Urban Survival - Limited Space

By Tim Gamble

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A rural homestead may be the ultimate prepper dream for many folks, but others may choose city life for a variety of reasons. Urban preppers face their own unique set of challenges. One such challenge is limited space - both outdoors and indoors. 

Most apartment and condo dwellers have no space for gardening, raising chickens, or other homesteading activities (thus their frustration with a lot of typical prepper advice). Even home owners in the city typically have very small yards without much room for those type activities. Additionally, the limited storage space inside apartments and condos creates a real limitation on how much food, water, gear, and other stuff they can store. 

However, it is possible to overcame these space limitations. My suggestions for doing so can be summed up in three words - minimalism, prioritization, and creativity. 

Minimalism - The minimalist lifestyle is about eliminating the unnecessary and superfluous, and doing more with less. This will ultimately free up both space and time (and probably money). Declutter you life. Hold a garage sale. Sell it on eBay. Donate stuff to a charity thrift store. Fill up the dumpster. Doing so will free up an amazing amount of storage space. But where to start? Here are a few suggestions: 

• Reduce your wardrobe, shoes, belts, ties, handbags, and other accessories. Chances are you have a lot of stuff in your closet (and your kids' closets) that you no longer wear or need. Maybe even stuff that no longer fits. Clean it out.
• Reduce your collections of books, DVDs, and CDs. Decide what you really want or need, and get rid of the rest.
• Throw out clutter such as old magazines and catalogs, as well as all those receipts, appliance manuals, and warranties that you've accumulated over the years. Same goes for all those useless Christmas gifts you've received over the years. I mean, how many coffee mugs with funny sayings do you really need? 
• Get rid of toys, games, books, puzzles, stuffed animals and other junk that your kids have outgrown, broken, or otherwise don't play with anymore. Now is not the time for excessive sentimentality.
• Get rid of all exercise and sports equipment that you don't use. Be honest, are you really ever going to use that home gym you bought 5 years ago, used twice, and ever since its been collecting dust? 
• If you are a collector - comic books, bobblehead dolls, collector plates, porcelain figurines, snow globes, or whatever - it is time to reconsider your hobby in light of your need for space (and probably money).

Prioritization - This is crucial for the urban prepper. You can't afford to waste space or money on non-essentials. Figure out what is really important and focus your time, efforts, space, and money on those things. Make lists based on those priorities and stick to those lists. This will also help you in your minimalist activities. Once you figure out what is important, get rid of the rest.  Prioritized lists will also help you avoid impulse buying,  saving you both space and money.

Creativity - Get creative with how use utilize the space that you do have. Do container gardening on your porch or balcony. Grow herbs and salad greens indoors. Find out if there are any community gardens in your area you can join. See if your church could start a community garden. Put your bed on risers to create more storage space. Use flat storage boxes to store stuff under the sofa. Create overhead storage areas. Use water bricks to store water, dry foods (beans, rice, pasta, dog food), or even small supplies (batteries, first aid supplies, ammo, etc.). They are made to stack easily, and can even be turned into tables, nightstands, and other pieces of furniture (thereby serving a dual purpose).  Another possibility is to rent a nearby storage unit. A final suggestion, watch little house videos on You Tube. They have come up with some amazingly creative ways to use space and create storage.

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