Alternative Storage Solutions: Digging

Our first commenter asks: "How about a post with some storage ideas for those of us that don't have a basement, barn, cellar, silo or a used shipping container lying around? I thought about a mini storage facility, but WTSHTF anybody with a bolt cutter and a truck could clean it out."

So here goes the first, of what will probably be a large number of posts about this very topic: Alternative Storage Solutions.

First, post SHTF life is not going to be comfortable for many and I believe that if things get spooky, the quicker you can get to your retreat location away from the cities, the better. If you don't have a basement, barn, cellar, etc.. then you probably live in the city or the suburbs. Again, for those of you living in the burbs or the city, I would highly suggest that your plan in case of unrest or whatever may visit us, is to get to a safe location where you do have a barn, a cellar, or a silo full of survival goodies. A well thought out plan of escape and a well packed BOB for each member of your family will hopefully get you where you want to go (albeit, with a lot of energy spent in exertion). BOBs don't take much room up and you don't want it in storage anyway.

If you are planning to "ride it out" in the city or the burbs, then storage alternatives for that plan must, and will be, addressed in another post. If you have a retreat locale or a long walk to your retreat, let me suggest the resurrection of an ancient method of storage requiring only your labor, thought, and waterproofing abilities: Burying your goodies.

Let's say that you have a retreat area that you would plan to relocate to under certain circumstances, you aren't there on a regular basis, and want to keep your survival goods safe from theft and rot. I suggest that you consider burying. Remember what pirates did with their loot? They buried it.

I'll write more on this subject to flesh things out more, but a well thought out plan of hiding things in the ground is far better than placing things in a building with a huge lock on it that screams "Break me open, I have valuables inside". PVC pipe can be cut to almost any length and, when properly glued/welded, is just about never going to be penetrated by the elements. You can store a lot in PVC. You can remove the oxygen from a PVC pipe. Essentially, you can store almost anything forever in PVC underground. Note: Food stuff should be first stored in food-grade containers and not directly inside the PVC.

Start small and keep a good map or cypher so you don't have to dig up the entire yard when you forget where you buried your valuables. With metals, pick places that have metal pipes in the ground nearby and, by all means, don't break existing pipes when you are digging (you are trying to fool a metal detector here. Also, consider renting an auger and burying the PVC caches perpendicular or get a fence post shovel and dig yourself (nothing makes a man out of you like digging holes in the ground regardless of the terrain; there is no easy digging available to mankind.

So, for now, I say, start small and start burying; see how hard it is to dig and cover. This will give you a real quick introduction to how hard old-fashioned hand work is and will be WTSHTF. Practice in your back yard and see if your close friends can find the "mystery" canister.

We'll address the secret large caches in future posts.