it would be helpful to know what they are and what to do if the need arises.
• Injuries that you are likely to encounter. – This section is a little bit of a broader subject, but you could do with thinking about any injuries that you may come across while bugging in. I believe that the best way is to think about what you are going to have while bugging in. I will give you a few examples, but it is really up to you to find out what is in your own home that may cause injury:
  • Burns from open flames.
  • Burns from chemicals (Water treatment, etc.).
  • Cuts
  • Stab wounds
  • Falling injuries
  • Etc. 
• Advanced techniques. – Advanced first aid techniques are a personal decision. IF you want to have and be able to use a defibrillator for example, then you would undoubtedly be a great asset to a community cut off from emergency services.

One other thing that you may want to consider is having any existing conditions written down on the same sheet that I was talking about earlier on in the article; Who You Are Planning For. If you want to see how to make a first aid kit, read this article.

Waste Disposal

In a normal situation, you can get rid of your waste by putting it in the bin and putting it out for collection. However, when you are in a position that requires bugging in, then you are highly unlikely to have waste disposal companies coming to do collections. Therefore, you will need to have plans for the waste that you are going to produce.

• Plan meals well. – Do not cook more food than you are all going to eat. But if you do cook too much, try to save what will not perish for the next meal in airtight containers. That way, you will not have to throw it away.
• Recycle what you can. – Recycling is difficult to do when you are bugging in. There are so many things that you think that you should keep and use. But the facts are, if you are in your home, then you are only going to need to recycle consumables. Using glass jars as drinking glasses may seem like a good idea, but you probably have real drinking glasses. However, save them if they have tight-fitting lids as you can use them for storage. You can also use paper as toilet roll, cardboard for burning, etc. You may want to have storage boxes that you can keep some recycling in, just in case you need them.
• Bury what you can’t recycle. – Burying the waste that you can not recycle will keep your living area clean. Be sure to mark out your burying area, and perhaps mark out each burial site so that you do not dig old waste back up by accident. Cover each location as soon as you fill it. That will help keep unwanted wildlife away.

Remember to keep your living area as clean as possible. In a time of bugging in, you are much more prone to disease, and there will be little or no help.

Sanitation

For toilets when you are bugging in, you do have a few options. However, you will need to consider that you will not have running water.

• Selective toilet flushes. – If you have access to the cistern on your toilet, then you will be able to fill it up with water to flush it. However, you will need to be more selective about when you flush as it uses quite a lot of water. One flush can use a day worth of drinking water for a whole family. If you have an abundance of rainwater, then you can use this to flush, but remember to save lots of water for drinking. You can use the saying “if it’s yellow let it mellow if it’s brown flush it down” to help you remember when to flush.
• Use a portable commode. – If you do not have enough water to flush your toilet, then you could think about having a portable commode with disposable liners. It is a seat with a hole and a bag, then when you have finished, you tie up your bag and bury it in your waste burying site. Just remember not to bury it near any water supply. Also, remember to buy a lot of disposable bags.
• Bucket and cat litter. – If you do not want to have a commode, then you can use a bucket and cat litter. However, in my opinion, the cat litter will take up more space than the bags, both to store and dispose of it. Therefore, if you can choose, I would choose the commode.
• Outhouse or hole. -If you have not had the chance to get any of the above, then you have the option to dig a hole. Again though, if you choose this method, then you will need to do it far away from any water supplies, and mark each burial site so that you do not dig it up again.

To wrap it up, if you are taking bugging in seriously, then a portable commode would be the best option. Just remember to have a good supply of the bags.

Personal Sanitation for Bugging In

Sanitation is not just about the toilet, though. You will need to think about washing yourself too. Here is a list of some personal cleaning supplies that you may want to think of:

• Solar shower bags. – They will help you keep clean, and they use a small amount of water. They even warm up in the sun, so you do not have to have cold showers every day. Limit the time that you have the shower water running though. Get wet, turn it off. Wash, turn the water on and rinse.
• Soap bars. –  Soap is necessary. Soap bars will last a lot longer than shower gel or anything else. Be sure to keep a few bars per person, and stick to your personal bars. Do not be afraid to wash hair and everything with the soap bars, in trying times, shampoo and conditioners are luxuries that you probably can not afford to have.

Keeping clean is still a must. The great thing about using solar showers and soap is that if you ever need to bug out, you can take them with you.

Power

Honestly, there are not a lot of options for electricity in situations that you are bugging in. If you have a generator, then you can use that, but I would use it sparingly and in cases that you could not go without it. For example, life-threatening situations where you may need extra light or to quickly charge a defibrillator. Generators will attract attention that you may not want. When people know you have them, they will want to use them too, and they use a lot of fuel.

You can buy small inverters that provide mains power outlets from vehicle batteries. They can even double up as a battery charger too. That means that you can charge the battery bank when you can do so, and use the inverter to provide power when you can not run the generator.

Solar panels are your other option. They come in various sizes and power outputs. Therefore, you can buy what you can, and use them to charge the battery bank or provide your house with some power. But as I have said, you need to be careful about what you use and when. Having your living room lights on in the middle of the night when no one else does, will raise suspicions and questions that you may not want.

I think that having solar panels to charge a bank of car batteries connected to an inverter will provide you with an indispensable way of charging other batteries for phones and lights, etc.

Heat

Heat is another necessity for survival. There are a few ways in which you can produce heat:

• Fireplace. – If you have a fire, then that is the room that you will spend most of your time. Of course, a fireplace is your preferred method of heating, ensure that you have enough wood to burn. Gather wood regularly and make sure to dry it out in plenty of time before you need it.
• Campfire. – If you do not have a fireplace, then you can make a makeshift campfire in your garden or an outhouse. Just make sure to ventilate the area well.
• Woodstove. – Installing a woodstove before you need it may be a great option. They will provide you with heat for the room, and a way to cook too.

• Portable heaters. – These are possibly the least advantageous types of heating that you can use for bugging n, but if it is all you have, then you will have to use it. Fuel heaters are the best of the bunch, as you can store extra fuel for them. You can use electric heaters if you have a generator, but again, be careful when you use them.

Remember to have your spaces well ventilated to avoid a carbon monoxide build-up. It may be wise to have a battery-operated detector in the room that you have the fire so that you can be sure the levels are not getting too high.

Starting fires can be a challenge, so be sure to check out our fire piston article too.

Light

Main house lights are difficult to run in power outages. If you have solar panels on your roof, you will still only have power in the day unless you have a way to store the electricity. However, as I said earlier, charging batteries can help in many ways:

• LED, battery-operated camping lights. – Battery operated LED lights are low power, high output lights that are great to have in situations like bugging in.
• Candles. – It is a good idea to have a stock of candles, just in case. However, battery-operated lights provide more light with fewer risks of fire and burning.
• Torches. – Having a few torches will be useful if anyone needs to venture out of the house while it is dark. It allows you to have light in the room that you are all staying.
• Headlamps. – Headlamps leave you with both of your hands available for collecting supplies such as firewood etc.
• Fuel lanterns. – These are not the best, but they are certainly worth keeping a couple just in case the rest of your lighting fails. However, ensure that you have sufficient fuel for them.

Communications

Keeping communications with your party and the outside world is vital. Most people these days have cell phones, and if you have the inverters that we have been talking about, you will have the ability to charge it. You can also buy portable solar phone chargers that would help you quite a lot. You may not have any way of using the phone though if the reception has been knocked out. But you should keep an eye on it so that you know when it comes back on.

Other ways of communication are:

• Battery or hand wind radios. – They will let you listen in to radio broadcasts of what is happening in the outside world. Therefore, they will allow you to make better judgments on what your next steps are.
• Walkie-talkies. – Walkie-talkies will let you keep in touch with others in your party so that you can split up for collection of supplies.

Security

Security is a massively important factor that you need to consider when bugging in. If you are known to be a prepper, then you will be an immediate target when supplies of others run low. Your home is not a fortress, but it may need to be a lot nearer to being one should disaster go on for a long time. Here are some tips:

• Do not light it up like a Christmas tree. – Making it evident that you have power is going to attract a lot of attention. People go into panic mode and think that you have unlimited energy. Then they are likely to try and get in to use that power for themselves. Keeping the visual attractions to a minimum will not only keep those people at bay, but it will also conserve your energy.
• Add extra locks to windows and doors. – Heavy-duty locks on doors and windows will help you to keep your home safe. Keep pre-cut plywood for boarding up windows and doors too. Make sure that you label them up with which window that they fit. That way, you will not have to try and find which board goes where if the time arises.
• Have a perimeter fence. – Perimeter fences will provide a little bit of a deterrent for intruders. If they have to climb over something, they are likely to be seen. Therefore, they will try much less than with a house that has no fence. Walkways will also make people who are coming to your home go down a predetermined route. That gives you the ability to see who is approaching in plenty of time.
• Split up your supplies. – Not having all of your supplies in one place will save some of them should someone manage to break in. Try to hide some in caches around the house. The better you protect them, the less likely they are to be found.
• Saferoom. – A safe room doesn’t necessarily mean that you have a substantial steel room in your home. But you should have a place in your home that is easy to defend. Only one point of entrance and plenty of supplies to stay in there for an extended time is an ideal start.

Some people have firearms licenses, and if you do, then ensure that you, and only you will be able to get to them if you need them.

Tools

Tools are certainly needed when you are bugging in. There are only a few that you may NEED, but the more tools that you have the better prepared you will be. Having a tool kit of the often-used household tools will give you the ability to make repairs should you need to.

Other tools that you will want are as follows:

• Shovel – Digging holes for waste management will need a good shovel. Make sure that you have a dedicated shovel for bugging in, as the last thing you want is for your normal one to break.
• Ax – Axes are great for splitting firewood. They can also be used as defensive weapons if they are needed.
• Crowbar – Removing things in a hurry requires a crowbar. Ensure that you have one to hand.
• Bowsaw – Cutting trees and other large firewood may not be able to be done with a regular ax. Therefore, having a bowsaw will allow you to cut larger pieces of wood for the fires.
• Pickaxe – A pickaxe will be useful if the ground is too hard for a standard shovel.

As I have said, make sure that you have bugging in tools kept away from your usual tools. That makes it easier to find when the time arrives, and it also means that you will have a new one when it counts the most.

Comforts

Comforts are not something that you would usually think about in these situations. But you need to consider that people will get bored and fed up very quickly. Chocolate, candy, cigarettes, etc. will give you some comfort in what is likely to be the worst time of your life. Fizzy, sugary soda will also make you feel better while giving you energy.

Comforts are very personal, and you should try to accommodate everyone who you are with at the time. Add this to the list of people and their attributes. Perhaps allow them to have one or two types of items that they like. Just be sure to get them to choose something that has a long shelf life.

Exchangeable Items

There will be times when you realize that you do not have everything that you want or need. It is times like this that you may want to offer someone an exchange. Having a specific stockpile of things that are for exchange will give you an upper hand when it comes to it. Perhaps think about some things that you may not want that others will. Like cigarettes, alcohol, etc. Or have extras of your supplies like first aid kits.

One point to note, however, is that you will need to separate the two stocks, and not use the exchange stock unless you REALLY need to.

Entertainment

Entertainment is something that you do not think about either, but you really should. You will spend a lot of time in one room of your house, with nothing to do other than look out of your window. That can be very difficult, especially if you have children. Boardgames, playing cards, magazines, books, toys, etc. will all help the time go a little easier.

Books

Reading material is in the entertainment section here; however, it is not just comics and storybooks that you need. Make sure that you have a sound library of prepper books and information on hand. Some book topics that you may want to think about are:

• First aid
• Home repairs
• Dealing with natural disasters
• Print anything that you find useful and keep it in the same place. 

Do not forget that you are unlikely to have access to the internet. Therefore, this is one step that should not be missed out. Print anything that you find remotely useful, highlight it, mark it, and save it for future reference.

Conclusion

No one wants to have to start bugging in. It means that something has gone horribly wrong. However, the more prepared you are for this situation, the easier it will be.

There are many reasons that you may want to bug in, but to be honest, it is a little bit irrelevant as to the cause. The basic idea is to be able to live, self-sustained, in your home for extended periods, maybe up to months at a time. Keeping your stockpile stocked and inventoried will help you to avoid falling short at the time of yours and your family’s need.

All said and done; you may encounter a time where there is no possible way of bugging in. In that case, you will have to bug out. We will write an article about that soon, so keep an eye out on our homepage.

Have we forgotten anything? Let us know what you think in the comments.

You may also want to check these:

How I Got My Own Backyard Fortress For Under $400

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The Long-Lasting Food That Amish Pioneers Turned To In Dark Times

Learn how to Safeguard your Home against Looters