12 Must Have Items for Prepping, Survival, and Self Reliance

Summary

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Practical Prepping Podcast

Episode Title: 12 Must Have Items for Prepping, Survival, and Self Reliance
Hosts: Mark & Krista Lawley
Release Date: December 8, 2025
Episode Number: 535

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Overview

This episode focuses on a straightforward, actionable list of the "12 Must Have Items" every person should consider for practical prepping, survival, and fostering daily self-reliance. Mark and Krista avoid paranoia and extreme scenarios to instead offer family-friendly, experienced advice for real-life emergencies—events like power outages, sudden storms, or supply chain disruptions. They emphasize the importance of preparing for the most likely scenarios and advocate for prepping as a stepwise process focusing on needs over wants or brands.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Water ([01:39])

• Why it matters: "It's probably the most important that we can have, and that's water." – Mark (01:39)
• Minimum requirement: At least one gallon per day, per person, plus more for pets, cooking, and hygiene.
• Methods: Need to store, find, and purify water (refer to past episodes: #344 on rainwater collection, #327 on purification).

2. Non-Perishable Food ([02:44])

• Store foods you actually eat; not just “mystery freeze-dried”.
• Quote: “We don't want to be breaking into our stock of 25-year storage food if we're in a snowstorm for four days. We want to be having the canned goods.” – Mark (03:10)
• Include proteins (canned meats, tuna), veggies, dried foods, rice, beans, etc.

3. First Aid Supplies ([04:12])

• From "tiny boo-boos to broken legs"—be ready to self-treat until professional help is available.
• Stock OTC medications, wound care, splints, and especially your prescription meds.
• Krista: “Some of us must be on a daily chronic medication, but make sure you’ve got some preps for that.” (04:56)

4. Flashlights & Batteries ([05:09])

• Power outages require reliable light sources: LED flashlights, headlamps, and plenty of fresh batteries.
• Note: Winter outages last longer after dark; keep extras handy.

5. Radio (with Batteries/Hand Crank) ([06:08])

• Includes both AM/FM and a dedicated NOAA weather radio.
• Mark: “Every household—prepper or not—needs to have a NOAA weather radio in that house.” (06:25)
• Stay updated on emergencies when the grid is down.

6. Multi Tool ([06:46])

• Small enough for everyday carry (EDC); includes pliers, blades, openers, scissors, saw, file.
• Real usage: “I have literally dug a piece of wire out of somebody’s hand with it. I’ve actually used one of my Leatherman multi tools to skin a deer.” – Mark (07:10)
• Krista: “As handy as a pocket on a shirt.” (06:50)

7. Personal Hygiene Items ([08:24])

• Learned from COVID: tissue, soap, toothpaste, deodorant; stock more than bare minimum.
• Krista: "I would have never in a million years guessed that bathroom tissue would have been the hot needed item for the year 2020." (08:35)
• Soap and mouthwash are essential for health and morale.

8. Warm Clothing & Blankets ([10:22])

• Critical to avoid hypothermia during winter power outages.
• Don’t forget extra blankets in your car for sudden snow/ice storms.
• Krista: Recounts how people stranded in unexpected storms regretted not having warmer gear. (10:50)

9. Cash (Small Bills) ([11:31])

• When power’s out: ATMs and credit processing fail; cash reigns.
• Keep small denominations (1s, 5s, 10s, 20s) for easier transactions.
• “Cash is king when it comes to negotiations.” – Mark (12:05)

10. Maps and Compass ([12:26])

• GPS can fail—have regional/local paper maps and orienting skills.
• Krista: "A little bit of orienteering experience is great." (12:48)

11. Fire Starter and Tinder ([12:51])

• Carry lighters, matches, Ferro rod, plus tinder (cotton/petroleum jelly, fatwood).
• Mark: "Once we get that spark, once we get that tiny flame, we can go to fatwood..." (13:16)

12. Self Defense Items ([14:17])

• Options depend on legality and personal comfort: firearms (with proper training/legal compliance), or non-lethal alternatives.
• Krista: "You’ve got to think about your self defense or the protection of those for whom you are responsible." (14:17)
• Referenced past episodes on both armed and unarmed home protection.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On prepping basics vs. gear snobbery:
  "We're not going to tell you what you must have to be a prepper... but there are some things that we really do need to have. Neglect these at your peril." – Mark (01:31)

• On eating what you store:
  "Store the types of things you normally eat.” – Krista (03:01)
  “In this house, [spaghetti and sauce is] its own food group." – Mark (04:09)

• On learning from COVID:
  "They began to realize that they needed more than two rolls in the house at any given time." – Krista on toilet paper shortages (08:35)

• On self-reliance during disaster:
  "You may have to be your own doctor in some situations." – Krista (04:16)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Topic | |-----------|------------------------------------------| | 01:39 | Water | | 02:44 | Non-perishable food | | 04:12 | First aid supplies | | 05:09 | Flashlights & batteries | | 06:08 | Radio & weather radio | | 06:46 | Multi tool | | 08:24 | Personal hygiene/toilet paper | | 10:22 | Warm clothing, blankets, vehicle prep | | 11:31 | Cash (small bills) | | 12:26 | Maps, compass | | 12:51 | Fire starter, tinder | | 14:17 | Self-defense options |

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Closing Thoughts

Mark and Krista urge listeners to review their preparedness in each of these 12 areas, focus on improving weak spots, and embrace practical prepping as an empowering, everyday practice for caring for family and community.

“Look this list over and see in the areas that you may need to add or improve where you are so that you can have a little bit more well rounded preparedness.” – Krista (15:48)

The overall tone is supportive, knowledgeable, and always practical: “Stuff happens. We want you to stay prepared.” (16:33)

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For more details and related episodes, check out the episode notes at practicalprepping.info/535.

Transcript

[A]

Welcome to Practical Prepping Podcast. This is Mark. Both Krista and I have been sick for almost two weeks. We're just unable to get out a new episode again this week and as you can hear my voice just won't let me do that. And she can't talk very long without coughing. Therefore, I've re edited a vintage episode from several years ago and the information is just as important today as it was then. Today is April 8, 2025 and this is episode 535. Everything mentioned in this episode is in the episode notes and if you want those, it's practicalprepping.info 535 and the title is 12 must have items for Prepping Survival and Self Reliance. We wish you a merry Christmas and pray the Lord's blessings on you during this season. Email us if we can help. Now, let's get to the episode on.

[B]

The show today we're going to talk about 12 must have items that we believe everybody needs for prepping.

[A]

You know, we started way back when and we said we're not going to tell you what you must have to be a prepper.

[B]

Right. I think we were specifically referencing types of gear, like brand name.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Items.

[A]

Right. But there are some things that we really do need to have.

[B]

It's more like a general category kind of.

[A]

General category.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Neglect these at your peril.

[B]

Oh, well said, well said. And I'm glad that you're leading with my favorite one.

[A]

It is probably the most important that we can have, and that's water.

[B]

Good old H2O. Gotta have it. Can't live without it.

[A]

You know, the two guys walked in the bar and one of them said, I'll have H2O and the other one said, I'll have H2O too.

[B]

Oh, no.

You chemists out there just got a hoo. Ha.

[A]

When it comes to water, we need at least a minimum of one gallon per day per person. And save more for your pets as well.

[B]

And also think about if you're cooking and preparing food items or hygiene, you're probably going to need to add another gallon per person per day.

[A]

You need as much as you can. And you also need a way to procure and purify more water.

[B]

You know, we recently did an episode specifically on water. Episode number 344 is Ways to Catch Rainwater. And episode number 327, 7 Ways to Purify Water. So we're going to put those links in the show description.

[A]

So go back and listen to those while we're enjoying our water. We're probably going to want to enjoy some food as well.

[B]

That's the next most important thing.

[A]

I love to eat.

[B]

Mm. You'll need non perishable food items and please store the types of things you normally eat.

[A]

Yes. There are places for the long term storage foods and we have some. That's that second tier of food storage.

[B]

Right.

[A]

But we don't want to be breaking into our stock of 25 year storage food if we're in a snowstorm for four days. We want to be having the canned goods. We need meats and veggies. We have canned chicken, we have canned tuna. We have, we have Spam. We have Spam and we actually eat Spam.

[B]

Oh, I like it.

[A]

We love it. And I'll get up sometimes and Chris will say, I've got us some Spam and eggs. I guess it's an acquired taste, but I've enjoyed Spam most of my life.

[B]

And a lot of our listeners also have a whole root cellar or basement or pantry full of their own canned and preserved food as well. Dried things, jerky, dried beans, rice, things like that. The types of foods that you're normally going to eat, you're going to need to have that stored.

[A]

And spaghetti and sauce.

[B]

That's a big one. In this house.

[A]

In this house, it's its own food group.

[B]

In this house, you know it, you.

[A]

Know it's third thing, first aid supplies.

[B]

Absolutely. You know, from the tiny boo boos to the broken legs and broken arms. You may have to be your own doctor in some situations.

[A]

In disasters, which I have gone in after many disasters and it has taken even a few days to be able to get all of the survivors out in major disasters. And you may be needing to stop bleeding. You may need to set a bone or to splint that bone. You need that well stocked first aid kit to treat those minor injuries and illnesses, especially with the OTC meds, bandages, band aids.

[B]

I'm going to put a bit of an addendum on the first aid kit to also include your prescription meds as well. Some of us must be on a daily chronic medication, but make sure you've got some preps for that. Yep.

[A]

Flashlights and batteries.

[B]

Yes. You know, you need to have some light if it gets dark and particularly if you're dealing with power outages in the winter months here in the northern hemisphere. You know, around here it's dark at 4:15 and so it can be dark for a long, long time.

[A]

Yeah, we could stand a power outage in the summer. A lot Better than we can in the winter. Except for the air conditioning.

[B]

Yeah, that's true.

[A]

Except for the air conditioning.

[B]

We are a little bit spoiled.

[A]

It is easier for us to stay warm in in a power outage than it is for us to stay cool in a power outage. But we'll make that work. But this provides that light during those power outages. We did a episode recently on 8 Things to Consider in selecting the perfect flashlight for you. And that is practicalprepping.info 385. And again, we'll put all of these in the episode description and the episode notes.

[B]

The fifth item that we believe of the 12 must haves for all preppers would be a radio. And we're talking probably not just a news radio, but also a weather radio.

[A]

Yeah, you need to be able to get that news and you need to be able to get those weather updates. Therefore, it needs to be battery operated. We definitely recommend the NOAA weather alert radio. Every household prepper or not needs to have a NOAA weather radio in that house. And we also suggest an AM FM battery operated radio to be able to get that information.

[B]

Number six on the list would be a multi tool. This is like that multiple knife, pliers, scissors type of a tool. My dad used to say they're as handy as a pocket on a shirt. And you need to have it small enough to be able to go into your edc, which is your everyday carry. And a multi tool is very useful for a variety of tasks. Mark, I know you've got several multi tools. Describe how you use yours.

[A]

All sorts of things. I've opened bottles with it, I've opened cans. I have cut wire. I have literally dug a piece of wire out of somebody's hand with it. I've actually used one of my Leatherman multi tools to skin a deer.

[B]

Did you really?

[A]

I really did.

[B]

Whoa.

[A]

And I went in and I cleaned it up and then I used it to cut mistake.

[B]

My word. That is a multi tool.

[A]

It's a multi tool.

[B]

Excellent prepper usage.

[A]

And they come with can openers. And I have used my multi tool to open my lunch to heat it up. Because I didn't have a manual can.

[B]

Opener with me, I've used mine with the plier attachment. When I've had to twist things, pull things, those pliers come in handy. So a multi tool is a really good must have.

[A]

And they have a file and a saw on there. So there's just all sorts of things. And it's easy enough to carry in the bag. And I Carry one on my belt just almost all the time. I've got one on my duty belt, my police duty belt, and I've got another that I wear off duty so I don't have to swap them back and forth.

[B]

Oh, well, there you go. That's super handy.

[A]

Really, really handy. Now here's something that we really learned in Covid is that we need personal hygiene items. And we knew that, but particularly toilet paper.

[B]

Yeah. I would have never in a million years guessed that bathroom tissue would have been the hot needed item for the year 2020. And I believe that's where a lot of our newer prepper friends got their start. They began to realize that they needed more than two rolls in the house at any given time. And I remember you and I did not panic because we already had cases of toilet tissue already stored.

[A]

Yeah, we had, I think two 48 packs here. Yeah, we were good when it started. I saw a meme one day that said it was 2032, and I just used up the last roll of tissue that mom and dad had bought before.

[B]

COVID Okay, a prepper joke.

[A]

Another thing we need is soap.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

We need SO one. We need to keep those hands clean when we're doing things. And at some point, if we are in some type of grid down situation, we're not going to want to be like the old mountain men that would take a bath every spring.

If you want to be around other people, you're going to need to find a way to take a bath. And you're going to need that soap for that. And you're going to need toothbrushes and toothpaste and mouthwash. And at some point, those teeth are going to become scuzzy and you're going to need to brush them.

[B]

My daughter has a term. She says it feels like fuzzy sweaters on her teeth.

[A]

Fuzzy sweaters.

[B]

It's something she did years ago at living at home. She goes, mama got to go brush my teeth. They feel like fuzzy sweaters. Never forgotten it. Oh, and also deodorant.

[A]

Yes. After that bath, put on some deodorant. And even if you don't bathe today, which you know that can happen, is put on more deodorant. But you need those personal hygiene items.

[B]

Yes. Please don't forget that.

[A]

Now, we mentioned staying warm. You need some warm clothing and blankets. Even if we don't have auxiliary heat, we're still going to need to stay warm in cold weather, especially during power outages and we don't have heat. Maybe you have space heaters Maybe you have auxiliary heaters. That's great. But we need that warm clothing and blankets. And I really mentioned that for carrying those blankets in the car.

[B]

Exactly. Because there's so many friends that got stranded out in I95 in Virginia during that winter blast. And then several years ago down through Birmingham, some folks got stranded from a very quick and completely unexpected winter blast that froze everything and put ice on the streets and stranded some motorists. And all they had on was the coat they were wearing to work. And if they didn't have enough gas in the car, their gas would certainly run out from them running the heater as well.

[A]

A couple of family members had to find places to stay that turned out to be the lobby of a hotel that was already filled because of the number of travelers that were trapped on the roadways.

[B]

All right, so number nine on the list then moving on would be cash money. This is useful if the power is down. And so, you know, no ATMs are going to be working and no credit card devices and stores will be working. And a lot of times, especially after a disaster of some sort of a lot of merchants will open, but they may not have any way of transacting except with cash. And we're not talking about keeping $100 bills. We're talking about ones, fives, tens and twenties.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Easily easy money that you don't have to get a lot of change out of.

[A]

And it's also good to have anyway because of person to person transactions. Sometimes it's easier. And a lot of people don't have a way to accept cash electronically. But cash is king when it comes to negotiations.

[B]

Right. So do keep some sort of an emergency stash of cash.

[A]

All right, Maps. You know, we take for granted our GPS system. It could be down. We could have other issues. We could not be able to travel in a vehicle trying to get home. And so those local and regional maps could very well help us in that time.

[B]

And.

[A]

And I would add a compass to this.

[B]

Yes, a little bit of orienteering experience is great.

[A]

That it is fire starter. We need a fire starter of some sort or three. We carry matches, we carry lighters, and we carry a Ferro rod.

[B]

But we also ask that you carry a small amount of tinder. And that could be something like dryer lint covered with some petroleum jelly, maybe stuck into a little piece of a.

[A]

Toilet tissue roll or in an old medicine bottle. You can put that in there because.

[B]

It'Ll keep it waterproof.

[A]

Yes. And keep it from drying out, too. And we have cut Fatwood. And I'm on metformin. I'm diabetic and metformin is one of the medications that I take. And 60 of those come in a tall medicine bottle. And we have taken several of those and we have cut fatwood sticks to fit into those and those are in our bag. So we might use the cotton ball with petroleum jelly to catch the spark and then go to the fatwood. Because once you have any kind of fatwood and you like fatwood with a single match. So once we get that spark, once we get that tiny flame, we can go to fatwood and then we start adding, you know, other types of twigs and sticks and stuff that we can find in the woods. And it might be necessary that we build a fire in the backyard for warmth and, or for cooking.

[B]

Right, Exactly. And number 12 on the list, self defense items. You've got to think about your self defense or the protection of those for whom you are responsible. Now, we personally approve of firearms and we also approve of the property, proper use, training, handling and storage of firearms. But if you're not permitted to own one, there are other options that you can consider.

[A]

There are, and we did an episode or two on that one is episode 280 that's protecting your family without firearms. And we know that a lot of our listeners live in countries where gun ownership is either totally prohibited or, or it's very, very restricted. I know one country, you can own the firearms, but they have to stay at the range. So you have nothing at home to protect you. So go to episode 280, that's practicalprepping.info 280 and that is on protecting your family without firearms. And if you're interested in selecting a firearm, we have episode 336 which is selecting firearms that are right for you and some prepper firearms listed in there as well. And again, every single one of these episodes that we've mentioned will be linked in the episode notes and in the episode description.

[B]

So these are the 12 of the must have categories that we believe that every well stocked prepper should, should be having. Look this list over and see in the areas that you may need to add or improve where you are so that you can have a little bit more well rounded preparedness.

[A]

We've appreciated you being here today. And if you have found value in this podcast, would you be willing to give back a little bit by buying us a cup of coffee? You could do that one of two ways. You can go to the front of our website, practicalprepping.in info and there's a link right there. Just click on that and it will take you to that. Or you can go direct to buymeacoffee.com practical prep.

[B]

You know why? Because stuff happens. We want you to stay prepared and.

[A]

We'Ll see you next time.