A Preppers Guide to Home Survival

Urban Survival For The Average Person

By Daniel Wilson

Table of Contents

Introduction

Disasters

How serious are you?

Your Home, Your Bunker

Personal Protection

Supplies

Electricity

Why do you need power?

Battery Bank

Generators

How Do You Make Electricity?

Solar

Wind Power

Water

Food

Garbage

Medical

Human Waste

Conclusion

Introduction

I wrote a book about surviving a global disaster titled "Surviving a Global Disaster: A Practical Guide" which focuses on getting out of town and into the wilderness to survive.  It is full of information about how to hunt, fish, and other survival techniques.  But that isn't always an option.  You might not have anywhere to go.  You might be stuck in a city, stuck in your home after a major disaster.  So this book will focus on staying home and surviving, but it will take preparation, determination, and hard work.  Most preppers spend excessive amounts of money on supplies, but we are going to assume you are like most of us and don't have lots of extra money to throw around for an underground bunker built in your backyard. 

But preparing to survive for an extended period of time isn't going to be free either.  But I'll try to keep it as inexpensive as possible.

Disasters

One of the more common theories of the next global disaster, and a very real threat is a massive solar flare.  It could knock out power, satellites, and electronics across the globe.  Power transformers around the world will be knocked out and have to be replaced.  But what you may not know is that there are not enough available.  They are expensive, take time to build, and take time to install.  And of course without power these things will take even longer to build and transport where they are needed.  Not to mention repair crews could be gone, maybe the disaster causes a global economy failure, so they won't want to work and get nothing in return when they could be spending that time working to keep their family alive.  No one wants to leave their family alone during a crisis to go to work.   

Some experts estimate that it could take well over 10 years to replace the power transformers if they all went out.  So you could be without power for 10 years or more. 

A few years back an electrical storm blew a transformer not far from my home.  Now I don't live in a major city, but I don't live in the middle of nowhere either.  I'm less than 100 miles from some of the largest cities in the country.  Yet it still took over a week to get that transformer replaced.  There were no others out and they had all the repair crews working on this one transformer.  But it took that long to get the replacement and get it installed.  Now consider that across a global scale.  And that was just one of hundreds in the area.  Had say 20 blown up, people could have been without power for many months.  And with almost any disaster, electricity will be gone within days if not hours.  So I'm going to cover a large section on electricity and how to generate your own.

But a massive solar flare isn't the only threat, an asteroid collision, governments could collapse, a bioterrorism attack, a viral pandemic, and so on.  The list goes on and on.  With so many threats, although each of them are very slim, eventually add up to a real chance that something can happen.  It can happen tomorrow, next week, ten years from now, or not for hundreds of years.  But being prepared is a good idea.

How serious are you?

So how serious are you about survival?  You need to ask yourself this question before you start prepping.  Are you wanting to be ready for a couple weeks of world unrest, or a few years?  Are you afraid of what people are going to think about you being a 'prepper'?  Are you willing to make the time and money investment needed to be ready to survive, not just for yourself but your family?  Are you ready to set aside a large enough amount of space at your home to store your survival supplies?

Even a small amount of survival supplies will help you in an emergency, but if you're planning for the big one, for hunkering down in your home for an extended period of time, you'll have to get serious about it. 

Some people understand, some people don't.  My ex wife thought I was insane because I would carry an emergency survival kit in my truck with some basic survival items.  And I worked in the mountains in areas where I would be without cell service and miles from any help on a regular basis.  So if your family is at all like her, they won't understand you stockpiling survival equipment and taking up your garage with emergency supplies.  But they don't understand it's not you being paranoid, it's you wanting to protect your family.

So I'm writing this under the impression that you're serious about long term survival.  To hell with what others think.  When the big disaster hits and you're sitting pretty with plenty to eat and clean water to drink while they are suffering from intestinal distress and shitting their pants from drinking tainted water from puddles in the street, you can give them the finger and a big "I told you so!".  Which of course will give you that warm, fuzzy feeling inside.

Your Home, Your Bunker

Your home will become your bunker when disaster strikes.  It will be your base of operations, your fort knox of survival equipment, and you will have things that other people will want.  So you can't just leave your home a home, you have to turn it into an impenetrable bunker of doom!  Okay, not the doom part.  But a bunker none the less.  First thing you need to plan for is protecting the vulnerable spots.  Places where people can get inside.

Doors and windows of course.  The only real option here is boarding them up.  It does more than just keep people out, it keeps people outside from seeing what you have inside.  It also helps keep in the warm air in winter. 

But just boarding up your windows are not going to stop someone if they really want to get in.  But it will slow them down.  You'll also need to booby trap them in such a way that they will make a lot of noise trying to get inside.  Simple cans on a string attached to the boards will make plenty of noise if they are disturbed.  You can also add some out sticking nails, as well as some buried boards with upturned nails outside of each window.  I think the yell from someone stepping on a nail is a nice alarm system too.

As far as doors, you can't lock yourself in completely.   You need to be able to get out if needed.  Some simple 2X4's and brackets attached to the door frames so you can easily slide the boards in and take them out are very effective.  Quick to secure, quick to take off when you need to get out.  And no one is going to break through them without spending a lot of time and making a lot of noise in the process.

But these things you don't want to do until after a disaster happens.  You don't want to look like a psycho boarding up all your windows and having buried nail traps outside can injure your own family, pets, and anyone else who comes around.   So don't turn your house into a bunker until you have to.  But you can be prepared.  Have the boards, nails, brackets, tools, and everything you need to do it at the ready.  Fumbling around looking for a hammer in the dark after a major disaster won't be much fun.  You have other things to do besides searching for your tools.

Personal Protection

People are a bunch of scared animals.  At least when a disaster hits.  People will revert to instinct.  If you have food and they need food, they will try to take yours.  When it comes to survival, people will do whatever it takes, especially if they are not prepared like you will be.  So everything you have is going to become very valuable.  You must be able to defend it and your family.

Guns are something that is unavoidable and going to be necessary during this time.  Lots of people own guns, you will need to also.  Since you're not going to be hunting, you want to focus on hand guns.  A gun for everyone in your home that's old enough to use one.  You have to be able to watch each other's back.  But you can't just give someone a gun and expect them to be able to protect themselves or you with it.  Training and practice is very important.  Everyone who will be carrying a weapon during this time should be very familiar with the weapon before it's needed.  So safety classes, practice, these things could save you.  You don't want your teenager to accidently shoot you because he didn't know how the safety works. 

People say you should stockpile ammo as well.  But do you really expect to be shooting hundreds of times?  Are you going on a mass murder spree?  You won't be hunting, and I doubt the disaster is going to be a zombie apocalypse.  A few hundred rounds for each weapon should be plenty.  Probably way more than what you need.  Once people know that you're not afraid to shoot someone trying to break into your home, they will probably look for a less lethal target.  However ammo can be used to barter for other goods, it doesn't take up much space, so stockpiling some extra can't hurt.

Supplies

There are a lot of supplies you should have ready.  I won't list all of them in this chapter because some are specific and need more detail, which will be provided in the next few chapters.  Like food for example.  Food is a chapter of it's own.  Or weapons, which we already covered.  So I'll try to cover some other items you will want to have on hand.

Other than what you should already have in your home, like pots to boil water, you should stock up on heavy duty garbage bags, lawn bags are best.  They are large, strong, and cheap.  They have many uses, some will be discussed later.  Flashlights, radio, 2 way radios, and things of that sort that use batteries you might think will be a useless thing unless you stockpile batteries.  But later on I'm going to teach you how to have electricity.  So for all your battery powered devices, get a couple battery chargers and a stock of rechargeable batteries.  2-way radios usually come with base stations they sit in which recharge them, most portable radios have a cord to plug into power, so you can use the ac cord or batteries.  And flashlights won't be used too often, but they will be nice to have if you need to go out after dark to find supplies you might not have stocked up on. 

Some things you will also want to get will be large drums for holding fresh drinking water.  You will use a lot more water than you think, so having a few of these drums that you can refill should keep you fully stocked for water.  We will talk about getting clean water in the water chapter later.

Large tarps will be very useful, can be found at any hardware store.  You can buy the clear plastic painter's tarps, the thicker ones will be best.  These are very inexpensive so stock up on them if you can.  The large blue tarps can also come in handy. 

Wood, nails, and hand tools will be useful, as we talked about earlier, in boarding up your windows and doors.  And since you're at the hardware store, duct tape has enough uses to write a book about, so you can't go wrong with having plenty of it on hand.  As well as some buckets, 2.5 gallon, or 5 gallon buckets will work.  Since they are stackable, you can have a lot of them without taking up much space.  So get plenty.  They are going to have many uses as we get further into this book

Now to the sporting goods store.  Flint sticks with strikers will become invaluable, they are cheap, small, and so very useful in any survival situation.   Rolls of fishing line will also be used later in this book.  So you will want to get a good amount of it.  Thicker line is best, 15lb should be enough.  It will have many uses.  And don't forget hooks.  The treble hooks, 3 prong type are good, but single prong hooks work too.  They are inexpensive, light, and won't take up much room.  So a good stock of them will help as well.  I know, you're thinking why would you need fishing supplies for urban survival.  To fish of course.  But not like you think. 

An old school CB radio can help keep you informed of what's going on in the outside world.  There won't be a lot of people using them, but you might find some people.  You can also use them to find others to make trades with, get information on supplies, locations of other survivors, dangers, etc.  Communication can be very useful.  CB radios can be found at any yard sale or flea market.  You can usually pick up a good one for under $5.  And don't forget about an antenna.  The longer the antenna, and the higher up you can mount it, the farther your signal will broadcast.  So take that into consideration when you're buying an antenna.  You can't just plug it into your old TV antenna that's still on your roof, the modulation will be wrong and your signal will be messed up to where people won't be able to understand you.  You must have a CB specific antenna. 

Also those 2-way radios that are sold just about everywhere now are great for when someone in your home has to leave for some reason.  They have a long range, some are rated at 30 to 50 miles.  But that's under optimal conditions.  I'd say more like 3-5 miles in town.  If that.  But they are still a great way to communicate with home.  And they are cheap.  You will want the kind that have their own charging stations, so you don't have to worry about batteries.  So expect to spend about $30 or so for a good set with chargers.  You can spend more and get better quality and longer range units, but it's all up to you and your budget. 

If I don't mention something in this chapter that you think you need to survive, I probably mention it in another chapter specific for that item.  If it's not mentioned at all and you think it will help, get it.  I can't think of everything. 

I know you're probably wondering how do you power these devices during a disaster when there is no electricity?  Well the next chapter is all about electricity and how to generate your own. 

Electricity

Why do you need power?

Well it's always nice to have lights at night, or a fan to keep you cool in the summer.  But you can live without those things.  But having a way to refrigerate your food and preserve it will be a life saver.  Think about everything you have in your refrigerator and freezer right now.  If you had no power how long would that food be good for?  A day or two at most?  Maybe you live in the country or mountains and you can hunt for food, if you take down a deer, eat a big meal with your family, you still have a couple hundred pounds of meat that will go to waste very quick if you can't keep it cold. 

Battery powered items like a radio, or old school CB could keep you informed on things that are going on in the world.  Information during a disaster is vital.  Battery powered items will be useless if you can't recharge them. 

And protection, during a disaster situation people will become your enemy.  If you have something they want, they will come for it.  Something as simple as motion sensor lights can warn you and probably scare off the would-be scavengers.

I'm sure you can think of other reasons why having some electricity would be helpful in a disaster survival situation.  Maybe barter, you will recharge someone's radio for supplies that you need.   Or if you develop a small cooperative with other survivors that you trust, you can help teach them to generate their own electricity. 

Battery Bank

Before we worry about creating power, you need somewhere to store the power.  And a large bank of batteries are perfect.  Car batteries work well for this.  Most things will run on 12 volt dc power, which is what car batteries give you.   And you're thinking you can't plug your 2 or 3 prong device into a car battery.  Well you can.  At any auto parts store or electronics store and even big chain stores, like wally world, you can buy an inverter.  It turns your 12v dc power into regular 115ac power like your wall socket uses.  So get the biggest one you can, it will let you run more devices at once.  The really small ones might only power a small item, and we need to be able to run a refrigerator and have power to spare.  So bigger is better.

One thing to make sure on your batteries before you start setting up your battery bank is that they don't have any dry cells.  There is a plastic cap on top of the batteries, underneath are holes that have what looks like water in them.  These need to be full.  You can use regular tap water, and fill them all up.  The liquid will be turned into battery acid, so be careful not to splash what's in there on you.  Won't really hurt you much, maybe some minor skin irritation, but can blind you and will eat away your clothes.

As far as your bank of car batteries.  Well same goes for them, bigger is better.  And the more you have the better.  You will want to link them all up in series, as in connecting the positive from one to the negative of the other, and so on.  That way you still only have 12v of power but a lot more stored up power to use.  They basically work like one battery with a massive amount of stored power.  So even if one battery is near dead, it all evens out and you won't know the difference.  But next we will be talking about charging these batteries because no matter how many you have, they won't last forever if you can't keep them charged.

Another reason for having a lot of batteries is so that you don't waste power.  If you're at full charge then any extra power you're creating is going to waste.  So we want lots of batteries to hold the most charge possible.

So where can you get these batteries to build your big battery bank?  If you're prepping before a disaster, a good place would be junk yards.  They usually sell batteries anywhere from $20-$30.  And you want to get the bigger ones, the kind they use in large vehicles.  If you don't start working on your battery bank until after a disaster (shame on you), you can always steal them from cars, as cars will run out of fuel and be useless pretty quick.  You can also barter for them with supplies you have.  So having extra of anything can help.  Money won't be useful anymore, but supplies will be the new currency.

Generators

Generators are great for short term use.  Power a home for a couple days.  But they are useless long term.  They use fuel which will run out, and with no power at the gas stations you won't be able to go pick any more up.  You could stockpile fuel, but who wants hundreds of gallons of highly flammable explosive liquid sitting in your garage waiting for a spark to blow everything up?  Just not worth the risk.

They are also very loud.  If others hear your generator running they will know you have power and probably preserved food.  It could attract unwanted attention. 

And unless you live in an area that has power outages on a regular basis, you probably don't already own one.  And if you're thinking about buying one for an emergency like a good prepper, don't.  They are useless.  There are much better alternatives to generating power.  But if you really want one and think you will use it once in a while for short term use, go ahead and spend the money.  But we are here to prep for a major disaster and extended periods of time without power.  So these won't do you much good after a couple days.

How Do You Make Electricity?

This is a question most people don't think about until they don't have power.  Electricity is made in a few ways.  The most common, and the only kinds you will really care about are solar and turbine generated.  We will go into more details about them in the upcoming chapters.  But turbines are a basic concept.  You pass a magnetic field across a coil of copper wire and you get an electric charge.  Very simple.  Easy to do at home.  Of course you can't just stand there running a magnet across a coil of wires and expect to get enough of a charge to do anything.  But that's the basic principle. 

These things need to be ready before a disaster strikes.  And the best part is, they won't just sit around doing nothing.  You can use them right away, before you ever really need them.  With what's called a tie-in converter, you can connect your power generating devices directly to the power grid and the power company will pay you for the power you generate.  It won't be enough to make an income, but it will lower your electric bill every month.  Extra money to spend on supplies.   A tie-in converter is a little expensive, but some power companies will actually supply you with one and hook it up to the power grid for you, if you're producing a sufficient amount of power.  So you could get lucky and some of your prepper equipment will lower your bills.  It can also be a good way to keep the wife calm about you spending money on solar and wind power supplies when she knows it will eventually pay for itself and save you money.

So lets detail some ways to make power to keep your batteries charged.

Solar

Everyone knows what solar power is.  They see solar panels on people's rooftops.  Solar power is clean and safe.  But it has a lot of drawbacks.

First, lets talk about how much power a home uses.  A typical family home uses about 40k kwhs (kilowatt hours) of power per month.  Don't worry about the technical stuff right now, just stay with me.  A typical solar panel which is about a 2 to 3 foot, by 4 foot flat panel produces around 200 watts of power.  So when we do the math you would need about 200 of these to power your home.  Lets say these are only 2 foot by 4 foot.  That would be a 400 foot long row of 4 foot tall panels.  Or 200X8 foot, or 100X16, or 50X32.  You get the idea, it would be huge.  So they are not that efficient.

Next is price.  These panels can cost over $200 each.  But lets just be conservative and say $200.  I mean, you're buying in bulk so you should get a discount.  So 200 panels at $200 each, $40,000.  And that's just the panels.  You still need the equipment to connect them all, the electronics to tie it into your home, etc.  And of course these are dependent on the weather.  If you have a long, cold, rainy, dark winter, you won't get nearly the 40k kwhs of power that the system is rated at.  Your power savings with solar usually come to about 10 years before the system has paid for itself. 

But in a disaster situation you won't be living like normal, you won't be running a lot of lights, using your microwave, running your central heat and air, watching tv, and that type of thing, so you wouldn't need nearly that much power.

Another drawback is visibility.  People will see you have solar panels and know you have power.  That brings danger.  People suck and you don't want them coming around wanting to take what you have.

If you're not an expert in solar power then you will want to buy a solar power kit.  Something strong enough to help keep your battery bank charged, assuming you're not using too much power, with all the converters and other electronics necessary to use it properly will cost at minimum around $2500.  Or you can go with a smaller setup and add more wind power, which is detailed in the next chapter.  It's all about your needs, how much sun you get vs wind, and what kind of deal you can find on the equipment.

The best part about buying a kit to setup your own solar system is that you will have hands on experience with it.  You will learn about your system.  So if there is a problem you will have a much easier time to fix it than if someone else had set it up and you're tinkering around with something you don't have any experience with.

So solar isn't all that bad for disaster use.  It would be good to have some solar equipment setup to help with power usage.  Having that extra power charging your battery bank during the day will defiantly help.  But don't go overboard on it, money can be better spent in other ways to prepare. 

I'm not going to include any diagrams or specifics for a solar system setup.  There are so many different kinds that it wouldn't really help.  But like I said, buying a kit is your best option and will have detailed instructions.  If you decide to use another form of power, solar is still something you should consider having, even a small setup, as a backup. 

Wind Power

Wind turbines are great.  They are very efficient in the amount of power they produce.  And best of all they just look like small windmills.  Most people won't realize these are actually producing power to help run your home.  So visibility isn't an issue.  Plus they are not as noticeable as big, shiny solar panels on your roof.

Building your own wind turbines is a good idea because you will learn the basic fundamentals of how they work, so that when the time comes, if you need more and can't order another off Amazon, you can use salvaged parts to build more. 

You can buy a kit for around $300 that produces 500w of power.  Which is much less expensive than solar.  If you're not using much electricity in your home, maybe just for refrigeration, some low power consumption lights, maybe a radio or something similar, this can be enough.  But it's 500w when running at optimal speed.  Which means the wind needs to be blowing.  Again, this is why we have a bank of batteries.  When the blades are turning it's charging the batteries.  When it's not, you still have saved up power in your battery bank to continue to run the things you need.  And if you combine with solar which is producing 200-300w of power, you should be good if there is no wind or no sun. 

You already should know how a windmill works.  You have blades that turn when the wind blows.  Pretty basic.  But it's what's on the inside that is important.  It works like any other turbine.  It's passing magnetic fields across coiled wires and that produces the electric charge.  That charge is sent down to a converter, so it's converted into the right type of power to charge your batteries.

I'm not including instructions to build your own, but buying a kit and starting with that will help tremendously as the parts are mostly assembled for you and you get some real experience in building the turbine.  This will help you for later when if you decide to build more.  A source of power like that can be worth it's weight in gold, so if you don't need it for yourself you can trade to someone for things you do need.  And people who don't have any type of power will probably be willing to trade a lot for one.

So if you have free time after building your kit you can tinker around with building your own from scratch, try to use parts that you can salvage, not bought online, so that after a disaster you know you can build more without having to order parts. 

There's not always a breeze to turn the blades of your wind turbine.  But the higher up you go, the stronger the wind.  It might be calm at your house, but 20 feet up the wind could be blowing much stronger.  So putting them as high as possible will help keep the blades turning and the electricity flowing.

Hydro electric power works the same as wind power, except you're using running water to turn the turbine instead of wind.  And I doubt if you're living in town you have a running stream in your backyard.  So no real need to go into this form of power.

But once you have the skills to create a turbine you can hook one up to a stationary bike, or some other man powered way to turn the turbine.  The possibilities are there for many different variations.

Water

You can't live without water for very long.  And unless you have a well on your property and hooked up to your new electrical system, water will be hard to come by and very valuable.

First thing you need is some large containers to store water in.  You can buy very large, hard, plastic water barrels.  100 gallon, 500 gallon, it's always best to have more than what you need instead of less.  Having these full before a disaster is great.  But it won't last very long after the disaster and you have no access to clean drinking water.  But it will give you time to find a way to get more.

Remember those tarps we bought at the hardware store, the large, clear, plastic ones?  These will make for great rain catches.  And unless the air is polluted from whatever the disaster is, this water should be clean and drinkable.  You just have to get it.  So stretch these out in as open a spot as you have, make sure you cover as much area as you can, mount them on small poles so they are a foot or two off the ground, angle them inward and slightly down so the water collected from the rain all funnels to one spot, stick one of your 5 gallon buckets under where the water drains, and you're collecting fresh clean water.  A better solution would be to angle the tarps so they drain to the center of the tarp and cut a small hole for the water to drain and put the bucket under that whole.  It will keep any extra debris from falling in.  But with this setup you will need to check on it often during a storm to make sure that nothing has fallen in to block the drain hole.  When the bucket is full, pour it into one of your large water containers and put another bucket under. 

You can set these up in your yard, out of sight of course, or laying them on your roof.  You probably have cutters and such which funnel lots of water during a storm, but these are not always clean.  So clean them, it's more water, and water is very important!  Keep as much water as you can.  If you think you have enough and it's still raining, keep collecting.  You could go months without rain and you will need that excess water. 

But, depending on where you live, there will be times where you will go for months without any rain and your water supply will run out pretty quick.  This is when you must ration your water and find other ways to get more.  If a natural water source is nearby you can just grab a bucket and go get some.  But in most towns and cities, that's not the case.  So we need another option.

A solar still is a good option.  It's basic, doesn't take much work or materials, and can produce clean water.  Not much, but every drop helps.  I'll include a simple diagram below and you'll get the idea. 

If you're unsure of the water and how clean it is, using iodine tablets or boiling the water will kill most parasites and make it clean enough to drink.  So if you're not sure, don't take any chances. 

Food

Food is something that you will need to stock up on.  But the right food is important.  You fill your freezer full of tv dinners you won't survive long.  Rice and beans will be a staple of your diet.  A handful of rice will cook into a good size amount of food.  It's dry, easy to store, and can be bought in large amounts.  You can buy 20lb bags of rice as well as 20lb bags of dry beans.  20 pounds of rice turns into a lot more than 20 pounds of food.  How much you eat, how many people you're feeding, and what other food supplies you can get or have really determines how much you need to get.  But as I keep saying, more is always better than less.  So shop around, find a good deal, and stock up on the 20lb bags of beans and rice. 

But one cannot live on rice and beans alone.  Well you could, but that would suck.  Canned foods are good because they have a long shelf life.  But they can take up a lot of space.  If you're organized well you can have a pretty good stockpile of canned food.  Freeze dried foods are wonderful, just add some water and you have a good meal.  These are usually sold in sporting goods stores or places that sell backpacking equipment.  Because of their light weight they are popular with backpackers.  A big stock of these will help change things up and give you a variety of foods. 

And salt.  Salt is cheap and also comes in large amounts.  Salt can be used for many things, not just to make your food taste better, but it can be used to preserve food as well.  And the longer you can preserve food, the better.

A garden is a good idea.  It won't produce a lot of food, but it can really help your food stock and give you fresh vegetables to eat.  So while you're at the hardware store don't forget to grab some seeds.  Make sure you buy seeds for things that will grow in the conditions you live in.  You will want some that grow during every season, and that take little water, as you won't really have water to spare.

Hunting and fishing are not really an option when you're trying to survive in town.  Or are they?  You obviously won't be eating the neighbors cat, but birds are usually plentiful.  But shooting off guns in town will just tell people where you are and that you have guns and probably other supplies.  And that's just asking for trouble.  So we will do bird fishing.

You'll want to do this up in trees or on your roof.  You don't want to do this on the ground where someone can get caught up in it, or you end up catching a cat.  Unless you like the taste of calico.

First thing to do is grab your fishing line, tie one end to something solid, tie a hook to the other end, place some bait on it, and you're ready to fish.  As far as bait, you can use just about anything a bird would eat.  Your compost pile should have plenty of worms and other bugs that will work.  You'll want to setup several of these in different areas.  Lay them out so the birds can land, eat the bait and hook, then try to fly away.  But they won't get far.  Once you see that you have a bird on your line, try to dispatch it quickly, you don't want it to suffer.  Pluck the feathers while it's still warm, they will come out a lot easier.  Gut it, cook it up, and dinner is served.  The insides can be used as bait for other birds.  The feathers for pillows or something like that.  And be sure to cook the bird thoroughly.  Birds carry parasites and if not cooked well enough can make you very sick.  So cook them until they are more than well done. 

Garbage

Everyone accumulates garbage.  And with no road side pickup anymore your trash will start to pile up.  Recycling will help, I don't mean taking your soda cans to the local recycling center, but reusing things.  Most items can be used again, or used for something else.  So anything that you can find another use for, use it.  Burning trash can help as well, not everything will be able to be burned, but a good portion of it will be.  Just be careful and not burn something you need, like your house.

The rest, the stuff you can't use again and you won't be burning needs to be disposed of.  There are options.  If it's organic you can use it to make a compost pile, that will help to remove the trash and can be used as fertilizer for a garden. 

You can dig a really big hole and throw all your trash into it.  Most things will decompose pretty quick, hopefully quick enough you can continue to bury a lot of your trash. 

But realistically you won't have a lot of trash like you do now.  If you look in your garbage can you will realize that a lot of the stuff there could be salvaged for another use, or are items that you won't have much of during your survival after a disaster.  So garbage shouldn't be too much of an issue.  Recycle, Burn, Bury. 

Medical

You will eventually have medical needs.  Sickness, injury, etc.  One good way to keep healthy is to stock up and take a multi-vitamin.  These will help you when you're not eating healthy foods like you used to do.  And if you're layed up sick, you're not able to do anything to help your survival.  So you need to stay healthy. 

Infection is a killer when you don't have access to medical treatment.  So stocking up on antibiotics is a really good idea.  However it's not something you can just run to the store and buy.  You might already have some, maybe one or two courses of them in your medicine cabinet, but that won't last.  I'm not saying it's a good idea, and it's not legal.  But some online pharmacies from out of the country sell antibiotics at crazy low prices.  So if you can't find another way, that's an option.  But like I said, it's not legal, and some people say there are risks with buying overseas medications.  So do this at your own risk. 

First aid kits are also very useful.  They usually have supplies to bandage a wound, antibiotic ointments, a small medical book, and other items that can help.  Buying a few of these is a great idea as well. 

And lastly over the counter pain medications.  These are really good because they are also usually fever reducers.  So if you get sick, not only can you ease the pain but you can help with a fever.  Shop around, find large supplies at a good price, by one get one free deals, etc.  And don't worry about what type, ibuprofen, Tylenol. or acetamenfin, etc.  They all work about the same.  Unless you have an allergy to one of them of course.

Human Waste

This isn't usually talked about much in survival books.  Usually because you're surviving in the woods where you can just squat behind a tree.  But when you're at home it's different.  No running water means your toilets will be useless.  There are a couple options.

If you live in a home that has a septic system you're in luck.  You can build an outhouse type building that sits over an opening to your septic system and all the human waste will just go into that.  Without running water they system won't need to be drained for many years, so no worry about it filling up. 

If you're living on city septic you still have options.  You'll still want to build some type of outhouse.  But where the waste goes is dependent on your exact location.  If you live near a sewer opening you can use one of your buckets in the outhouse and transport the waste to the sewer system. 

If there is no sewer opening nearby that you can find you will need to make your outhouse portable.  You'll need to dig a large hole underneath for the waste to go into, once that hole starts to fill out you'll need to bury it, dig a new hole and move your new bathroom.  Thankfully waste will decompose quickly, so you won't run out of spots to dig holes.  You can go back and dig in the same areas after a few months and there won't be any problems.

Conclusion

Surviving at home after a major disaster isn't going to be easy.  And unless you've prepared yourself ahead of time it will be near impossible.  It's not like survival in the wilderness where you can live off the land.  You need supplies ahead of time.  Running out during or right after a major disaster is dangerous and you won't be able to get everything you need. 

I hope this guide helps, but I also hope you never have to use these survival techniques.  Disasters happen all the time, but usually not major.  Maybe a power outage for week or two, that type of thing.  But when the big one hits you will be secure in the knowledge that you are prepared and have the skills to survive.