Replies

Here's a list I just wrote up (hope I got all the typos, and I'll probably remember other stuff later. Also later I'll put info about useful foods and simple nutrition.)

Homestyle Natural and Simple Remedies

Hygiene
1. Sponge baths get one remarkably clean if you use even a gallon of water, a tiny bit of soap, and a washcloth. Just start at the top and work down.
2. You can never have too many white plastic buckets. For bathing, water carrying, compost, toilets (don't ever use them for anything else after that!), food storage, bathing, upside down as chairs, etc.
3. Tooth brushes can be made of thin flexible twigs of many trees. A twig no bigger than a little finger, cut at an angle and peeled, works very well. Often they can be chewed at the end to make a brush. I have used eucalyptus twigs and my teeth were cleaner than with a regular toothbrush. Try fruit trees, birch, mango (if you're lucky!), or resinous trees. Make sure they're not a poisonous plant!
4. Fine salt makes a great dentifrice, as does baking soda.
5. A pinch of baking soda rubbed in a damp armpit not only acts as a very effective deoderant, but helps eliminate unpleasant body odor already happening.
6. If there isn't enough water to bathe well, washing the face, hands, feet and private parts daily will keep you going for a while.
7. You can't have too many washcloths. They can be used for many things and are easy to wash out and hang up to use again.
8. Adding a couple of drops of various essential oils such as lavendar, eucalyptus, and many others will not only improve one's smell but they actually help kill germs.
9. White vinegar has many uses - a tablespoon or so in washing water helps cut soap scum, helps maintain the Ph of the skin so it heals better and resists infections, and can be applied directly to fungus infections of the skin, helps heal them fast. Stings though.
10. Have several fingernail brushes - brush the nails regularly as germs love to live in dirty fingernails!
11. Have a few nail clippers as nothing cuts nails as well.

Toilets
I have seen many recommendations to use buckets with plastic bags in them to use for toilets in time of emergency. I think this is a very bad idea, unless you know it's for very short term. Reason: what will you do with all those plastic bags???? Anyone with access to even a medium sized back yard can make a trench latrine or composting toilet. I have used both and they work, and the excrement composts - faster than you'd think - instead of accumulating. A trench latrine is a long trench, as deep as you want to make it (within reason) and just start at one end, use it, bury it, and keep going. Boards can be placed across it for feet. A composting toilet can be made using plastic buckets. Here's the method: Get several plastic buckets with lids, a toilet seat, and either sawdust, wood chips or shavings (better from raw wood rather than kiln dried lumber), dry leaves such as found in the woods, or even dirt. Sprinkle some of the filler stuff on the bottom of the bucket, and add a handful after every use. When full, put the lid on it and set aside. When several buckets are full, have a place set aside to dump them, and cover the whole mess with sawdust, wood chips, leaves, or dirt. It composts amazingly fast. You want to avoid peeing in the buckets more than you have to.

It can't be emphasized enough how important it is to wash hands carefully after using toilets or cleaning the buckets.

Miscellaneous Helpful Hints
1. In the event of any kind of emergency, whether of long or short duration, it is of primary importance to keep up one's spirits and a cool head. Therefore, I highly recommend making sure you have inspirational literature - I have the Bible, the Bhagavad Gita, and others that I find enlightening. Such books can be read and re-read for inspiration, comfort, and guidance and are of inestimable value.
2. Useful practical books should be kept handy.
3. Especially if there are children, some time of entertainment should be available - or some kind of handwork that is useful to do and entertaining. There are so many things that it is really individual. When people (and kids) are used to depending on electronic entertainment, and are all of a sudden deprived of it, there needs to be something to take its place.
4. Don't forget good knives, scissors and knife and scissors sharpeners. Also matches and lighters.
5. Useful items like good glue (different kinds for gluing different substances), various kinds of string, tape, sewing things, safety pins, writing materials.
6. A diary or blank book may be useful - you may want to remember things, or write experiences or thoughts to read later.
7. Hardly anyone dies of being too hot but plenty of people die from cold. Wool and down insulate better than most other things.
8. Even though they make you look like the cast in "The Postman", I highly recommend fingerless gloves.
8. Musical instruments make wonderful companions. Make sure you have enough strings for stringed instruments!
9. If there is a longterm disruptive situation, clothes may need to be washed in disadvantageous conditions. I have seen in a catalog "The Vermont Country Store" (www.vermontcountrystore.com) a device for washing clothes in a bathtub, looked like a plunger. Wringing them out is the tough part, having a stationary pole and twisting them using the pole or with another person is much easier on the wrists. A wooden clothes rack or clothesline gets them dry. It is MUCH easier on the hands to wash clothes with mild soap rather than strong detergents.
10. Rubber gloves - in sizes that fit. You never know when you'll have to get your hands in something you'd rather not, or just to save your hands from cold water or cleaners.
11. Old towels for rags. You can't have too many.
12. Wool blankets are warmer than artificial fiber ones. You can always find a use for them.

First Aid Home Remedies
1. Lavender Oil (pure essential oil, NOT "fragrance" or "fragrance oil"!!!) has many uses, some of which are:
headaches, muscle aches, BURNS (excellent), nervousness. Just smelling the oil can help, in the case of burns apply it directly. For sun burn, dilute with water and spray or dab on.
2. Tea Tree Essential Oil - kills bacteria. Very good to apply to cuts or infections, or dilute for gargling. It also helps speed up the healing of cold sores on the lips.
3. Eucalyptus oil is not only highly antiseptic, but helps breathing. It can be smelled, a drop or two put on one's clothing, or drops place in a bowl of hot water and breathe in the steam. If anyone has asthma make sure you have plenty of inhalers, but to save their use (or if you run out) you can use eucalyptus to help, as well as some other essential oils such as sweet basil, rosemary, peppermint, camphor and all the tree oils like pine, fir and spruce. I use these a lot as I have asthma.
Peppermint oil - again, make sure these are good quality PURE essential oils - not flavorings, perfumes or fragrances) - is very good for headaches, nausea, and drowsiness. Very good for children's illnesses. A drop can be taken in water, too - for nausea, indigestion, headaches.
4. Clay - it can be purchased at natural food stores in bulk. It needs to be stored, mixed with water, in a glass, stone ware or porcelain container with a lid on it. The way to mix it is put in dry clay, pour water on the top (more than you'd think it needs) and let it sit overnight. Don't stir it up. Just keep on hand. It is absolutely amazing stuff. Put it on boils, pimples, splinters, rashes, burns, cuts, even helps with sprains or (the tales say) broken bones. It is considered even to help with serious illness like cancer. It draws out impurities, poisons, and speeds healing of tissues. It also takes away pain. Spread it on, and wash off when dry or warmed up. A book I highly recommend is "Our Earth Our Cure" by Michael Abehsera. (I know, it sounds kooky, but I have used clay successfully for many years.)
5. Clean old sheets and Tee shirts can be saved and ripped or cut in strips for use as bandages. Regular bandaids are small, the sticky stuff wears off and many people itch from it.
6. The powdered spice Turmeric (available at natural food stores in bulk, and in California many regular grocery stores have it in bulk) is a strong medicine. It is in the same family as golden seal (way too expensive to use nowadays) and ginger. Turmeric can be applied to cuts or wounds, helps heal and quells infections. It can be taken internally for infectious illness, helps with digestion as well. Can be gargled for sore throats. For cuts or wounds just sprinkle on.
7. For pain I use a Chinese linament "Zhengu Shui" available at natural food stores, or more cheaply, in Chinatowns. It is the most effective pain linament I know of. In the event of disaster or disruption, you may have to work harder than usual, and may incur muscle aches and pains.
8. Good shoes and plenty of socks are very important.
9. Eyecups are very useful, if dust or other things get in the eyes washing out the eye with an eyecup can be vital. I use rosewater as it helps curtail inflammation, there are other kinds of eyewashes available.
10. Drinking water - I highly recommend a Berkefeld water purifier. I have had two, and like them tremendously. The water tastes excellent, they filters last for years, and they filter out just about everything that could cause harm. Check them out on the internet. Missionaries in 3rd world countries use them because they don't require water pressure or electricity to use, nor do the filters need replacing often.
11. Powdered ginger is useful to have on hand. Mixed with hot water and a spot of honey or sugar, it taste very good, heats up the body, helps when sick with a fever, cold or sore throat, and helps with digestion. Adding nutmeg powder (a little) helps people calm down, or even fall asleep.
12. Vitamin E oil (I get mine at Trader Joe's, but you can get it just about anywhere) is very good for healing skin problems, or for dry skin. Other skin lotion or natural oils such as almond are excellent for keeping the skin healthy.
13. Castor oil is very good for sprains or other joint or muscle pains. It is sticky and kind of messy, but rub in in and layer a piece of flannel or old sheet on it. It has helped me often. Get a bottle of castor oil and have it on hand.