Oh good! Another challenge…and just on the day I wander back to check on friends in the hurricane zone. WATER…..
Well I regularly have about…..uh, estimate… 20 half-gallon clear juice containers. Those are the ones currently and always filled. I rotate them regularly by using them for wetting the dog’s food [healthier to soak dry kibble, we’ve heard]. And to fill her water dish. And to water my indoor plants. Then I upend and dry the empty for a day. Refill it as soon as another has been emptied. Less chance of green slime forming when they’re dried between refills.
I also have two huge trash bags full of more juice bottles – empty. I’d burn my well pump out if I for-real filled all of them. But I WILL check to make sure if I remember exactly where those bags are located in garage.
I have a several more juice bottles that I’m gradually emptying and need to sanitize. They were stuck off in some forgotten corner and “unearthed” in my micro-decluttering. Slowly but surely I’m sorting those out….tossing a few rather unredeemable ones. [geee, sometimes I DO throw things out!] They have been used outside on porch to wash off dog toes, clean something else…cuz water is just too old to use for drinking. So today, I will participate here by setting them up with mild bleach solution and then refill. I have some newly-emptied juice bottles [the squared ones are great for sitting close on shelves] that have been in the cleaning, bleach, rinse stages. I’ll finish those off and fill with fresh water.
Then too, I use 7-up soda bottles so I have water next to my bed/chaise lounge. Of the soda bottles, I’ve discovered that the root beer and other strong flavors are very hard to get the sugar/flavorings cleaned out. I throw those out and keep the 7up and those types.
I’m behind in sanitizing them – which I do regularly since I have water in them constantly. So….I’ll use this motivation to bump that job to the top of the list. [gonna be busy…tho it doesn’t take long] I use sniff test each time I refill….in case I mix up which are needing to get a sanitizing bath.
I have done an exercise several times, just for grins. Set a timer. For me the timer represents me looking at the Doppler radar page [my very favorite page in summer] and I “see” a bad summer storm heading our way. When timer goes off, it means that I’ve lost electricity. The game is: How many water containers can I GRAB and FILL before “my lights go off”. Of course….this only represents those of us who are on a well with an electric pump. Thru that exercise, I’m aware of the location my large stock pots, juice bottles, etc. Buckets that go into the shower to fill with the shower hose….use for flushing. [ Big bucket to fill and a small, scrub pail to do the quick pour into the stool for the flush. Trying to flush with a 5 gallon bucket is way beyond my strength/coordination/aim.]
We also have six of the clear-blue, plastic 5-gallon containers that used to be used by water delivery companies. They are in basement – filled. Mostly would be used if we have to do some laundry in the tub down there…but are sanitized also for drinking. Not carrying those bigboys up the stairs tho. Point-of-use or pour into smaller containers.
Oddly, we recently had to set up the horse water tank….despite the rain, our creek has stopped flowing. 😮 I remember only one other summer that happened. A decade ago. So huge tank is full for the horses…..and there is plenty of water still in the pond in other pasture too.
Drinking: us, dog, horses. Cooking. Bathing. Flushing. Laundry?
OldMtWoman …water is the best place to start preps!