Explore the top non-food SHTF supplies we recommend getting as part of your survival or disaster preparedness efforts.
Do a search online for SHTF supplies to stock up on and you’ll get hundreds of results. While we appreciate the effort people go through to produce these lists, we feel like some of them are lacking context, or are inflated with “junk” to garner more attention.
We live a preparedness lifestyle. It’s not easy to run to the store to grab regular supplies at a moment’s notice — much less SHTF supplies. We’ve also been snowed in, stranded, and without power. All this has taught us a lot about the SHTF supplies we’ll need in an emergency situation. So, we decided to publish our own list, with context about why the items matter and a few ways they can be used.
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SHTF supplies from A to Z
This isn’t a comprehensive list, but these are the items we feel are critical or multi-purpose in disaster preparedness and living off the grid — temporarily or long term. These are items you buy in multiples, not the one-off items like a backup generator or solar setup. We’ll cover those bigger emergency supplies in a separate post. We’ll also go into more detail around food storage in another post. For now, these are the non-food items we recommend.
These emergency preparedness supplies are listed in alphabetical order to help you scan and find those things you’re most interested in — or curious about. They may also be listed as individual items (e.g., duct tape, garbage bags) or types of items (e.g., fuel, medical supplies). Feel free to start scrolling or click through via one of these quick links:
Aluminum foil
Aluminum foil can be used in dozens of ways once SHTF, so make sure you have plenty in your SHTF supplies. You may consider buying food service aluminum foil for easy bulk storage and cost savings.
A few ways you can use aluminum foil in an emergency scenario include:
Wrap food to cook in coals or fires — think tinfoil (hobo) dinners
Make a solar oven — with a few other simple supplies
Make funnels — nearly any size or shape
Reflect heat — to keep it in or out of your living space
Line cookware such as Dutch ovens — to reduce cleanup if water’s sparse
Ammunition
Stock up on the ammunition your current guns require so you have enough for hunting and self-protection whenever supplies run short. Ammunition can also make a great bargaining tool when bartering takes a bigger role in commerce. Watch any apocalypse movie, and you're likely to notice that SHTF supplies can be traded for other things you need to stay alive.
Make sure you're storing your ammo correctly. We recommend storing it long term in either standard 50-caliber ammo cans or an easily transportable ammo crate.
Baby wipes
When water’s sparse, it’s important to find ways to stay clean. Baby wipes are a great option to keep private areas clean (on adults or children). They’re a good option for doing quick cleanup around the house or for use next to your composting toilet if water’s not immediately available for handwashing.
Oh yeah, and if you have a child in diapers ... this is a necessity in your SHTF supplies.
Bandanas
Bandanas are nothing more than a square piece of fabric, but the things you can do with them make them an invaluable addition to your emergency preparedness and SHTF supplies.
Bandanas can be used as a:
Sling, bandage, compress, or tourniquet
Covering for food and rising bread
Napkin, washcloth, and bib
Dust mask, hair tie, belt, head covering, and patch for holes in clothing
Signal flag, first-line water filter, trail marker, and lashing
Baking soda
Beyond cooking, baking soda has a variety of non-food uses, especially when you’re in a survival scenario. A few emergency uses of baking soda include:
Washing hair, brushing teeth, and as a hand sanitizer
Soaking feet to prevent fungus or athlete's foot
To relieve insect bites, sun burns, and diaper rash
To treat heartburn, indigestion, and ulcers
Deodorizing anything: toilets, clothing, and shoes
To extinguish small fires and lower acidity in gardens
Testing soil acidity
Read more about specific uses of baking soda in our post, 20+ emergency uses for baking soda.
Batteries
Batteries are an essential addition to your SHTF supplies — so you can keep flashlights, handheld radios, clocks, emergency radios, and other emergency supplies in working order. If you stock up on rechargeable batteries, make sure you have a way to charge them. We use a solar charger for emergency power. We also keep a supply of single-use batteries.
Bleach
Water purification is one important reason to have bleach on hand when SHTF. It takes a lot of extra energy to boil water when it can be quickly and easily treated with only a few drops of bleach. Strained and filtered water can be treated with just ¼ tsp per two gallons of water (if you’re using 6% bleach). One note of caution: While bleach will kill much of the disease-causing organisms living in water, it may not kill them all.
Bleach is also important for general cleaning and sanitizing, specifically surfaces that are critical to clean in low water situations, i.e. shared bathroom areas and food prep areas.
Books
We’re talking physical, paper books — books that’ll be readable even when the power’s out.
Instructional “how to live off the grid” types of books, gardening books, educational books, school books/encyclopedias (especially if you have young children), and books that can be read for pleasure.
Recommended books:
Before you run out and buy Samuel Thayer's books, check out our full review.
Buckets
You can’t have too many buckets. Seriously. We learned when we moved to the mountains how important buckets are, and we have buckets designated for various use cases such as:
Collecting, storing, and hauling water
Hauling to and from the compost pile
Separating and hauling rocks and gravel
Collecting and hauling kindling
Hauling tools to worksites
Making composting toilets
If you’ll be making composting toilets from a few of your buckets, you’ll also need portable toilet seats in your SHTF supplies and you’ll need to stock up on biodegradable toilet bags and wood chips or pine shavings.
Building supplies
Whether repairs pop up or you need to build a make-shift shelter for people who show up at your door, you’ll want to have some extra building supplies on hand. We recommend storing common sizes of nails, screws, and spare lumber. Living far from town has taught us that even during good times, these items are important to buy in bulk.
Candles
This seems self-explanatory, but emergency candles are important for lighting, heat, and some simple cooking. They’re safe to burn indoors and are ideal for people in small apartments or with limited storage space — we recommend everyone have a large supply of candles in their SHTF supplies. Some people have even had a lot of success warming a small space with tea lights and terra cotta pots, though we’ve yet to experiment with that.
Candles can also be used to sterilize needles, warm a spoonful of olive oil, etc., all important in first aid scenarios.
Canning jars and lids
When you can’t buy fresh or canned food, you’ve got to learn to save what you grow yourself or what you forage. Canning jars and canning lids in bulk are essential. Remember, when you’re pressure canning or canning via water bath, you’ll need to use a fresh lid each time, so you’ll want to buy those in bulk.
Cloth diapers
No diapers? Get ready to experience a whole new meaning of SHTF. If you have a baby or young child, you’ve got to have cloth diapers in your family survival kit. Cloth diapers like these are absorbent, washable, and adjustable to fit various sizes. If you have grandkids, you may also want to stock up. From first-hand experience, it’s much harder to make cloth diapers last minute in an emergency situation than it is to pull them out of storage.
Duct tape
The things you can do with duct tape! Outside of regular, daily uses, when emergency strikes, duct tape can help you:
Sealing up windows/doors
Make “moleskin” or provide blister protection
Make a splint or support for an injured or broken bone
Repair or waterproof shoes
Mend rain gear or tents
Remove back hair
Fire starters
This is anything you can use to make fire — an essential part of staying alive when SHTF. This includes:
Ferro rods to make sparks — water won’t harm them
Matches for an immediate flame — must be kept dry
Lighters — fuel will eventually run out
Cotton balls (when coated in Vaseline) as “tinder”
Flashlights
Light. It’s that simple. You need light in emergency situations and flashlights are an easy, convenient way to get that. Just make sure you have the right batteries stored in your SHTF supplies to power your flashlights — or buy rechargeable flashlights/batteries and charge them with a solar charger, like the one we review here.
It’s not a bad idea to buy different sizes and powers to suit various purposes. A small, low light is good for some things, but you’ll need a lot more lumens if you’re trying to spotlight someone trespassing on your property or view other threats at night.
Fuel
Store the right fuel for your emergency generators, chainsaws, stoves, vehicles, etc. Just make sure you’re storing it the right way. Propane is probably your best bet for long-term storage, so the more tools you have that’ll run on the fuel, the better. Butane is also supposed to last quite a while. Diesel lasts longer than gas. But if you need to store gas, make sure you're getting non-ethanol and make sure it’s stored in a metal jerry can with fuel stabilizer. Taking the right steps should help gas store well for a couple of years.
Games
Without the internet or TV, people will get a bit stir-crazy as they adapt to a new way of living. Games are an essential form of entertainment for children and adults alike. It’s also a great way to keep the brain stimulated and add some normalcy to life. Look for games that can be played repeatedly and enjoyed long down the road. One of our favorites when we’re snowed in is ColorKu.
You’ll also want to make sure the games in your SHTF supplies are versatile, like playing cards that can be used to play a variety of games. And, don’t forget outdoor activities like cornhole or ladder toss.
Garbage bags
Waste disposal is a huge issue when we consider life after SHTF. At minimum you’ll need to recycle/reuse whatever you can, reduce the trash you produce, and bag and haul trash a reasonable distance from your living areas. Garbage bags are essential for this kind of waste management. But they’re good for more than your crap.
Use garbage bags to:
Weatherproof bags of charcoal or animal feed
Stay dry during rainstorms or from dew at night
Create a quick “dry bag” for equipment
Capture rainwater
Make a “bear bag” to hang food out of a bears reach
Make dry boot/shoe liners
While many types of garbage bags may be useful we recommend stocking up on heavy-duty contractor bags as part of your SHTF supplies.
Gardening seeds
You might be thinking, “This was supposed to be a list of non-foods.” Seeds are a means to make food but they’re not food in and of themselves. Stock up. When disaster strikes, it’ll be difficult, if not impossible, to find fresh produce outside your own garden. So stock up in seeds for those things that grow well in your area — think nutrient rich, easy to store and/or preserve.
Already have seeds? Make sure your seed packets are organized. Not sure where to start? Check out this package of Survival Garden Heirloom Seeds. And, make sure you have some resources on how to harvest your own seeds, plant, and nurture your garden. This is a great beginner book, Grow Food for Free.
Hand tools
Fuel and batteries wear out but hand tools require nothing electric or refined to run them. Take inventory of the electric tools you have and try to find alternative hand tools to meet basic survival needs. This may include handsaws, scythes, sickles, etc.
Medical supplies
Take stock of the medical supplies you use on a regular basis and stock up! This includes:
Adhesive bandages
Reusable bandages
Ointments
Prescription drugs
Vitamins
Splints
Suture kits
Disinfectants
Of course this isn’t a comprehensive list of medical supplies that you’ll need with your SHTF supplies — but it’s an idea of things you’ll need to help treat minor injuries and keep your health up. The emergency medical supplies you stock will also depend on your specific needs. One more thing, if you’re going to stock kinesiology tape, make sure you know how to use it. You may want to pick up a book like the Practical Guide to Kinesiology Taping or Kinesiology Taping for Rehab and Injury Prevention.
Oil lamps and lamp oil
Again, light. When SHTF, there may be no electricity, hence, no light. Where we live, the lights go out in a good thunderstorm. You’ll need to be able to get around your home, campsite, etc. in the dark. And, it gets dark early in the wintertime. Make sure you stock the right lamp oil for your lamps as well. This oil lamp is one of our favorites.
Paper goods
When water’s in short supply or you're exhausted from the new SHTF lifestyle you’ve acquired, you’ll want some paper goods to use so you don’t have to wash dishes. When we say paper goods, we mean:
Paper towels
Paper plates
Paper bowels
Napkins
Disposable utensils (not paper)
Disposable cups
As you buy your disposables, keep in mind that trash service will be limited or nonexistent. You want to have items that compost or burn easily to help with waste disposal.
Personal hygiene
No SHTF supplies are complete without a few personal hygiene items. Or should we say, they shouldn't be complete with at least a few of the following:
Toothbrushes
Toothpaste
Floss
Shampoo
Body soap
Lotion
Deodorant
Feminine and/or dude wipes
Pads and/or tampons
When stocking up, remember that trash service will likely be nonexistent. Pads and tampons can be difficult to dispose of in that scenario and they can take up valuable space that may be better used for food storage. Consider adding “period underwear” to your emergency storage instead. This saves room and they can be washed and reused over and over. Just make sure you'll have wash water.
Rope
When we say rope, we also mean twine and paracord. Rope is good to have one hand for obvious — and endless — reasons, but we’ll list a few uses for rope anyway:
Lashing structures together
Suspending food in the air out of reach of animals such as a bear bag
Making snowshoes
Building animal traps
Makeshift gallows
Lifting/pulling large items
Various first aid applications
When buying paracord, remember that some survival paracord is designed with fishing line, fire cord, and cotton thread along with the polyester strands for additional SHTF uses.
Sewing supplies
Even if sewing isn’t a hobby of yours, you’ll want to have some basic sewing supplies on hand before SHTF. Knowing how to sew on a button, mend a hole in clothing, or make minor alterations could go a long way when ready-made clothes are harder to come by.
A basic emergency sewing kit in your SHTF supplies should include:
Extra sewing needles and straight pins
Thread in various colors and weights
Extra buttons in various sizes
Some zippers and iron-on patches
Scissors and seam rippers
Safety pins
Storage bags
Resealable plastic bags aren't just for leftovers. They can be used to:
Keep clothes, electronics, or tinder dry
Store candles, matches, or other items
Collect foraged food or seeds
Organize bug out bags
Tarps
Like buckets, you can’t have too many tarps with your SHTF supplies. Tarps can help provide shelter, keep supplies dry or out of the sun, provide shade, collect water, act as a rain poncho, etc. As you stock up on tarps, pick up various sizes and weights.
Toilet paper
If you lived through the great toilet paper shortage of 2020, this one needs no explanation. Stockpile toilet paper for the next shortage.
Water filters
Don’t risk getting sick from polluted water. Plan ahead by stocking up on water filters. There are many options to choose from:
Various “camping” gravity water filters
Water bottles with built-in filters
Countertop gravity filters like the Berkey
We have a variety of filters, some for backpacking, camping, and our bug out bags — and the Berkey for our home. We went with the Berkey when our well went dry after a water leak. We realized how easy it is to run out of water and how convenient it would be to bring in rainwater for filtration as a backup. Do your research and select the water filters that work for your scenario.
White vinegar
We all know there are many uses for vinegar in the kitchen, but let’s look into the non-food reasons you should add white vinegar to your emergency preparedness and SHTF supplies.
Though we won’t go into every use, some of the ways white vinegar can be used for medical purposes include:
Cleaning wounds
Soothing bug bites, stings, and sunburns
Reducing inflammation
Treating fungus, eczema, and calluses
A few other ways you can use white vinegar include:
Cleaning and disinfecting
Removing rust, grease, and odors
Preventing mildew
Increasing burn time of candle wicks
Wood chips
This may seem odd, but if you want to compost your crap (literally), you’re going to need wood chips for a composting toilet setup. You’ll also want wood chips for any animals you’re caring for that require them. You can also produce and save your own wood chips as you cut firewood or use a chipper.
Work gloves
When we moved to the mountains, we realized how quickly a pair of good leather gloves can wear out when you’re using them every day. We now buy in bulk and recommend you do the same. Whether you live in the suburbs or you’re already homesteading, good work gloves are a necessity when there’s work to be done!
Zip ties
Zip ties are good for more than cable organization behind your entertainment center or computer desk. During a survival scenario, zip ties can be used to:
Make a snare or secure a snare to a stationary object like a tree
Build shelters
Attach items to packs or bags
“Lock” boxes or sheds
Hang lanterns
Securing gates, fencing, cages, etc.
Make handcuffs
You’ll want to look for heavy duty zip ties in assorted sizes.
Get your SHTF supplies early
When the general public begins to see signs of SHTF, it’ll be too late to stock up on some of these items — so shop early and keep an inventory
In addition to stockpiling these items, it’s important to have other emergency supplies on hand such as an analog clock, emergency radio, solar panels, and generator. Some people also feel more prepared when they’ve added a nuclear radiation detector and wide band radio to their emergency preparedness supplies. After all, you never know how things will go down when SHTF.
While we’re not covering these larger, one-off items in this post, we’ll dive into those in the near future. Subscribe to our site for notifications of future posts.