30 Days of Prepping - 2026

[EBuff75]

Day 22 - Replace filters

Replaced the furnace filter, bedroom air purifier filter, and fridge water filter.  Back during Covid I started running higher quality filters in my furnace and then a while later I added a high-volume air purifier for my bedroom to help my allergies.  Those changes do seem to have helped, as my allergy symptoms have notably dropped off in the last few years. (Other than when I have to deal with oak pollen in the spring; that still sucks)

I've got more furnace filters ready to go, but this was the last of both my air purifier replacement filters and my fridge water filter.  I ordered more of the water filters, but right now the filters I'd gotten for my air purifier aren't in stock.  I'll have to wait until later to get spares for that.  

[EBuff75]

Day 23 - More work on first aid bag, plus Harbor Freight membership and shopping

I've been holding off on a getting a Harbor Freight Inside Track membership until I had something big to buy that was on sale.  Well, until I looked at the list of items that were currently on sale and realized that while there weren't any big things, there were about 8 items from my wishlist that were on sale through it at the moment.  I went ahead with a 2-year membership and then headed over to the store, where it nearly paid for that full two years on my first trip.  I'm sure that I'll be able to make up the remaining $3 worth of expense in the next 2 years!

The most "prepper" of the things I bought is their Braun slim 1000 lumen headlamp, which is currently being charged.  I already tested it a little and the light from it is very wide, which makes it remarkably shadow-free.  So far so good, but I'll have to use it a bit more.

I had a big batch of items arrive today for the first aid bag and spent some time tonight packing them in it.  A dental kit, an eye injury kit, and a burn kit, plus some extras that I pulled out of my own stocks (burn pads and individually wrapped cotton swabs and tongue depressors). I also added a multi-tool to the bag, primarily for the pliers.  New medications include laxatives, burn gel packets, and glucose tabs.  There are still a few items to add, but these were the last major additions that I had on my list. 

At some point I will need to sew on some additional hook strips (as in hook and loop) onto the back of my medication and bandage pouches.  They only have a single strip of hooks to match up to the wide area of loop that are part of the bag already and adding to that will make them more stable.  I may contract that one out though, as a friend of mine has a big commercial sewing machine that could probably attach them in seconds, rather than me trying to do it by hand!