What is a “Prepper Binder”?
A “Prepper Binder”, as I call it, is a collection of resources you put together so that if you had no internet or power, you would have a physical binder full of important information you might need. What you need in your prepper binder varies greatly depending on your skill set, your location and things you might be preparing for. I will add, I keep lots of books on hand that go into much greater details on all of these things but this is just a collection of some important things so if I needed something to grab and run with, I could carry it easily in my BOB. There’s nothing right or wrong about what you decide you want in your binder and you can customize it anyway you want!
Supplies needed:
- I use a 2″ binder usually but you can definitely go bigger if needed
- For the main dividers I use something similar to these because they stick out past the sheet protectors (I usually use the ones from Wal Mart called “8 tab insert dividers with pockets” but that Wal Mart has raised the price of them, I’ll probably be purchasing them from Amazon now.)
- I use these dividers for the sub categories (they do not stick out past the sheet protectors but that’s how I like it… if you want them to stick out a little more, you can always use these type of tabs so they can stick out some but not too much)
- I use sheet protectors from Wal Mart but these are similar and honestly now these are cheaper then the Wal Mart ones so I’ll be switching.
- This is the label maker I use and absolutely love and I use these off brand, cheaper refills. This label maker is SO nice and uses Bluetooth to sync with your phone so it’s easier to make labels exactly as you like them.
Categories to consider:
- Food (Could be divided into categories including Resources, Recipes, Canning, Food Storage, Primitive (for all your cooking off grid type things)
- Medical
- Gardening
- How To (Sub Categories: Water, Fire, Communication, Building, Electricity, Shelter, Guides)
- Herbs (This can be one section if you don’t have much or you could use sub categories and divide the important herbs in your area or ones that you grow)
- Documents
Links to helpful pages:
Food:
Medical:
*How to take a blood pressure manually (Although I highly recommend investing in an automatic blood pressure monitor to take the guess work out… they also have wrist monitors that are cheaper and better then nothing but upper arm ones are more accurate)
Gardening:
How to: Water
How to: Fire
How to: Communication
*I keep a printed out list of local radio frequencies for my ham radio
How to: Building
How to: Electricity
How to: Shelter
How to: Guides
Herbs:
*This section I plan to have divided into herbs that either I grow in my garden or that naturally grow in my area; still working on this as I moved recently and a lot of the plants that grow here are different. (I previously had information on Plantain, Stinging Nettle, Sage and I was in the process of looking up medicinal uses of herbs I grew in my garden)
Documents:
*In this section I keep a list of important phone numbers (in case something happened to one of our phones) and then copies of important documents; for us, this includes copies of birth certificates for everyone in our house, social security cards, baptism records, deed to our house and car titles. I also used to keep a copy of important keys in this section; a key to each of our cars and to our house doors but those aren’t currently in mine.
Survival Sullivan provides many awesome checklists on all aspects of prepping so definitely check those out and print the ones that apply to you. This is a great way to organize your inventory and make sure you have everything you might need.