How To Help Your Husband Get On Board With Prepping – Part 2

Last week, be began to delve into the topic of how do you help your husband get on board with prepping?  It’s not an easy subject when a husband and wife aren’t on the same page about any topic.  But when a wife feels very vehement about taking care of her family and the husband doesn’t see it the same way, it can cause a feeling of panic in his wife, that a husband may not understand.

Like last week, I want to remind you that this problem is not unique to you.  Many people have struggled with it in the past, and some of them have overcome it.

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Did you miss last week’s article?  Here’s: “How to Help Your Husband Get On Board With Prepping – Part 1.”

So let’s jump back into the topic of preparing when your husband isn’t on board.  Here are some more suggestions.

Way to Help Your Husband Get On Board With Prepping #6 – “Hide” your preps in plain sight

How does ‘hiding’ your preps in plain sight help your husband get on board with preparedness?  There will come a time when the decorations or other items that you have out in plain sight will become extremely helpful during an emergency.  When your husband sees how the things that you’ve scattered around the house have helped your family not just endure, but thrive during a short-term crisis, my hope for you is that it will help him see how preparing is adventageous to the whole family.

So what would this look like and what kinds of items can be kept in plain sight, but used for preparedness?  Keep reading!

I haven’t talked about it often, but I have an oil lamp fetish.  I think I have probably seven or eight oil lamps.  Some are large (near two feet tall); some are tiny (less than six inches tall with the chimney).  They are scattered throughout our house, several in the living room, one in our bedroom, and two small ones in the main bathroom.  These are decorative and don’t look like I’m stocking up on preparedness items.

Many women love to decorate with candles, use them liberally throughout your house.  When your power goes out, as long as you have matches or a flame starter, you’ll be good to go!

I keep jars of pretty herbs in our home – yes, they are for tea and other medicinals, but they are also decorative.  I keep old-fashioned kitchen tools scattered throughout the house, but if we were without power, you better believe I would use them!

Upgrade your bedspread to one that uses cotton batting – I found one recently at CountryDoor.com that is beautiful.  Cotton batting quilts are much warmer than polyester-filled quilts, and you can find many pretty ones.

Do certain rooms get hot in the summer – even with AC?  Could you invest in battery-powered fans?  Those look normal, and you can use rechargeable batteries.

Way to Help Your Husband Get On Board With

 Prepping #7 – Purchase ‘Small’ Preparedness Items that Are Easily Stashed

I can imagine that plenty of husbands out there haven’t outright said, “I don’t want you doing anything toward preparedness,” while denigrating or even getting frustrated by your preparedness efforts.

I understand that some women out there will still prepare, but they don’t like being made to feel foolish or wasteful.  If you want to prepare but keep your efforts ‘under the radar,’ look for small things that move the needle for you without screaming, “She’s Prepping AGAIN!”

• Large bottles of supplements – Costco’s vitamins – its multi-vitamin (500/bottle) and Vitamin C (500/bottle).  My vitamin D supplement has 360 in one bottle.  If you have one bottle that you’re working on and one in ‘reserve,’ it looks more normal than having ten small bottles of a multi or vitamin C or D, and you probably still have more than a year’s worth in your cabinets.
• Do you have oil lamps?  Extra wicks take up almost no space.  I hide my oil for the lamps behind books on our shelves in the living room.  And I don’t hide it from my husband.  I just find that space unused and convenient for storing the oil.
• One location in our house has a few unassigned drawers.  You’d be amazed at what I can fit in just ONE drawer if I make use of the space.  I looked into one drawer about two feet square and eight inches tall.  There are about 75 different items in that ONE drawer; they are all just on the small side.  But having these items, from sewing supplies to gardening supplies, to surveillance supplies, to food storage packaging supplies, to water bladders, to all-purpose emergency supplies, etc., will help provide for my family in case of an emergency.
• Can you store things in rolling totes under your bed?  If you aren’t using that space now, no one will be any wiser if you appropriate it for your preparedness efforts.

Way to Help Your Husband Get On Board With Prepping #8 – Work toward Similar Goals

Ask yourself, “What does my husband value?” and look for areas of overlap.

Does he value being frugal?  Show him how your preparedness efforts help lessen your household outgo.

Does he value a well-organized home?  Then show him that you will keep a place for everything and everything in its place.  Bonus – as you do this, you almost always free up more space for preparedness supplies.

Does he value a well-cooked meal?  Then make sure you purchase items that will help you cook from scratch.

Way to Help Your Husband Get On Board With Prepping #9 – Use Word Pictures

If you want to take the tack of trying to persuade your husband of the merits of preparedness, try varying word pictures that might mean something to him.  One thing that comes to mind is insurance.  Most people carry insurance – not only because it is required by law (car and homeowners) but because they know that a ‘little’ outlay upfront can save you thousands of dollars later.

When we moved to Illinois, I ended up in the hospital with an abscess.  A five-day stay in the hospital cost me more than $30,000.  I could never have paid that myself at that moment; however, we had become members of a healthcare sharing ministry five years or so before that.  The entire bill was ‘shared.’  The entire thing!  I didn’t have to pay a penny out of pocket, but we had been faithfully paying our predetermined amount (about $420/month) at that time.

Prepping is a form of insurance.  It’s insurance against an economic downturn.  It’s insurance against a potential job loss.  Preparedness is a form of insurance against a natural disaster.

Prepping provides us with convenience.  I don’t have to run to the store in the middle of the night if someone throws up.  I have everything I need.   Someone unexpected shows up close to dinner time?  You can invite them without running to the store because you have extra on hand.

When my husband really got on board with my prepping

About five years ago, we woke up on New Year’s Day.  I used our ensuite bathroom and flushed the toilet – no problem, but when I went to wash my hands – um…. no water came out.  Then I realized that the toilet tank wasn’t filling either.

While my father-in-law was visiting us, we had all woken up to frozen water pipes.  Of course, no one would come out on New Years (and it took a company four days to figure out how to thaw the pipes!).

So what do you do?  Go to a hotel and pay a fortune?  Stay with a friend WITH my father-in-law too, and be a nuisance?  Nope.  We were staying home!  But I had already had a five-gallon bucket, a snap-on toilet lid, heavy-duty trash bags, kitty litter (for absorbancy and smell), and a five-gallon water container with a spigot.  Altogether, these things cost me less than $75.  I saved my family more than $1000 because we didn’t have to stay in a hotel (We would have needed at least two rooms).  We didn’t have to eat out because I was prepared for not having water.  We could cook, wash dishes, wash our hands, and cleanse ourselves from a $75 investment.

Was it ‘fun’?  Until someone dropped the first load in the make-shift toilet?  Okay, maybe? But we made it through; we stayed in our home.  We were able to clean ourselves (baby wipes and a solar shower), use the restroom, and wash our hands in the sink (a five-gallon camping water jug with a spigot).

Once my husband saw how much money a small investment saved us, he didn’t just ‘put up with’ my prepping.  He wasn’t just ‘okay’ with me prepping.  He is ALL IN with my prepping efforts!  He was the one who tilled our 120’x30′ garden this year.  He was the one who put the mesh around it, who installed the gates.  He’s the one who planted and watered our new fruit and nut trees.  He never once complained when I put a plastic shelving unit in our bathroom to start our plants by a big window earlier this year.  He is all in.  But he wasn’t always.

What About You?

Are you prepping when your husband isn’t on board?  Is he antagonistic or apathetic?  What have you tried to do to get him to show more enthusiasm?

For those of you who are like me – your husband is finally on board – what did it take for you all?

Please leave a comment below and share your struggles and victories so that we can encourage each other and be better prepared.  And remember, no matter whether or not your husband is on board . . .

You’ve Got This, Mama!