30 Days of Prepping - 2026

[EBuff75]

We're about a week out from September, which is National Preparedness Month.  Once again, I'm planning to participate in the 30 Days 30 Ways challenge.  The goal is to do some type of preparedness activity every day for the entire month and to post about it here in this thread.  It's meant to be an interactive, social activity that everyone can do together.

I put together a starter list of ideas a few years ago, which is linked here.  Some of these I've done, some of them I haven't, and I'm always adding new items and removing old ones.  Here are some ideas:  Prepping Idea List.txt

This year, I'm going to focus on the "boring" side of prepping.  This comes out of a recent Urban Prepper video that addressed the topic and I liked it, since it's an important aspect.  Basically, it's the organizing / purging / reviewing / maintaining sort of stuff that is easy to forget about.  Things like purging old food, replacing expired medical supplies, making sure everything is working / charged, etc..  Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypGJZzM-sVQ 

When September arrives, I encourage people to chime in with what you're doing to improve your preparedness.  Even if you don't do something every day, anything that you do accomplish helps you to be better prepared!  By sharing what you do, it helps others to be motivated and acts as thought-starters for the rest of us.  Remember that every little bit counts!

Last year's thread: https://ufozs.com/smf/index.php?topic=2876.0 

[EBuff75]

One day to go!  Does everyone have something picked out for the first day of the month?  If you remember previous years, you probably already know what my first item will be; after all, it's basically a tradition at this point!

[EBuff75]

Day 1 - Change all the smoke / CO / high water / explosive gas detector batteries

It's sort of a tradition to do this the first day.  I use rechargeable 9v in all of them, so I started by topping off the spares.  Then I started changing out batteries and bringing the used ones back to charge them up too, until I'd swapped all of them.  I also finally tracked down the CO detector for my Suburban.  It turned out that it was buried in the center console under a bunch of stuff.  That's moved back out into the open again (it's sitting in one of the 3rd row drink holders), even if I don't have any camping trips planned at this time. 

I also discovered that one of the 9v batteries isn't charging properly.  The charger just kept saying that it was charging, well after the others had been charged up.  I swapped it around to different charging bays (I have a 4-position 9v charger) and it didn't make any difference.  The battery tester showed that it's good, so maybe it's just not quite reaching the cutoff voltage that the 9v charger is looking for.  I've marked it and set it aside.  I'll just skip using that one unless I'm really desperate.  I have 4 spares, above and beyond what I need for the various detectors, so it's not critical.

I spent 15 mins on the exercise bike tonight, working my pulse up to 115 for around half of that time.  That's right in the middle of the "moderate exercise" heart rate target for my age (51).  Fifteen minutes isn't a lot, but I'm out of shape for biking and I could feel it in my knees!  I could've kept going for a while, but I'd also finished the book I was reading and wanted to get some other stuff done.  I'm really going to make an effort to get some form of exercise in every day this month.  I've also been making an effort to drink more water lately, but I'm not actually keeping track right now.  I'd guess I'm in the vicinity of a half-gallon (64oz) today, but that's just a guess.

Anyone else have Day 1 activities to report?

[EBuff75]

Day 2 - Purge old medications in bathrooms

I've done this one before, but it's obviously been a few years as I found a number of them that have been expired for over a year.  They're all pulled out and as soon as I buy replacements on my next shopping trip, I'll toss the old stuff.  

Got in about a 1.5mi walk on my walking pad this evening while watching some TV as well.  

[EBuff75]

Day 3 - Test my generator

We've had several storms here over the past couple of days (including 70-80mph wind) and they knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people in the area.  This reminded me that I haven't tested my generator to diagnose what's wrong with it after loaning out a few months ago.  While my friend was using it, the generator got stuck in the "overload" status and wouldn't provide any power.  He'd returned it and I just hadn't gotten around to seeing if I could fix it.

With the recent storms as a reminder, I pulled it out this afternoon and started it up.  Nothing wrong at all!  It started right up and then ran normally, with the lights showing the proper status.  It's a fairly small generator (Westinghouse iGen2200), so I maxed it out by plugging in my big circular saw (15amp).  The overload light blinked briefly at startup (which was expected), but that was all.  It ran the saw without any problem and other than the flicker at startup, the lights stayed green, despite the saw being right around the maximum sustained load.  Best guess is that my friend either had too much stuff connected at once, or that it overheated and that's what caused the error (it was brutally hot during that power outage).

It still needs a new spark plug and an oil change, but at least I know that it's working.  Maybe after servicing it, I'll run it for a few hours under load to make sure that all is well.

EDITED: Of course, despite having 4-5 different kinds of oil in the garage, I don't have any 10w-30, which is what it calls for.  Guess I'll add that to my shopping list!

[Skidjit]

Behind the curb but since the 1st I have reorganized my EDC bag and car bag, we have a new smaller shelving unit to organize the pantry a little better, got a set of car ramps for doing car preventative maintenance without needing to schedule a costly appointment and verified the zeros on my night vision gear since we are now entering the darker months of the year.

[Rednex]

Over the last few days got some stuff to make a bag for the wife's new to her truck. The under rear seat storage is tiny, so more stuff to get.

[EBuff75]

Day 4 - Replace expired items from medicine cabinet

Follow-up to my Day 2 purge.  I went grocery shopping tonight and bought replacements for most of the expired items.  There were a few that they didn't have in the store and I've ordered those online.  When I got home I went through the items that were expired (I'd left all of them sitting on the counter, to make sure that I replaced everything), matched them up to the replacements, put the new items away, and threw out the old ones.  The funny thing is that I swear I just purged these like a year ago.  But since most of the items have a 2-3 year shelf life, and the ones I threw out had mostly been expired for a year or more, it means it was more like 3-4 years ago!  Oops...

Since I was online, I also ordered a new keychain whistle, as my old one (plastic) had broken off at the loop.  I also ordered the spark plug for my generator (I got oil for it when I was shopping tonight) and bought a copy of the Bell Complete Book to Home Preserving that's been on my list for a while. 

I've got a writing event that I'm doing all weekend, so the next few days may be a bit boring.  But it's still necessary stuff that needs to get done and it hopefully won't take up a lot of time.

[EBuff75]

Day 5 - Inspect fire extinguishers

I've got quite a few fire extinguishers in my house, despite never having needed to use one!  So today I looked them all over for damage, corrosion, and confirmed all are in the green.  They're at an age where I should probably take them in and have them checked professionally, but I'm not sure where to take them in my area (I was mostly finding either equipment places for fire fighters, or commercial fire suppression companies).  There's a fire department open-house coming up in a few weeks and that's probably a good question to ask them.  These are all rechargeable extinguishers (other than the small one in my car), mostly 5-lb ABC, and a mix of Kidde and First Alert.

Edited: Forgot to mention that yes, I have fire blankets too, but there's not really anything to inspect with those. I have one in the truck under the 2nd row seat, one in my workshop hanging on the storage shelves, and one in my bedroom. There's another one in my workshop somewhere that I use as a spark catcher when I'm working with metal.

[EBuff75]

Day 6 - Recharge batteries (some of them, anyway)

Sorry this is late, but you'll see why below.

I've got so many rechargeable batteries that it's difficult to get them all through a top-off in a single day, but I started on it at least.  Then, the ghosts of storms past struck!  We had some storms that came through late last week and last night, the power in my area suddenly cut out.  The utility marked it as "storm damage" so I'm guessing that there was a damaged tree somewhere that finally dropped a branch or fell over into the lines. 

As a result, I couldn't exactly keep on with recharging my batteries.  Instead, I was actively USING them to power flashlights and lanterns.  I also put my fridge on my new Anker S2000 Solix power station.  My fridge is fairly efficient and combined with the 2000Wh capacity of the power station, I was still around 25% when the power came back on a few minutes ago.  So it only used about 75% over a span of maybe 18 hours.  Not bad!

I also loaned out three other power stations to neighbors for their fridges.  One neighbor had just brought the station back (empty) about 2 minutes before the power came back on!  I've also gotten the one back from next door.  The people across the street had just left for dinner, so I'll get that one back when they return.  Two of them are now interested in buying their own and said they'd talk with me more about that in the future.  Woohoo!

Anyway, all three of those are currently charging back up and I've got batteries charging again too.  I probably have close to a hundred rechargeable batteries between Li-ion and NiMH.  I've got several chargers, but that's still a whole lot of them to have to cycle through.  The NiMH are the worst, because they self-discharge really fast, which means I'm basically dealing with several dozen dead batteries each time I do this.  I keep some of them in an Ikea standby charger, but I've got 3-4 dozen of them, and it only holds about 20 at a time. 

I'd planned to do the batteries yesterday and the power stations today.  Looks like I'll be doing both and that they may stretch into tomorrow as well.  Still, it was a good test to make sure that I'm ready for outages. 

Oh, and my UPS acquitted itself well.  I shut if off before I went to bed and it was still at 74%, after running the modem and router for about 4 hours (plus the computer/monitor for about 15mins at the start of the outage).  And after some experimentation, I did figure out how to turn off the warning chirp, which had been driving me nuts!  Yes, I already know that the power is out.  Shut up!! 

And in a return to my Day 1 activity, the CO/Explosive Gas detector in the basement started chirping about a low battery this afternoon as well.  It's got an actual LED screen on it and it chews through batteries when the power is off.  I should've realized what was making the noise (it's the only detector that actually plugs in), but I've got so many devices that will give low battery chirps that I always end up wandering the house, trying to locate the source.

[Rednex]

This part right here i ain't figured out yet.

 did figure out how to turn off the warning chirp, which had been driving me nuts!  Yes, I already know that the power is out.  Shut up!! 

[EBuff75]

This part right here i ain't figured out yet.

 did figure out how to turn off the warning chirp, which had been driving me nuts!  Yes, I already know that the power is out.  Shut up!! 

My garage door opener (Chamberlain) has a battery backup and there is no way to turn off the chirp - it just keeps chirping until the power comes back on.  At least in that case it's a detached garage, so I can't hear it inside the house.  The UPS beeping is audible throughout the whole damned house when it's going.  For the UPS, I ended up looking up the instructions online through my phone and then following those to turn it off.

And I'm still charging batteries and power stations throughout the house. Still don't figure I'll finish them all today.

[eugenenine]

The NiMH are the worst, because they self-discharge really fast, which means I'm basically dealing with several dozen dead batteries each time I do this.

Buy eneloops

[EBuff75]

The NiMH are the worst, because they self-discharge really fast, which means I'm basically dealing with several dozen dead batteries each time I do this.

Buy eneloops

I've got a bunch of those in both AA and AAA, as well as the Ikea Ladda batteries, which are actually relabeled Eneloops as well.  Even the LSD (Low Self-Discharge) batteries only last so long before going dead.  The really bad ones that I have are by EBL and those go dead as soon as you leave the room.  I've got them as backups to the others, but I mainly rely on the Eneloop / Ladda batteries for AA/AAA needs, and those are the ones I leave in the trickle charger so that they're always ready to go.

The worst to charge are the D-cell NiMH, as it takes forever to charge a 10,000mah battery!  I've got a number of those from both Bonai and EBL. 

I've also got primaries (disposable) batteries that I use in things that experience large temperature fluctuations (weather station sensors) or electronics that are sensitive to the lower voltage of rechargeables (analog clocks, trail cameras, remote controls, etc.).  For anything I'm worried about leaks / damage (e.g. weather radios, digital locks), I use Energizer or Duracell lithium batteries.

Edited:  The Ikea charger / maintainer I use is the Storhögen, which has been discontinued.  It has 12 bays that can each fit either AA or AAA.

[eugenenine]

NiMH are somewhat tolerant of trickle charging but less so that NiCad, that will reduce their lifespan as well. So trickle charging is a work around for reduced life but trickle charging reduces the life.

[EBuff75]

NiMH are somewhat tolerant of trickle charging but less so that NiCad, that will reduce their lifespan as well. So trickle charging is a work around for reduced life but trickle charging reduces the life.

Yeah, I'm aware.  But there's not really another good solution with them if you don't know when you'll need one.  If my mouse battery dies, it doesn't really give any warning, it just stops working.  Unless I want to go back to using primaries for everything, I have to keep some batteries charged up at all times.  

Same thing with all of the Li-ion batteries and power banks.  Technically, you're supposed to leave those all at partial charge for storage, but if I do that, then when something like yesterday's power out hits, I've got much more limited run-time before they're drained.  If you're somewhere with an excellent grid where you never have outages, and you only use a power bank for camping, then it might be fine to leave it half-charged and only top it off before you need it.  But I end up using mine multiple times each year from unexpected outages like this.  

*shrugs*  One of those trade-offs that you just have to make a call on.  I'd rather have things topped up and ready to go, rather than getting caught short, even if that shortens the life of the batteries.  I have a few batteries fail on me every year.  When that happens, they go into the haz-mat disposal pile.  Heck, right now I've got a bunch of salvaged 18650 batteries that I got out of some old solar landscape lights.  They're fairly used up as far as capacity (and they were low capacity ones to begin with), but they still work, so I keep them as backups.  I'm not really running anything "mission critical" on AA or AAA anyway.  Almost all of my lights are Li-ion batteries of some kind and a good Li-ion will hold a charge for a loooooong time!  Heck, I just pulled a flashlight out of my truck's center console to charge it, only to find that the battery is still fully charged, despite it having been in there for probably a year or more!

[EBuff75]

Day 8 - Finish topping off power stations, a few leftover batteries, and started on USB power banks

Sorry for the delay. Forgot to post an update last night. 

Finished charging my power stations, except for the Dr. Prepare (which is technically just a 12v battery with a USB / 12v socket) and the Marbero "power station" (just 12v barrel ports and USB) that's currently in my truck.  I also started in on charging my small USB power banks (which I've got a ton of) and finished off a few more batteries that I turned up. 

I also spent some time yesterday doing storm cleanup from the past week.  We've had a number of powerful storms blow through and I had a ton of little branches down in the yard, along with LOTS of acorns!  I didn't finish, but I did collect 5 yard waste bags worth of stuff and raked one section of the yard (got some blisters from that).  Today it's raining again, so I don't think I'll be able to finish it up tonight.  Plus, it's our monthly CERT meeting, so that'll cut a few hours out of my evening. 

[EBuff75]

Day 7 - Finish (mostly) charging batteries and started on power stations

Forgot to post this as well!

After the power came back on at my house on Monday, I resumed charging batteries and "finished" them (until I found a few more the next day).  

I'd used several of the power stations during the outage, both for myself and several that I loaned out to neighbors.  As soon as the power came back on I started recharging the stations, some of which were either empty or close to it and got started on a few of my other power stations too.

[majorhavoc]

Can this thread have just one or two days of September prepping activity?  I just got back from a two-day volunteer trail work event for a non-profit wilderness recreation organization (Maine Huts & Trails
Maine Huts & Trails, if anyone's curious).  I do it mostly to give back to an organization that I really admire.  But spending time hiking and working in the backcountry is a form of physical conditioning and a way to hone certain prepping-adjacent skills. 

Trail work is hard, sustained physical activity.  I was doing what's called corridor clearing, using my 60 volt Greenworks cordless weed wacker, a pair of pruning loppers and my trusty XL Silky Bigboy folding saw (over 30" when extended, and revered among wilderness trail workers).  I only traversed 3 or 4 miles each day, but those are hard miles - carrying all that gear, starting and stopping, constantly pulling off or putting back on your backpack and other gear.  Stooping, reaching, pulling and dragging large branches, etc. 

It occured to me that geared up like that, I was schlepping around something equivalent to a combat loadout.  The weedwaker weighs about 11 lbs with battery and shoulder sling - about what a loaded battle rifle with optic might weight.  Add to that 15 lbs of extra battery packs, 2 liters of water, assorted snacks and a trail lunch, first aid kit, rain gear (didn't end up needing it), extra cool weather clothing (same) and assorted emergency and safety gear.  I figure I was about as encumbered as a person might be on some sort of armed recon patrol. 

The prepping value went beyond just exercise.  Carrying unweildy gear like that is a lot different than carrying the same weight neatly tucked away in a backpack.  The weedwacker in particular was just a pain in the butt to carry around all day. (And can I just say: that 60v cordless can do a surprising amount of real work but damn if battery packs don't weigh just as much when fully discharged as they do at the beginning of the day )

I made it through the event and the organization definitely got their money's work out of me and the other volunteers.  But I'm really beat after just two days of that.  I realize that being in recreational hiking shape is not the same thing as bug-out hiking shape - it was an eye opener.  And also a wake up call that I need to develop some reserve level of physical capability if I expect to keep going in an extended outdoor emergency situation where tactical risks and security need to be addressed.

[EBuff75]

Can this thread have just one or two days of September prepping activity?  I just got back from a two-day volunteer trail work event for a non-profit wilderness recreation organization (Maine Huts & Trails
Maine Huts & Trails, if anyone's curious).  I do it mostly to give back to an organization that I really admire.  But spending time hiking and working in the backcountry is a form of physical conditioning and a way to hone certain prepping-adjacent skills. 

Trail work is hard, sustained physical activity.  I was doing what's called corridor clearing, using my 60 volt Greenworks cordless weed wacker, a pair of pruning loppers and my trusty XL Silky Bigboy folding saw (over 30" when extended, and revered among wilderness trail workers).  I only traversed 3 or 4 miles each day, but those are hard miles - carrying all that gear, starting and stopping, constantly pulling off or putting back on your backpack and other gear.  Stooping, reaching, pulling and dragging large branches, etc. 

It occured to me that geared up like that, I was schlepping around something equivalent to a combat loadout.  The weedwaker weighs about 11 lbs with battery and shoulder sling - about what a loaded battle rifle with optic might weight.  Add to that 15 lbs of extra battery packs, 2 liters of water, assorted snacks and a trail lunch, first aid kit, rain gear (didn't end up needing it), extra cool weather clothing (same) and assorted emergency and safety gear.  I figure I was about as encumbered as a person might be on some sort of armed recon patrol. 

The prepping value went beyond just exercise.  Carrying unweildy gear like that is a lot different than carrying the same weight neatly tucked away in a backpack.  The weedwacker in particular was just a pain in the butt to carry around all day. (And can I just say: that 60v cordless can do a surprising amount of real work but damn if battery packs don't weigh just as much when fully discharged as they do at the beginning of the day )

I made it through the event and the organization definitely got there money's work out of me and the other volunteers.  But I'm really beat after just two days of that.  I realize that being in recreational hiking shape is not the same thing as bug-out hiking shape - it was an eye opener.  And also a wake up call that I need to develop some reserve level of physical capability if I expect to keep going in an extended outdoor emergency situation where tactical risks and security need to be addressed.

Absolutely!  Doing what amounts to a prepping exercise is a great example to share with others.  And sharing these sorts of experiences are what help all of us to improve our own preps.  

And I think what you're describing is a great example of the difference between being "fit" and the idea of "farmer strong."  Heavy, hard labor may not end up with a flashy physique, but damn if it doesn't make people who can get a lot of stuff done!  My dad grew up on a farm and even at 80 and having lived in suburbia ever since his mid-20s, he can still lift and do things that are well beyond what most people his age can manage.  

Now you just need to do that same sort of thing every week for a couple of years and imagine how great your conditioning would be if you ever really needed it!