What a prepper stockpiles: 25 items from honey to fire extinguisher

Honey, coffee filters and a whistle: the 25-item prepper basket

A cupboard holding raw honey, coffee filter paper and an emergency whistle. Three items that don't seem to belong together, and yet they top the list of the 25 items that, according to one school of household preparedness, every home should have stored away. The proposal has sparked a debate that goes beyond the joke: what really deserves a spot at home when you start thinking about supply cuts or worse scenarios.

The starting point is simple. A good twenty-odd items, a dozen foods that require no cooking, and a tug-of-war between two ways of understanding preparedness. One starts with water and food. The other, with something considerably more uncomfortable.

The 25 items: from N95 masks to a written family plan

The list looks more like a well-stocked hardware store than a bunker. Alongside the obvious —reserve water, purifying tablets and drops, canned food with its can peine, rice, legumes and dried grains— are items almost nobody associates with an emergency. N95 masks, packing tape and thick plastic sheeting, a basic sewing kit, a home fire extinguisher.

The technical part is the most detailed. A hand-crank radio, a power bank for recharging devices, hands-free flashlights, a thermal blanket and durable tarp, heavy-duty duct tape, a multi-tool and a lighter with matches stored in a sealed bag. Add salt, sugar and baking soda, seeds for a home garden, and cash in small bills.

The closing item of the proposal is the least flashy and the most quoted: digital copies of your documents, a map of the area and a written family plan. In other words, knowing who calls whom and where the group reunites. None of this can be bought.

The 12 foods that need no cooking and how long they last

The second list focuses on the pantry and a single criterion: it must be edible without lighting a fire. Six cans of sardines keep for between 2 and 4 years; a jar of peanut butter, preferably peanuts only, and another of raw honey round out the starting lineup.

Instant oat flakes keep for up to two years; 85% cocoa dark chocolate, only a few months, with two or three bars as a reserve. Canned mackerel lasts for years, as do canned chickpeas and crushed tomatoes. Mixed nuts go unsalted. The jewel of the list is freeze-dried fruit —not dehydrated—, with a stated shelf life of 15 to 25 years in three or four snack-style bags.

Well-sealed tahini keeps for months without refrigeration. And at the very top, quality mineral salt and bouillon, because they never expire. The practical conclusion: what spoils is fresh food, not properly packaged food.

The dissent: from water and a knife to the short list

Here the consensus breaks down. Against the long catalogue, one camp defends the bare minimum: a pair of legs, water, a good knife, a crowbar, a rope, a lighter, a thermal blanket and cured meat. Their logic is that in a disaster the first thing is to move, not to entrench yourself, and that it's best not to stay in the same place too long.

Another part of the audience argues that the important items are the big ones: an independent power generator with portable solar panels. And a third, rougher line sums it all up as having a bigger club than your neighbor's and fewer scruples.

Some add something that can't be bought in any store: a brain. That, they say, is what's usually missing. At the opposite extreme, the humblest request isn't the fire extinguisher or the hand-crank radio, but a roll of toilet paper.

What throws people off

Between the written family plan and freeze-dried fruit for a quarter of a century, someone suggests stockpiling a PS2 console, lentils and the Crash Bandicoot disc. It may sound like a joke, but it's the best description of the real problem: nobody knows how many days you have to hold out. And preparing for fifteen years is very different from preparing for fifteen days.