“1) I’m thinking of putting in at least a year’s supply of non perishables: 2) In particular, lots of paper products like TP, paper towels, etc. which I expect to jump up in price along with food 3) Plenty of my favorite cleaning supplies”
A bit wimpy if you ask me. You need about 4 years worth of supplies to weather through what’s coming. After 4 years, we’ll likely be starting to get our footing again as a country. Obviously you need the space and the money too. Regarding money, my supplies (probably about $10k worth in value) have hedged inflation than any of my ‘investments’, so you’re not really losing anything if you intend to use all of it (which can be tough with food...but food is a different story).
So, for non-perishibles, again, I use my 4-year rule, which does require a lot of volume for TP and especially paper towels, but not nearly as much for other stuff (soap products, motor oil, bags of all types, etc.). For food, I only try to hold 6 months, although I’d likely have more if I didn’t live in Houston and had a basement to use.
Will toilette paper really do any good after IT hits the fan?
Hmmm....did you know that we didn’t start buying paper towels until the late ‘70s? They are not a necessity and are quite wasteful. You can launder rags repeatedly that you use for spills, instead of throwing them away.
Now TP is a necessity, as well as a good supply of laundry soap. If you know how to make your own, as we did when I was growing up on a farm, you will find that a very handy skill.
Even in Canada I’ve been telling my family to do this. Sadly, I don’t have the funds currently to build anything up, I’ll have to lend my soldiering expertise and my gun for a roof and food I suppose heh.
I save old phone books and catalogs for emergency TP since we’ll be composting humanure out back (don’t need to worry about flushing it).
BTW, my plan is to buy a few tons of beans and rice. I will have my employees vacuum bag them in 4 oz., 8 oz., and 16 oz. portions. Voila! The new currency of the People!